In the last three years and with the pandemic of COVID-19 in between, the incidence of child labor in Mexico has increased.
The National Survey of Child Labor 2022 of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported that, in that year, three million 371 thousand 867 Mexicans between 5 and 17 years of age reported having worked in non-permitted occupations or in unsuitable domestic chores, which implied an increase of 462 thousand 472 infants with respect to 2019.
At a press conference, Mauricio Rodríguez, general director of Sociodemographic Statistics at Inegi, explained that this situation meant that the child labor rate rose from 11.4% in 2019 to 13.1% in 2022 of the population between 5 and 17 years old.
By gender, male child labor reached a rate of 15.5% and female child labor reached 10.7%, the highest rate since the beginning of the series in 2015.
Bar chart showing the evolution of child labor by gender.
By state, the highest child labor rates were in Guerrero, with 24.5%; Chiapas, with 20.8%; and Nayarit, with 19.1 percent. The states with the lowest rates were: Mexico City, with 4.0%; Coahuila de Zaragoza, with 6.4%, and Baja California, with 6.5%.
According to the survey, 37.6% of minors in child labor received no income for their work, and 47.9% According to the survey, 37.6% of children in child labor did not receive income for their work and 47.9% received at most one minimum wage. The sectors in which children with unsuitable work were most employed were agriculture (33.0%), services (23.2%), and commerce (21.5%).
What is child labor?
Child labor is made up of three groups of children and adolescents: those who are in an occupation that is not permitted by law, puts their health at risk, or affects their physical and/or mental development; those who perform domestic chores in households in unsuitable conditions (same description as above), and those who perform the double task of unsuitable occupation and unsuitable domestic work.at most one minimum wage.
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