Working hours and overtime laws in Mexico: A foreign employer’s guide to Article 61 and triple-time

Mexican working-time law has rarely changed shape this dramatically in a single year. On 3 March 2026, a constitutional amendment to Article 123(A) Section IV of the Mexican Constitution was published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, and on 1 May 2026, the secondary legislation reforming the Ley Federal del Trabajo (LFT) was published. Together, they reduce the statutory workweek from 48 to 40 hours on a phased schedule running from 2027 to 2030, redesign the overtime cap structure, and create a new electronic time-tracking obligation from 1 January 2027.

For any foreign employer hiring in Mexico, two compliance triggers carry the most exposure. The first is Article 68 LFT triple-time pay at 300% of the hourly rate for overtime beyond the weekly cap. The second is the REPSE registry under the 2021 outsourcing reform: a non-REPSE employer-of-record creates joint-and-several tax and labour liability for the foreign client.

Article 60 LFT defines three shift types with precise hourly boundaries.

1. The jornada diurna (day shift) runs 06:00-20:00.
2. The jornada nocturna (night shift) runs 20:00-06:00.
3. The jornada mixta (mixed shift) spans both periods, provided the nocturnal portion is less than 3.5 hours; otherwise, the entire shift is reclassified as a night shift.

Article 61 sets the daily ceilings: 8 hours for the day shift, 7 hours for the night shift, and 7.5 hours for the mixed shift. Until 31 December 2026, the corresponding weekly maxima (assuming a six-day week) remain 48 / 42 / 45 hours. These are mandatory floors. Any agreement setting longer hours is null under Article 5 LFT, and the May 2026 reform explicitly retains the daily caps while phasing down the weekly aggregate.

Article 59 lets employers and employees agree on how working hours are distributed within the week, including compressed four-day schedules or uneven daily allocations, provided Article 61 is not breached.

Article 64 / 69 requires at least one full paid rest day for every six working days (descanso semanal), and the May 2026 reform expressly retained the single-rest-day rule against earlier proposals for two.

The 40-hour transition is locked in but staged. The constitutional reform entered into force on 3 March 2026 and the LFT secondary reform on 1 May 2026, but the actual hour reduction does not begin until 1 January 2027. The schedule is as follows:

• The reform expressly prohibits any reduction of salary or benefits as a result of the hour reduction, and Article 25 LFT requires that contracts specifying 48 hours be re-papered before each phased step.
• Contratos Colectivos de Trabajo fixed at 48 hours must be renegotiated under the worker-vote legitimación process and re-deposited with the Centro Federal de Conciliación y Registro Laboral (CFCRL). No sector exemptions were enacted in either the constitutional or the LFT text.

A new Article 132 fraction XXXIV adds an obligation to maintain an electronic record of each worker’s working hours (registro electrónico de la jornada laboral). The record carries prueba plena (full-proof) evidentiary weight in labour proceedings. The obligation enters into force 1 January 2027. STPS sector circulars on 24/7 operations, shift-rotation industries, and maquiladoras had not been published as of May 2026.

Overtime is calculated on the salario diario ordinario (ordinary daily wage), not on the Salario Diario Integrado (SDI). The SDI is the IMSS-contribution base under Article 84 LFT and integrates aguinaldo, vacation premium, and other elements. For overtime cash pay, the formula is straightforward: the ordinary daily wage divided by contracted daily hours produces the hourly rate, which is then multiplied by 200% or 300%, depending on the tranche.

Under the rules in force throughout 2026:

• Article 66 caps overtime at 3 hours per day across no more than 3 days per week, for an effective weekly maximum of 9 hours.
• Article 67 prices the first 9 hours per week of overtime at 200% of the ordinary rate.
• Article 68 prices anything beyond that at 300%, the triple-time zone that many foreign payroll teams trigger inadvertently when they track only daily overtime without aggregating the weekly count.

A worker on MXN 500/day across an 8-hour day earns MXN 62.50/hour. The first 9 weekly overtime hours pay MXN 125.00/hour; hours beyond pay MXN 187.50/hour. SCJN jurisprudence under Tesis 2a./J. 90/2013 confirms this calculation method as binding on the labour tribunals.

The May 2026 LFT reform redesigns the cap structure for the phased years. From 1 January 2030, the new structure is 12 ordinary overtime hours per week (at 200%) and a maximum of 4 additional hours per week at 300%. The interim years move in step with the workweek reduction. Crucially, hours beyond even the 4-hour triple-time band are not merely expensive; they are unlawful and cannot be required.

Mexican law does not permit compensación de tiempo (time off in lieu of overtime pay) unless a CBA expressly provides for it. Articles 66-68 require cash payment.

Beyond the double- and triple-time multipliers, several premium-pay rules can stack with overtime when the same hours fall within multiple regimes.

Under Article 71 LFT, work performed on a Sunday that is not the agreed weekly rest day attracts a 25% premium on the daily wage (prima dominical), calculated on the cash wage rather than SDI. The premium operates independently of overtime; overtime worked on a Sunday produces both layers.

Under Article 73 LFT, work on the contracted weekly rest day attracts double pay (200% total), distinct from the Sunday premium. Confusing the two is one of the most common payroll errors: 25% under Article 71 versus 200% under Article 73 is not a small drafting nuance.

Under Article 75 LFT, work on a statutory mandatory holiday under Article 74 attracts 300% total (regular wage plus double). For 2026, the seven mandatory holidays are 1 January, the first Monday of February (Constitution Day commemoration), the third Monday of March (Benito Juárez), 1 May, 16 September, the third Monday of November (Revolution Day), and 25 December. Day of the Dead (2 November) is a cultural observance and is not in Article 74. The presidential transfer day falls in 2030, not 2026.

Three further premium-pay rules drive the loaded cost of Mexican employment.

• Article 80 sets the prima vacacional at 25% on top of vacation pay; under the 2023 Vacation Reform the year-one minimum doubled from 6 to 12 days, raising every cell of the vacation-day table.
• Article 87 fixes the aguinaldo Christmas bonus at a minimum of 15 days’ salary, payable before 20 December each year; the first 30 UMA-days are ISR-exempt.

Articles 117-131 set the PTU profit-sharing entitlement at 10% of pre-tax profit, capped per employee at the higher of three months’ salary or the average of the prior three years’ PTU under the 2021 outsourcing reform.

Article 804 LFT requires every employer to conserve and produce in litigation: individual employment contracts, payroll lists, attendance and time controls when maintained, proof of payment of PTU, vacation, and aguinaldo, and other documentation required by law.

Article 805 creates a presumption in favour of the worker if the employer fails to produce these documents. In practice, an employer without time records loses any overtime dispute at the preliminary stage.

From 1 January 2027 the new Article 132 fraction XXXIV electronic time record becomes the primary evidentiary document. Article 994 fraction IV Bis, also added by the May 2026 reform, sets a fine of 250 to 5,000 UMA for failing to maintain the electronic record. Article 994 fraction III continues to set fines of 50 to 5,000 UMA per affected worker for hours violations generally, with recidivism under Article 992 reaching 50,000 UMA.

At the 2026 UMA daily value of MXN 117.31 (published by INEGI on 8 January 2026 and effective 1 February 2026; January 2026 calculations use the 2025 figure of MXN 113.14), the consequence is concrete:

Because fines apply per affected worker, a 20-employee operation facing a 5,000-UMA citation faces potential exposure above MXN 11.7 million. The INEGI 2026 UMA bulletin published on 8 January 2026 is the authoritative figure.

The statute of limitations under Article 516 LFT gives a worker one year from the date the obligation became payable to claim unpaid overtime. Wrongful dismissal claims under Article 518 have a two-month window from separation. All claims now sit in the Tribunales Laborales under the Poder Judicial, following the 2019 reform that replaced the old Juntas de Conciliación y Arbitraje. Federal implementation completed in October 2022; full state-level rollout was substantially complete by mid-2023.

For trabajadores de confianza, a 2025 Tribunal Colegiado ruling (Semanario Judicial tesis 2031408) confirmed that the burden of proving both ordinary and extraordinary jornadas shifts to the worker. Contrary to a persistent industry myth, that does not make confianza employees overtime-exempt. The right to overtime is preserved; only the evidentiary load is reallocated.

Trust employees aside, four special categories deserve specific operational attention.

1. Remote workers (teletrabajadores) under Articles 330-A through 330-K LFT are bound to the same Article 61 hour caps as on-site staff; there is no reduced-hours carve-out. Employers must respect the right to digital disconnection, provide and maintain equipment, and pay a proportional contribution to electricity and internet. The teletrabajo arrangement must be formalised in the contract or addendum, and a written Política de Teletrabajo is required under NOM-037.
2. NOM-037-STPS-2023 entered into force on 8 December 2023 and applies wherever 40% or more of a worker’s time is performed remotely. It requires identification and registration of all teletrabajadores, ergonomic verification of the remote workplace, an explicit definition of disconnection windows, and a documented prohibition on work-related messaging or calls outside contracted hours. STPS inspections from 2024 onward have consistently cited foreign-employer operations for missing this política.
3. NOM-035-STPS-2018 addresses psychosocial-risk factors, including those arising from excessive hours and night-shift exposure. Employers must establish a prevention policy, identify and analyse risk factors, conduct workforce surveys every two years, and implement corrective action. STPS audits from 2020 onward bundle NOM-035 into general working-hours inspections.
4. Minor workers aged 15 to 17 are capped at 6 hours per day, divided into two periods of maximum 3 hours each with at least an hour of rest between them. No overtime is permitted, and night work and hazardous-category employment are prohibited. The May 2026 reform expressly extended the no-overtime prohibition to anyone under 18.

Foreign companies hiring Mexican-resident employees through an EOR must verify that the EOR holds an active REPSE registration. The 2021 outsourcing reform under Articles 12-15 LFT, Article 75-A of the Ley del Seguro Social, and parallel changes to the Ley del INFONAVIT eliminated traditional labour outsourcing and require all specialised-services providers (including EORs) to be registered in the Registro de Prestadoras de Servicios Especializados u Obras Especializadas administered by STPS.

REPSE registration requires:

• An active e.firma
• A positive opinión de cumplimiento with SAT
• No outstanding IMSS or INFONAVIT liabilities

Registered providers must file quarterly compliance reports (ICSOE and SISUB) sharing employee and payroll data with the client. The STPS REPSE portal is the verification source.

Clients must verify the provider REPSE status before engaging them. Failure to verify creates joint-and-several liability for the provider’s labour, IMSS, INFONAVIT, and tax obligations, including underpaid overtime. STPS has intensified its cancellation of inactive or non-compliant REPSE registrations through 2025-2026, so a registration that was valid at engagement may not stay valid.

When the EOR is the REPSE-registered employer, it carries primary responsibility for:

• Overtime calculation and payment
• IMSS, INFONAVIT, and SAR contributions
• SBC and overtime integration rules
• PTU administration
• STPS inspection compliance

The client cannot direct working hours in a manner that recreates a direct employer-employee nexus, which would trigger a patrón sustituto determination under Article 12 LFT and dissolve the protection. For foreign companies considering local presence options, understanding how EOR compliance works in practice helps clarify where the operational and legal responsibilities sit between the client and the provider.

Permanent-establishment exposure runs alongside labour and payroll compliance risk. Under Article 2 of the Código Fiscal de la Federación and Mexico’s OECD-model treaty framework, a foreign company may create an establecimiento permanente if a Mexico-based worker habitually concludes contracts on the company’s behalf or operates from a fixed place of business in Mexico. That can trigger Mexican ISR (corporate income tax) obligations from day one.

A properly structured REPSE-registered Employer of Record arrangement helps maintain separation between the foreign company and the local employment relationship. For genuine contractor engagements, a registered Agent of Record provides the equivalent compliance structure without converting the engagement into full employment.

Total loaded employer cost above gross cash salary in Mexico typically lands at 28-35%, depending on salary level, IMSS Riesgo de Trabajo class, and voluntary benefits. The Salario Base de Cotización (SBC) is capped at 25 UMA daily, equivalent to MXN 2,932.75 per day or MXN 89,156 per month in 2026.