Mexico City, May 1 (EFE).- Mexican workers marked May Day with a march and rally here Tuesday where the chief complaint was about the low levels of pay in the Aztec nation.
Mexico’s minimum salary is “sufficient, if you don’t mind living in poverty,” Javier Gutierrez, leader of the youth wing of the CTM labor federation, said at the end of the International Workers’ Day procession in Mexico City.
The current minimum wage is 88.36 pesos ($4.70) for an eight-hour day, far short of what is regarded as the necessary income to feed a family.
The march brought together groups of workers from the Mexican capital and from the states of Veracruz, Guerrero and Mexico, among others.
Demonstrations were also organized in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Michoacan and Puebla, where the biggest demand was a decent wage.
With the next presidential election coming up on July 1, workers demanded that the candidates review how little workers are being paid these days.
Conservative Ricardo Anaya promised that if he is elected, he will gradually raise the minimum wage 115 percent to 190 pesos ($10).
While leftist hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who leads in the polls, said he would immediately increase minimum pay to 98.15 pesos ($5.20).