Sixty Percent of Mexican Workers Labor Off the Books

Some tax and regulatory reform may be in order

Seeking to dismantle a black economy dragging on economic growth, Mexico wants to lure informal workers into the social security net—and the reach of the tax man.

Six in 10 Mexican workers, or 30 million people, live in the informal economy, eroding Mexico's already-low tax base and hindering plans to set up a universal social security system.

"The country loses 3 or 4 percentage points of GDP every year because 60 percent of its workers don't generate any taxes and also don't have social security benefits," Labor Minister Alfonso Navarrete said on Tuesday.