Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Mexico (Ratification: 1961)

Article 28 of Part V (Old-age benefit), Articles 65 and 66 of Part XI (calculation of periodic payments) and the appended Schedule. Guarantee of the minimum level of benefit. With regard to its previous comments that the protection provided by the pension system does not provide the guarantees required under Article 65 of the Convention in respect of the minimal replacement rates for old-age pensions, the Committee notes the statistical data from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), provided by the Government with its report. The data indicate a replacement level, between 2013 and May 2016, of between 73.6 and 74.6 per cent of beneficiaries’ average previous earnings for old-age and retirement benefits provided, in accordance with the Acts on the IMSS of 1973 and 1997. The State Workers’ Social Security Institute (ISSSTE) provided average pension replacement rates of 55 per cent up to 2016, with the average wage taken as 7,567.86 pesos and the average pension as 4,188.57 pesos.

While taking note of this information, the Committee considers that it does not demonstrate the capacity of the current IMSS and ISSSTE pension schemes to guarantee a minimum old-age pension corresponding to 40 per cent of previous earnings, for a standard beneficiary (as defined in the Schedule to Part XI of the Convention), after 30 years of contributions. As it has pointed out several times, the Committee recalls that the amount of the pensions provided by the IMSS and ISSSTE schemes, which following the 1997 and 2007 reforms, are compulsory individual capitalization accounts, cannot be determined in advance, but depend on the capital accumulated in the workers’ individual accounts, and especially on the rate of return obtained. Therefore, as the Committee concluded previously, they do not comply with the requirements of Article 65 of the Convention.

The Committee also notes that the IMSS pension scheme guarantees a minimum pension to workers on reaching the age of 60 years, having registered one thousand weeks of contributions, of which the amount is calculated according to the table appended to section 170 of the Social Security Act, reformed in 2020. According to the Government, by virtue of this reform, the amount of the pension guaranteed by the State to workers who do not have sufficient funds in their individual accounts has increased. Similarly, the ISSSTE pension scheme provides for a guaranteed monthly pension of 3,3034.20 pesos, updated annually in line with changes in the National Consumer Price Index (section 92 of the Act on the ISSSTE). The State guarantees this pension to affiliated workers that fulfil the age and qualifying period conditions laid down in section 89 of the Act.

The Committee recalls, once again, that the minimum guaranteed pension provided by the IMSS and ISSSTE can be assessed with reference to Article 66 of the Convention, which requires the rate of old-age pension to correspond to least 40 per cent of the reference wage of an ordinary adult male labourer, determined in accordance with Article 66(4–7), after 30 years of contributions.

The Committee reiterates its request and firmly hopes that the Government will be able to provide, without further delay, the information necessary to demonstrate that the rate of the minimum guaranteed pensions provided by the IMSS and ISSSTE schemes comply with the requirements laid down in Article 28, in conjunction with Article 66, of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to provide the necessary calculations to that end, following the methodology established in Article 66 of the Convention.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government