Hourly Compensation Costs in Manufacturing
Since NAFTA went into effect, Mexico’s favorable trade balance in manufactured goods with the US and Canada has ballooned. In the 25 years spanning 1993 to 2018, the country’s manufacturing surplus with its trading bloc partners went from 0.3 to 166.7 billion USD.
Over the same period of time, however, Mexico has only managed to grow its GDP per capita at a meager 1% annually.
Post-NAFTA, wages have barely improved in spite of the country “exporting” surplus labor in the form of 4.1 million unauthorized immigrants to the US in the period between 1995 and 2007.
The decades-long pathetic record of development in Mexico demands an urgent and vigorous debate regarding the country’s political economy. A debate not unlike the one being urged upon the US polity by voices such at those of Bernie Sanders, Robert Reich and Gabriel Zucman.