Photo: Becas México

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

All Mexican public teachers who making less than 20,000 pesos will receive on average a 7.5 percent pay hike, Public Education Secretary Delfina Gómez announced Sunday, May 15, the country’s official Teacher’s Day.

The new salary increases will be staggered in three segments of 3 percent, 2 percent and 1 percent, Gómez explained during an education workers breakfast hosted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

“The increase will apply to all teachers whose salaries are less than 20,000 pesos a month, and those receiving the lowest income will get the highest increase,” she said.

“On average, workers with incomes of less than 20,000 pesos per month will see an increase of approximately 7.5 percent.”

More than 1 million teachers currently make less than 20,000 pesos a month and will thus be eligible for the raises.

Notwithstanding, the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) teachers union, which has been at loggerheads with the López Obrador administration for more than two years over salaries and teachers’ rights, immediately responded that it was dissatisfied with the wage increase.

Pedro Hernández, leader of CNTE Section 9 in Mexico City, immediately countered Gómez’s announcement stating that the teachers union would only accept a 25 percent rise, and that that increase could not be incremental.

“The problem with a gradual is that it is partial,” Hernández said.

“Those with salaries of less than 20,000 pesos per month would eventually see a 7.5 percent,, but others would not. There are categories as to the type of jobs teachers do, and this has divided us. What we want is equal pay for equal work.”

As a result of the salary increases, Gómez said that the lowest monthly incomes for teachers will, after the staggered boost, be 14,300 pesos per month.

But Gómez did not say when the first salary increase would be implemented, nor how long it will be between each staggered raise.

She did say that the salary hikes would cost the federal government an additional 25 billion pesos,