Hiring in Mexico

A foreign company can employ people through its own Mexican entity, assess an employer of record arrangement under Mexico's personnel-subcontracting rules, or commission genuinely independent services. Personal, subordinate work for salary is employment under Mexican labour law, regardless of a services label. 4dev.com's Contractor Platform works with contractors in Mexico.

Three ways to hire in Mexico

The right route depends on who directs the work, who employs or contracts the person, and whether a services arrangement meets the subcontracting rules.

Route	Legal employer	What you pay on top of salary	How you end it
Your own entity	Your Mexican entity	19.01% in selected upper-band rates; this is not an all-in burden.	No fixed statutory notice; a dismissal still requires the applicable process and can carry conditional remedies.
Employer of record	A Mexican employing provider, where the arrangement qualifies under the personnel-subcontracting rules.	Statutory employment costs plus the provider's quoted charge.	Review both the employment and service contracts for exit obligations.
Contractor	The contractor, where the services remain genuinely independent.	This is not a salary route; the services agreement sets the commercial terms.	The services agreement governs the end of the engagement, while the actual working relationship must remain independent.

With your own entity, your Mexican company is the employer. The 19.01% figure sums selected upper-band contribution rates; the contribution base, activity risk, wage band and benefits can all change the budget. The cost examples below show why this figure cannot stand in for total employer cost.

An employer of record label does not make personnel supply permissible. Mexican law prohibits one company from supplying its workers for another's benefit. Specialized services are permitted only if the work falls outside both the beneficiary's corporate purpose and its predominant economic activity, the provider holds the required registration, and the parties document the services in a written contract. The beneficiary can also face joint liability if the provider fails its labour obligations.

For a direct contractor engagement, judge independence by the work in practice. The law presumes an employment relationship between a person performing personal work and the recipient; calling the arrangement a services contract does not displace the subordination test.

The labour market: which Mexico salary figure fits your hire?

Choose a salary reference by its measured population before using it to budget a hire. These national and formal-employment measures describe different groups; an individual offer still depends on the role, seniority and location.

Salary reference points

Employed professionals nationwide, Q2 2026	MXN 19,494 / month	Observatorio Laboral — Tendencias actuales del empleo profesional
Information and communications technology professionals, Q2 2026	MXN 21,697 / month	Observatorio Laboral — Tendencias actuales del empleo profesional
People trained in software development; formal-employment subset	MXN 24,927 / month; MXN 26,552 / month in formal employment	IMCO — Compara Carreras: Desarrollo de software
IMSS-affiliated jobs, September 2026 contribution base	MXN 666.0 / day	Puestos de trabajo afiliados al IMSS, septiembre 2026

The professional and ICT figures measure employed people in different fields. IMCO's software-development figures follow people trained in that field; its formal-employment subset supplies a planning proxy for the cost model below, not an individual salary promise.

The IMSS figure is a salario base de cotización (SBC), an insured contribution base rather than cash pay. It covers a formal labour market in which IMSS registered 22,927,276 jobs at the end of September 2026; use it for contribution context, not as an offer benchmark.

In Mexico City, professional, financial and corporate services accounted for 17.4% of employed people in Q1 2026, according to INEGI's city survey. This broad sector measure is neither an IT-worker count nor a city salary benchmark.

Registering as an employer, step by step

Set up the Mexican employing entity and tax position first, then complete employer registration with IMSS before reporting each worker event.

Step	What happens	Takes
Entity and tax setup	Establish the Mexican legal entity and complete its tax setup before employer registration.	Depends on the entity and tax setup.
Employer registration	A legal-entity employer can complete Alta Patronal: Persona moral through IMSS Escritorio Virtual, using its CURP and electronic-signature files.	Check the registration process separately from worker reporting.
Initial worker registration and later events	Register each worker with IMSS, then report changes to pay or other data and termination.	Within five business days.

The five-business-day limit covers initial worker registration, later changes and termination reports. Allow separately for entity and tax setup, employer registration and the first payroll; the reporting deadline does not measure the time needed for those steps.

Hiring and onboarding

Put the employment terms, probation limit, statutory benefits and IMSS reporting steps in place before the employee starts work.

Legal limits on the first contract

Employment is indefinite unless the parties expressly stipulate otherwise, and a fixed-term or project term needs its own statutory basis. The ordinary probation limit is 30–180 days: up to 30 days for indefinite employment or work lasting more than 180 days, with up to 180 days reserved for managerial, management, specialized technical or professional posts.

Independent services need a different work design. Personal, subordinate work performed for salary is employment under Mexican labour law, so a services label does not settle the status of a role that will be managed as employment.

Onboarding checklist

• Record the role, employment terms and the applicable contract basis in writing.
• Confirm the municipality that sets the applicable wage floor and schedule statutory benefit accrual.
• Register the employee with IMSS within five business days, then report later changes and termination within the same statutory deadline.
• Keep the payroll records required for the reported days worked and salary.
• For relevant onsite roles, identify prolonged standing of more than three continuous hours under the STPS standing-work provisions; do not carry that assessment over automatically to home-office staff.

Hiring a foreign national in Mexico

Check the candidate's work authorization against the proposed job before setting a start date. The INM job-offer route requires the employer's registration record and an offer identifying the work.

For the INM Visa por oferta de empleo route, the employer's INM registration certificate accompanies an offer that identifies the occupation, intended term, workplace and pay. A visitor permission for remunerated activities fits an occupation of at most 180 days; longer intended work uses temporary residence, with the permission tied to the occupation in the offer.

The employer must also consider the workforce-composition rule. Each enterprise generally must employ at least 90% Mexican workers; technical and professional categories have a limited exception where the specialty is unavailable among Mexican workers, subject to the statutory conditions.

Minimum wage: check the municipality before setting pay

Set the statutory wage floor by the employee's work municipality, because Mexico has a general zone and a separate northern-border zone.

The 2026 general-zone minimum is MXN 315.04 / day. Listed municipalities in the Zona Libre de la Frontera Norte use MXN 440.87/day; their official monthly equivalents are MXN 9,582.47 and MXN 13,409.80 respectively. Professional minimum wages can be higher than the relevant general or northern-border floor, so check the occupation as well as the municipality.

2021	General zone: MXN 141.70 / day; northern border: MXN 213.39 / day	Resolución de salarios mínimos 2021
2022	General zone: MXN 172.87 / day; northern border: MXN 260.34 / day	Se publican los salarios mínimos 2022
2023	General zone: MXN 207.44 / day; northern border: MXN 312.41 / day	Resolución de salarios mínimos 2023
2024	General zone: MXN 248.93 / day; northern border: MXN 374.89 / day	Resolución de salarios mínimos 2024
2025	General zone: MXN 278.80 / day; northern border: MXN 419.88 / day	Resolución de salarios mínimos 2025
2026	General zone: MXN 315.04 / day; northern border: MXN 440.87/day	Resolución de salarios mínimos 2026

Taxes and contributions

Separate employee ISR withholding from employer contributions, then calculate the latter from the salario base de cotización (SBC) rather than from headline gross pay alone.

The 1.92–35% ISR scale is a marginal employee withholding scale, not an employer charge. For employer social insurance, the SBC includes ordinary pay plus statutory bonus and premiums, subject to exclusions; it has a 25-UMA ceiling. The 2026 UMA is MXN 117.31 daily and MXN 3,566.22 monthly from 1 February.

Health components	20.40% of UMA fixed; 1.10% of SBC above three UMA; 0.70% cash benefits; 1.05% pensioner healthcare	Anexo A: prestaciones y fuentes de financiamiento
Other IMSS components	1.75% disability and life; 1% daycare and social benefits; 2% retirement	Ley del Seguro Social
Old-age and severance component	7.513% for the 2026 contribution-base band starting at 4.01 UMA	Ley de los Sistemas de Ahorro para el Retiro — 2026–2027 contribution schedule
Housing	5% of the insured base	Ley del Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores
Occupational risk	Class I entry rate: 0.54355% of SBC; the actual class varies by activity and experience	Ley del Seguro Social

The 19.01% header figure sums selected upper-band percentage rates. Fixed-UMA, excess-over-three-UMA, activity-risk and wage-band components have different bases, so it is not an all-in employer rate.

What an employee actually costs you

For the two examples below, SBC is gross monthly pay multiplied by 383/365. That factor incorporates the statutory 15-day aguinaldo and a 25% vacation premium on 12 vacation days. Both models use the general wage zone, the Class I occupational-risk assumption and the 2026 old-age contribution band starting at 4.01 UMA.

Monthly budget line	Employed-professionals income proxy	Formal software-development proxy
Gross wage proxy	MXN 19,494.00	MXN 26,552.00
SBC assessment base (used for contributions; not an added cost)	MXN 20,455.35	MXN 27,861.41
IMSS health: fixed UMA	MXN 727.51	MXN 727.51
IMSS health: excess above three UMA	MXN 107.32	MXN 188.79
IMSS health: cash benefits	MXN 143.19	MXN 195.03
IMSS pensioner healthcare	MXN 214.78	MXN 292.54
IMSS disability and life	MXN 357.97	MXN 487.57
IMSS daycare and social benefits	MXN 204.55	MXN 278.61
IMSS retirement	MXN 409.11	MXN 557.23
IMSS old age and severance, 2026 upper band	MXN 1,536.81	MXN 2,093.23
Housing contribution (INFONAVIT)	MXN 1,022.77	MXN 1,393.07
IMSS occupational risk, Class I	MXN 111.19	MXN 151.44
Modelled employer contributions	MXN 4,835.20 (24.8% of gross)	MXN 6,365.02 (23.97% of gross)
Partial monthly total: gross plus modelled contributions	MXN 24,329.20	MXN 32,917.02

These partial monthly budgets exclude variable state payroll tax, cash aguinaldo, cash vacation premium, PTU, employee withholding, voluntary benefits and any provider fee. The wage proxies are planning inputs, not quoted salaries or all-in employment costs.

For 2027, the scheduled old-age component is 8.603% only for the same 4.01-UMA-and-above band. It is one component, not a flat employer rate, and it is not used in the 2026 examples.

Working time and overtime: the 2026–2030 timetable

The weekly maximum is 48 hours in 2026 and falls through a statutory annual transition to 40 hours in 2030.

Year	Ordinary weekly maximum	Article 66 overtime ceiling per week
2026	48 hours	9 hours
2027	46 hours	9 hours
2028	44 hours	10 hours
2029	42 hours	11 hours
2030	40 hours	12 hours

The reduction cannot itself reduce wages or benefits.

Daily maxima remain eight daytime hours, seven nighttime hours and seven-and-a-half mixed hours. In 2026, the first 9 extraordinary hours in a week carry a 100% premium; Article 66 allows at most four overtime hours daily on no more than four days. Above the applicable annual ceiling in the table, Article 68 permits no more than four additional hours a week at a 200% premium. Ordinary and extraordinary work together cannot exceed 12 hours in a day.

The 2026 decree adds a record of each employee's workday start and finish, available to the authority on request. The STPS general provisions for electronic work-time records take effect on 1 January 2027, so this does not support an assertion that every employer already has an identical electronic-system duty.

That means reviewing individual contracts, internal rules, overtime policies and time-control systems.

— Edgar Mizhraim Lugo García, Partner, LGO Abogados & Consultores, S.C. (translated from Spanish)

Leave, sick pay and parental leave

Budget annual leave, public holidays and family leave as employment entitlements. General-sickness pay is a separate IMSS cash subsidy with its own eligibility and registered-pay base.

Annual leave and holidays

After more than one year of service, paid annual leave is at least 12 working days and rises by two working days a year until it reaches 20. The vacation premium is at least 25% of pay for the vacation period. That benefit is considered again with other statutory cash items in the next section.

The Labour Law lists 7 standard days of paid public-holiday rest. A presidential-transition day and an ordinary election day add rest days only in the circumstances set by law; budget those separately from the recurring dates.

Sickness and family leave

Absence	Statutory position	Source
General sickness	IMSS cash subsidy of 60% of the last daily salary base of contribution (SBC), beginning on the fourth day and subject to qualifying contributions	Ley del Seguro Social
Maternity	Six weeks before and six weeks after birth; up to four prenatal weeks may transfer after birth under the stated conditions	Ley Federal del Trabajo
Paternity	Five paid working days on birth or adoption	Ley Federal del Trabajo

The sickness subsidy uses the last daily SBC, starts on the fourth day and requires qualifying contributions. Do not apply its 60% rate to contractual salary or assume that the maternity and paternity leave entitlements establish who funds every part of the absence.

Aguinaldo, vacation premium and profit sharing

The statutory cash items to budget beyond monthly gross pay are an aguinaldo of at least 15 wage days before 20 December, the vacation premium, and any profit-sharing amount that becomes payable under its own statutory rules.

Item	Current statutory position	Budget treatment
Aguinaldo	At least 15 days of wages, payable before 20 December	A cash year-end liability; the current rule is 15 days.
Vacation premium	At least 25% of pay for the vacation period	A cash amount connected to statutory leave.
Workers’ profit sharing (PTU)	Capped at three months of wages or the average of the preceding three years’ receipts, whichever is more favourable to the worker	The cap limits a payable amount; it does not set a flat benefit or establish that every employer has a PTU amount to pay.

The tax-section models include the statutory aguinaldo and vacation premium in SBC to calculate employer contributions. The partial monthly totals do not include the cash aguinaldo, cash vacation premium or any payable PTU; budget those cash amounts separately.

Termination: notice and payments

No fixed statutory notice applies to ordinary indefinite employment, but that does not make dismissal at will: an employer rescission requires a written notice stating the conduct and date or dates that caused it.

Route	Process	Remedy or payment position
Resignation	Establish the facts and applicable terms for the employee's exit.	No single termination amount follows from resignation alone.
Employer rescission for cause	Give the written cause notice to the worker at dismissal, or notify the competent tribunal within five business days.	The employer must be able to support the cause; no general advance-notice rule replaces that procedure.
Disputed or unjustified dismissal	The worker may seek reinstatement or indemnity of three months’ salary through the statutory process.	If the employer does not prove cause, back pay can accrue from dismissal for up to 12 months; other payments depend on the action and applicable provisions.

Permanent employees have a seniority premium of 12 salary days for each year of service, subject to the statutory conditions and wage cap. It is not a substitute for the disputed-dismissal remedies in the table.

Recent changes that alter a hiring plan

The operative changes are dated: use the 2026 wage and UMA values now, plan the staged workweek reduction, and separate employee loan deductions from employer housing contributions.

• 1 January 2026 — minimum wage. The general-zone daily minimum became MXN 315.04 and the listed northern-border-zone minimum became MXN 440.87.
• 1 February 2026 — UMA. The daily UMA became MXN 117.31. It is a statutory reference value used in the contribution analysis, not a wage floor.
• 1 May 2026 — workweek reform. The first year retains a 48-hour weekly maximum. The enacted transition moves to 46 hours on 1 January 2027, then 44, 42 and 40 hours in 2028, 2029 and 2030; the reduction cannot itself reduce wages or benefits.
• 1 January 2027 — work-time records and upper-band retirement contribution. STPS general provisions for electronic work-time records take effect on this date. The employer old-age and advanced-age unemployment component becomes 8.603% only for the 4.01-UMA-and-above contribution-base band; it is one component, not a flat employer rate.
• 17 June and 17 July 2025 — standing-work rules. The Ley Silla amendment took effect on 17 June, followed by the STPS standing-work risk provisions on 17 July. Their application concerns relevant standing roles, including work performed standing for more than three continuous hours; that scope does not automatically extend to home-office staff.
• July–August 2025 wages — INFONAVIT loan deductions. The changed withholding rule first applied to these wages, due by 17 September 2025. It concerns an employee’s loan repayment deduction, while the employer housing contribution remains a separate 5% contribution.

What a mistake costs and who pays

Exposure depends on the route and conduct: an employment dispute can produce reinstatement or conditional payment remedies, while the Article 1004-C range applies to specified unlawful personnel-subcontracting conduct.

Party	Risk	Amount
Direct employer	Unjustified dismissal, including a failure to prove cause	The worker may seek reinstatement or three months’ salary; back pay can accrue for up to 12 months. Permanent employees also have a 12-salary-day-per-year seniority premium, subject to statutory conditions and the wage cap.
Specialized-services provider	Prohibited personnel subcontracting, or providing specialized subcontracting services without the required registration	Article 1004-C: 2,000–50,000 UMA, or MXN 234,620–5,865,500 using the 2026 daily UMA.
Client or beneficiary	Benefiting from subcontracting that contravenes Labour Law articles 12–15	The same Article 1004-C range can apply when the statutory conditions are met. A written specialized-services contract identifies the service and approximate worker count; the beneficiary can be jointly liable for labour obligations when the contractor fails to meet them.

The Article 1004-C range concerns prohibited personnel supply and specialized services provided without the required registration. It is not a general contractor-classification tariff or an automatic per-worker penalty.

Questions people actually ask

Can a foreign company hire an employee in Mexico without its own entity?

A Mexican entity can employ directly. If you use an employer of record arrangement, assess the actual services against the personnel-subcontracting ban: any specialized services must fall outside both the beneficiary's corporate purpose and its predominant economic activity, with a registered provider. An EOR label alone does not authorize supplying staff to the client.

What is the minimum wage in Mexico in 2026, and does the northern border have a different rate?

The 2026 general-zone minimum is MXN 315.04 per working day. It is MXN 440.87 per day in the listed municipalities of the northern-border zone, and a professional minimum can be higher than either general floor.

What is a useful salary reference for a software hire?

IMCO reports MXN 24,927 a month for people trained in software development and MXN 26,552 for that group in formal employment. These are educational-field averages, so the formal-employment figure is a budgeting proxy rather than an individual offer benchmark.

Is Mexico already on a 40-hour workweek?

No: the weekly maximum is 48 hours in 2026 and becomes 46 hours on 1 January 2027. The enacted schedule then moves to 44, 42 and 40 hours in 2028, 2029 and 2030, without a reduction in wages or benefits caused by the hours change itself.

How much does an employee cost on top of salary?

For the two stated 2026 illustrations, a MXN 19,494 monthly professional-income proxy produces a partial monthly cost of MXN 24,329.20, while the MXN 26,552 formal software-development proxy produces MXN 32,917.02. Those models use a general-zone, Class I-risk and upper-band assumption and exclude cash statutory benefits, state payroll tax, employee withholding and provider fees.

How much notice must an employer give to dismiss someone in Mexico?

There is no fixed statutory advance-notice period for ordinary indefinite employment. An employer rescission still requires written notice of the alleged conduct and its date or dates, and a worker in an unjustified-dismissal dispute may seek reinstatement or three months’ salary.

Can a US citizen legally work in Mexico?

The worker needs the immigration permission that matches the job: a visitor work visa is for an occupation of no more than 180 days, while longer work uses temporary residence. A job-offer application requires the employer’s INM registration certificate and an offer that identifies the role, term, workplace and pay.

Does invoicing or working for multiple clients make someone an independent contractor?

Invoicing or having several clients does not decide status by itself. Mexican labour law defines employment through personal, subordinate work for salary and presumes a relationship when one person performs personal work for another; the independent-contractor guide examines that distinction in detail.

Sources

1. 4dev.com. Mexico employer-of-record guide. Accessed 27 October 2026.
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