Fox praises AMLO for raising the minimum wage: "How foolish I was."

MEXICO CITY (apro).- Former President Vicente Fox Quesada said that “the only thing” he recognizes Andrés Manuel López Obrador for was having increased the minimum wage.

The Guanajuato politician, one of the Tabasco politician's staunchest critics, participated in Moris Dieck's podcast Dimes y Billetes, where he discussed economics and finance.

"And if I were to correct anything from when I was president to what I would do today, it's the only thing I'm going to recognize in López Obrador, and I hope people don't find out. It's a secret, but forcing the minimum wage up was a great success," said Fox Quesada, who governed from 2000 to 2006.

On August 13, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported that between 2022 and 2024 , more than 8.3 million people escaped poverty in Mexico. Experts agreed that one of the factors that may have contributed to this decline was the increase in the minimum wage promoted by the López Obrador administration.

Between 2018 and 2025, the minimum wage tripled, rising from 88.40 pesos to 278.80 pesos per day.

“They were always bothering me and bothering me.”

"I met every month with the entire business conglomerate in the country at Los Pinos. I invited them to lunch. And they were always nagging me: 'Mr. President, you have to stop this race of wages and prices,'" Fox said during the podcast.

"It has to stop because we're going to lose competitiveness, because we're going to lose our export potential. I've heard that argument over and over again, but today I say: 'How foolish I was to believe them.'"

"Because I should have made this decision: raise the minimum wage and see how you, as an entrepreneur, manage it. Leave your comfort zone of having low wages to be able to export and promote productivity within your company. Make each worker more productive, more efficient, and then the minimum wage won't be your problem," he said in the interview.

"What I would do today is not listen so much to the voice of the business community, but rather make strong decisions, supported by economists or someone who truly supports that decision, and I would do that today, strongly push the minimum wage up," he added.

Fox acknowledged that people are seeing more purchasing power now thanks to this measure, which is mobilizing the economy.