Sheinbaum Announces Higher Stipends for Resident Physicians Amid IMSS Demands
The president announced that stipends for resident physicians, currently 7,000 pesos a month, will rise in 2027; the IMSS salary increase goes to a vote on October 14.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on October 13, 2026 that stipends for resident physicians, currently 7,000 pesos a month, will increase next year, hours before the megamarch that workers of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) staged that day from the Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI to Palacio Nacional.
At the Mañanera del Pueblo, the president maintained that specialist physicians are in short supply and that part of the IMSS Bienestar staff works under temporary contracts and at salaries below what they should receive; those workers, she said, will be given permanent positions, according to N+.
The mobilization was the fifth consecutive day of protests, which began on October 8 outside IMSS headquarters on Paseo de la Reforma and spread to hospitals and clinics in at least 12 states, according to La Jornada. The trigger is the 6.8% increase endorsed by the national congress of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Seguro Social (SNTSS): 2.9% directly to the tabular salary and 3.9% in benefits, according to Proceso. The dissenters reject that split, demand a minimum increase of 10% directly to the base salary and the departure of union leader Rafael Olivos Hernández, according to Yahoo Noticias. For private clinics and digital health companies in Mexico, the point matters because the sector's bottleneck is the same: the supply of specialist physicians.
The president listed 22,456 physicians and 21,074 nurses hired, 34 hospitals completed with 1,840 beds and an investment of 46,700 million pesos, according to N+. Sheinbaum noted that residency stipends fall below the minimum wage and that the effort to raise them is underway, according to N+. IMSS director general Zoé Robledo reported that the institute will conduct a survey among its 267,795 workers across 277 second- and third-level hospitals, and that the response to the demands will come once the consultation produces a result, according to Proceso. The union consultation is scheduled for Wednesday, October 14, with support from the Centro Federal de Conciliación y Registro Laboral, according to La Jornada.
The outcome of the October 14 vote and the stipend line in the 2027 budget remain on the table: on them depends how many specialists are trained and at what cost medical personnel are hired, inside and outside the IMSS.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.
Sources
- Sheinbaum Anuncia Aumento de Becas para Residentes ante Protesta de Trabajadores del IMSS
- Rechazo a la cúpula sindical detona movilizaciones y reclamos en el IMSS
- Zoé Robledo deja en el aire posible aumento salarial en el IMSS y anuncia consulta
- Sheinbaum manda mensaje a megamarcha del IMSS: Presume contrataciones en 2 años de su sexenio