President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the submission to the Senate of the reform bill that seeks to gradually implement a 40-hour workweek. According to her proposal, 2026 will be a transition year, and starting in 2027, the number of workweek hours will start to decrease by two hours per year until reaching the proposed constitutional limit in 2030.
The bill arose after extensive dialog, with over 40 panel discussions with the participation of representatives from the business sector, unions, academia, civil society and the government. For the federal administration, this consensus reinforces the viability of an orderly transition that avoids an abrupt operational impact and provides certainty to both workers and employers.
In this context, labor lawyer Ricardo Martínez Rojas, founding partner of De la Vega & Martínez Rojas, analyzes the project and defines it as a momentous transformation that will modify the way in which work is organized in Mexico.
In his opinion, the reduction of the regular workweek is important, but the most decisive aspect will be the new regulation of overtime. He explains that, even though the country has been discussing for years the reduction of work hours, no reform had defined so clearly the limits on the use of overtime, which in numerous work centers is used to compensate a shortage of personnel or operational backlog.
Thus, he maintains that the true crux of the matter lies in ensuring that companies do not substitute the eliminated hours with excessive load on overtime, which would render the reform meaningless.
The project establishes that workers will have more time for rest during the ordinary workweek and, thus, a better equilibrium of the work-life balance. But it also defines a rigid framework for overtime: it can only be used voluntarily, and it will have weekly and daily limits that will prevent that any one worker accumulates a load of more than twelve hours in a single day.
Furthermore, it introduces an absolute prohibition on minors working overtime and establishes a limit on triple hours, which, according to Martínez Rojas, will eliminate several loopholes that have historically allowed for abuse. The specialist insists that these regulations are crucial, as they will force companies to plan shifts with more precision, reinforce hiring in high demand areas, and prevent overtime from becoming an automatic solution in face of any saturation.
Another element that, in the lawyer’s opinion, will be a watershed, is the electronic registration of worked hours, to be issued by the Department of Labor and will be mandatory for all work centers.
The objective is to document clock-in, clock-out, and regular and overtime work hours precisely, allowing the authorities to monitor compliance with the law more directly . Martínez Rojas points out that this system will be the start of an unprecedented era of labor vigilance, as it will force thousands of companies to modernize their internal infrastructure. He also predicts that the change will be particularly challenging in sectors in which the hours worked are still recorded manually or through informal controls.
The reform is based on international standards, including studies by the International Labor Organization that link the reduction of working hours to less fatigue, fewer accidents, better general health and a better work-life balance.
President Sheinbaum even talked about Nordic countries that have tried out 36-hour workweeks with significant increases in productivity. However, Martínez Rojas notes that success will not depend solely on theory or on international comparisons, but on Mexico’s ability to implement this new labor model gradually, while it faces diverse operational realities between sectors, regions, and company sizes.
The specialist considers that the phased implementation—46 hours in 2027, 44 in 2028, 42 in 2029, and lastly 40 in 2030—is reasonable and will prevent abrupt disruptions.
Even so, he insists that companies must anticipate this change starting in 2026, reorganizing personnel, reviewing contracts, adjusting shift schedules and preparing their human resources areas for compliance with the new structure. He also notes that electronic registration will be a valuable tool, but he warns that, without proper training and effective supervision, it can become more of an administrative burden than a real control instrument.
In the final analysis, Martínez Rojas sees an opportunity: Mexico could be aligned with contemporary labor standards and improve the quality of life for millions of people. He notes, however, that the true test will come in actual practice.
The reform “not only means that hours must be cut; it entails completely rethinking how work is organized.” And he emphasizes that, if companies end up depending on overtime to make up for the time that is cut, the promise of well-being and productivity will not materialize.
That is why he insists that monitoring overtime, rather than the regular work hours, will be the key factor that will define whether this reform truly transforms the world of labor or remains a regulatory change without meaningful effects.
