Economic Woes Force Elderly Back to Work, Bagging Groceries in Mexico Mayela Sanchez - Global Press Institute
go to original February 19, 2013

Throughout Mexico, limited employment opportunities and pensions have forced the elderly back to work, replacing teenagers as grocery store baggers. (Mayela Sanchez, GPI)

More than 10,000 senior citizens work for tips as grocery baggers at supermarkets in Mexico thanks to agreements with the government to offer them work. The lack of employment opportunities for people older than 60 and a universal pension system have forced many of them back to work in the informal sector. Economic specialists allege that supermarkets are taking advantage of free labor, but supermarket representatives respond that the program enables the elderly to earn money, to feel useful and to stay active.

In Mexico, 10.5 million people are ages 60 and older, and nearly 3.2 million of them still work, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, the government’s statistical agency.

Since 2001, 16,000 people older than 60 have become voluntary grocery store baggers, according to Instituto Nacional de las Personas Adultas Mayores, the national government agency for the welfare of the elderly.

One of INAPAM’s responsibilities is to arrange employment opportunities for the elderly so that they have a source of income. During 2001, it established agreements with supermarket chains to take on people older than 60 as volunteer baggers.

The volunteer role used to fall mainly to 14- and 15-year-olds from lower-income families as a way to contribute economically, according to Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia del Distrito Federal, the public agency that looks after the welfare of the family.

Currently, private grocery store chains Chedraui, Soriana and Comercial Mexicana have an agreement with INAPAM to hire only elderly people to bag groceries. Another eight supermarkets, such as Superissste, also have agreements with the agency to give the volunteer jobs to people older than 60 at some of their stores.

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