What factors can increase salaries in La Laguna?

Emmanuel Salvador Chávez Jiménez, PhD in Economics from the Paris School of Economics, gave an interview to El Siglo de Torreón on how to increase salaries in the regions, promote technological development and the diversification of economic activities.

Chávez Jiménez holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business from the Universidad Panamericana, a Master’s degree in Economics from the Colegio de México, and is a tenured research professor in the Economics Division of the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE).

He initially stated that the federal government’s increase in the minimum wage “has had a positive effect on wages in general, without having a negative effect on employment.”

Regarding the other policies implemented by the López Obrador government to boost wages, including limiting outsourcing and reforming unions, he clarifies that the scope is not yet known, but suggests that the second mentioned, by favoring union democracy, may be giving workers greater bargaining power.

Sector primary, secondary and tertiary

Chavez Jimenez noted that it is generally expected that as an economy moves from working primarily in the primary sector to working more in the secondary or tertiary sectors, wages will increase.

“Because more capacity is required, workers with a higher level of education, and that is why an extra payment is usually required.”

The Doctor in Economics added that while there may be leading sources of employment in the different regions that offer better salaries, what can happen so that does not expand to other sectors is that the economy of the region itself is not growing much and therefore there is no upward pressure on wages; stagnation in companies that are not leaders; workers are not well represented and therefore do not have much bargaining power; a high percentage of informality.

Exodus of recent graduates and how to keep them in the region

If there is a brain drain of workers with higher levels of education or experience, it is expected that the average wages in that location will fall, because those workers are the ones who regularly have the highest salaries.

Their permanence is guaranteed by jobs that are appropriate for their abilities, from national or foreign companies that open their doors to them and the positions are not for “less qualified” labor.

Development, research and partnerships

He added that federal, state and municipal governments can join forces to create their own research centers and increase public investment in factors that boost production, and that the State can identify sectors where the region is strong and try to support them.

He points out that when governments try to attract investment, “they give too much, like giving them land, forgiving taxes”; but Chavez Jimenez believes that “more creative things” can be sought, for example “if a company is going to arrive that is going to bring many jobs for workers with a good level of education, the state government could perhaps subsidize the first year of the cost, but not the following years; or the state government could ask the company to share the patent rights that are generated and buy patent rights and the state could also have royalties or subsidies for research.