State police: low pay and limited benefits. State police: underpaid in many states.

Mexico’s state police: low pay, few benefits

Federal report finds none of the states pays all benefits mandated by law

State police are not only woefully underpaid but many don’t even receive all the benefits required by law.


Officers in 13 of the 32 state police forces are paid less than the national average wage and none of the states pays all the basic benefits in full.

The information was revealed in the National Diagnostic on State Preventive Police Departments, a report prepared by the Secretariat of Interior, or Segob.

According to the report the average monthly wage of a state police officer in Mexico is 9,933 pesos (just over US $500).

The lowest wages are paid in Chiapas, where an officer earns 5,391 pesos a month. Conditions are marginally better for police officers in Tabasco and Hidalgo, where they’ll earn 6,175 and 6,617 pesos, respectively.

On the other side of the remuneration spectrum are state police officers in the northern state of Sonora, where monthly wages average 13,687 pesos, followed by Tamaulipas, at 13,436 pesos.


The document said some states supplement wages with a “guaranteed compensation,” which was not taken into account for the report because it is not included in the calculation of pensions or year-end bonuses.

The report also said none of the states pays its police departments the six benefits mandated by law. These include a housing credit, life insurance, a medical plan, a retirement savings fund, financial support for the families of officers who have fallen in the line of duty and educational scholarships for their children.

Segob singled out the state of Nayarit, where police do not receive life insurance, medical services or a housing credit.

Segob and the National Public Security System have urged in the past that police work should be dignified through the payment of reasonable wages and benefits.

“State governments must make an effort to provide the minimal benefits to their active police officers,” said the report, with the goal of “granting them stability, security and equal employment opportunities, strengthening their vocation for service and their sense of belonging to the corporation.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

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  • BB

    Now that’s a damn shame. They’re already getting low wages. The cartel is breathing down their necks to get them on the take, and you still don’t pay them all their benefits.

    • jdwfinger

      You have to remember that their bosses have to get their cut first. If there is anything left it can be a bone to the troops.

    • Beau

      It is a shame….but that is how Mexico rolls.

  • Geoffrey Rogg

    Understand one thing, if you consider yourself vulnerable for whatever reason, hire your own protection or get out of Mexico.

  • David Nichols

    This has exactly the affect the corrupted politicos want…it make the state police vulnerable to being bought by the narcos–just like the politicos are…

  • ss

    Where’s the justice? Pathetic. The politicans get there cut.The judges too. Flush them all and start over

  • Vickie Rama

    If mexico paid their officers all they promised, and a free wage, they might stop asking for bribes, and scaring the visitors enough to stop visiting…I’m been made to hand over money 3 times, once it was just taken from me, and my boyfriend who is a national, was forced to hand over a bribe with a made up story.. no one wins here.. and visitors warn their friends not to come to mexico either…even the nationals don’t trust the police…who wins then

  • ironseller

    Who is to blame? The police seem to be paid so that they are compelled to take graft to support their families. Maybe makes the politicians look good for being ” financially responsible” but I believe I would do the same if it meant the difference between my family eating or not.

  • Garry Montgomery

    Makes you want to pay traffic fines on the spot.