Introduction to the Legislative Landscape in 2024-2025
The Mexican Congress of the Union’s labor data reveals that the primary issue in the legislative process is not a lack of initiatives but their failure to advance into substantive analysis and resolution stages. While the labor agenda expands with numerous proposals from both chambers, only a minimal fraction manages to progress. This gap between volume and outcomes has become the defining characteristic of the current legislative cycle.
Analysis by Sales Boyoli
Jorge Sales Boyoli, a partner and director of Sales Boyoli, presented his analysis titled “Legislating in Hegemony: The Illusion of Hypernormative Production in the First Year of the New Regime.” In this analysis, Sales Boyoli and his team found that 96.9% of labor-related initiatives presented by legislators remain without a dictum or vote. This figure contrasts with the perception of intense parliamentary activity and confirms that the accumulation of projects has replaced technical debate and effective normative construction.
Legislative Backlog and Executive Efficiency
The legislative backlog coexists with unprecedented efficiency from the federal executive. During the 2024-2025 period, presidential initiatives recorded a 92.19% approval rate, the highest in the last four six-year terms. In labor matters, the success rate reached 71.42%, with five of seven reforms approved by Congress.
The two pending proposals, reducing the workweek to 40 hours in the Federal Labor Law and its constitutional harmonization, remain under reserve, with a high likelihood of approval given the favorable political scenario for their approval in the next ordinary period starting in February.
Legislative Focus and Social Impact
Sales Boyoli highlighted that this overlegislative productivity primarily focuses on high-impact symbolic social rights:
- Maternity and paternity leave
- Mental health at work
- Right to digital disconnection
- Equal pay and gender violence combat
Although these topics enjoy broad social support, the problem lies in the absence of budgetary impact assessments, operational viability studies, and institutional strengthening that would enable their actual implementation.
Risks of the Current Model
Sales Boyoli warned that the risk of this model is labor law becoming a political legitimization mechanism rather than an instrument balancing capital and labor. Rapid legislation without inspection capabilities, labor justice, or effective compliance may lead to regulatory inflation that increases litigation and raises compliance costs, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.
He emphasized that in the medium term, the accumulation of unconnected norms could produce contrary effects to those intended. Instead of improving labor conditions, regulatory saturation might encourage informality and erode trust in the labor justice system. The illusion of legislative productivity, according to Sales Boyoli’s analysis, risks masking a deterioration in the quality and effectiveness of Mexican labor law.
