Carlos Slim Reignites Mexico’s Labor Debate With 12-Hour Shift Plan

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has reignited a national argument over how long people should work. He is defending a three-day workweek built on 11-to-12-hour shifts, paired with retirement pushed back to age 75.

Slim laid out the idea most recently at a late-2025 gathering of Mexico’s Union of Engineers Associations. He was there as a guest of honor, addressing the group directly.

He has floated versions of the same plan for years. It became a flashpoint again only once Mexico’s own labor reform moved forward in 2026.

What Slim Actually Proposed

The core idea is a compressed schedule rather than a longer one overall. Employees would work three days a week at 11 to 12 hours per shift, landing around 33 to 36 total hours.

Slim argues rotating crews through that structure would let companies fill more shifts with more workers. He also wants current salaries held steady rather than cut to match any reduction in days worked.

The retirement piece is separate but related in his reasoning. He points to rising life expectancy as justification for pushing the retirement age to 75, well above Mexico’s traditional norms.

Slim frames both ideas as adaptations to a changing economy, including the spread of artificial intelligence in the workplace. He argues pension systems built for shorter lifespans need restructuring to stay solvent.

He has made similar points about automation displacing certain jobs while creating others. In his view, flexible scheduling and later retirement together cushion that transition for both companies and workers.

The Reform He Is Pushing Against

His remarks landed squarely inside an active Mexican policy fight. The government is phasing in a cut to the maximum workweek from 48 hours to 40 hours, running from 2027 through 2030.

Mexico’s labor ministry, the Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social, designed the phase-in explicitly to protect existing pay and benefits. Employers cannot use the shorter week as cover to cut wages under the plan.

Slim has publicly opposed the reform’s direction, arguing it will not create the jobs supporters promise. He contends his own three-day model does more to open positions for younger workers entering the labor force.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has moved in a different direction on retirement as well. A separate decree is gradually lowering the retirement age from 57-59 down to 53-55 by 2034, the opposite of what Slim proposes.

How Unions and Economists Responded

Labor unions have pushed back hard on the compressed-week proposal. Their central argument is that shorter or restructured hours mean little on their own. Workers also need “dignified conditions, fair wages and social security access,” as several union statements put it.

Some economists see a partial case for Slim’s job-redistribution logic. Splitting shifts across more workers could, in theory, open positions that a straight 40-hour cut alone would not create.

Those same economists warn of real health costs from stretching individual shifts to 11 or 12 hours. Fatigue research generally finds diminishing returns once daily hours climb that high, regardless of total weekly hours.

Longer individual shifts have also been linked to higher rates of workplace accidents in physically demanding jobs. Critics argue that risk falls hardest on lower-wage workers with the least bargaining power to refuse extended hours.

Stanford economist John Pencavel’s widely cited research offers a relevant data point here. He found that employees averaging 70 hours a week produced “practically the same” output as those working 55 hours. Exhaustion, he concluded, steadily eroded hourly productivity as shifts grew longer.

That research does not map perfectly onto Slim’s specific three-day plan. But critics say it undercuts his broader claim that longer individual shifts are a costless way to reorganize work.

A Recurring Position, Not a New One

Slim’s compressed-week idea is not a sudden reaction to the 40-hour reform. He has advanced similar proposals for years, according to Mexican business coverage of his public appearances.

What changed in 2026 is the political backdrop. With the labor ministry actively legislating shorter hours, Slim’s contrary position drew sharper scrutiny and wider criticism than in previous years.

As one of Latin America’s most prominent businessmen, his comments carry outsized weight in Mexico’s economic debates. Grupo Carso spans telecommunications, retail, industrial and construction holdings across the country.

His America Móvil telecom group also operates widely across the region, including in Brazil under the Claro brand. That reach means his remarks travel well beyond Mexico’s borders, even when the policy fight itself does not.

The clash leaves Mexican workers watching two competing visions of the future of work. One compresses the week and delays retirement; the other shortens hours while protecting pay, with implementation still years from complete.

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