The 90-Day Rule in Mexico: What US Employers Need to Know Before They Hire

Search for the 90-Day Rule in Mexico, and you will find three different answers, because Mexico labor laws separates probation, initial training, and unjustified dismissal. Mexico’s Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo) sets a probationary period of 30 days for most roles, a completely different 90-day initial training contract for roles that need one, and a 3-month severance payment that may apply when an employer cannot justify a dismissal. 

US employers often expect a 90-day introductory period where a new hire can be let go without much consequence. That period does not exist in the form most people assume. What exists is narrower, more procedural, and considerably less forgiving if you get the structure wrong before you extend an offer.

There Is No Single 90-Day Rule. There Are Three.

Three distinct tools in the Federal Labor Law get flattened into the same phrase in most US-facing hiring advice. Each has a different length, a different purpose, and a different statutory basis, and confusing one for another is where the real risk sits.

The three legal concepts that get compressed into “the 90-day rule” are compared below:

Source: Ley Federal del Trabajo (Mexican Federal Labor Law), Title Two, Chapter II, Articles 39-A through 39-E, and Articles 47, 48, and 50, current consolidated text.

Confidence: Primary statutory source; labor reforms are common in Mexico; verify against the current text before drafting a contract.

Why US At-Will Assumptions Do Not Transfer

The starting assumption in most US hiring is that employment is at-will absent a contract that says otherwise: either side can end the relationship for almost any reason, at almost any time. Mexico starts from the opposite constitutional principle. Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution establishes job stability as a worker right, and the Federal Labor Law builds every termination rule around that principle.

The practical effect: There is no version of Mexican employment, at 3 days, 30 days, or 3 years, where an employer can end the relationship for an unstated reason with no financial consequence. A probation clause narrows the window and the paperwork required. It does not create an at-will relationship inside that window. An employer who treats the first 30 or 90 days as a free pass is applying a US mental model to a system that was built to reject it.

The 30-Day Probation Period: What It Actually Covers

Article 39-A of the Federal Labor Law allows a probationary period of up to 30 calendar days for most roles, extendable to 180 days only for managerial, executive, administrative, or specialized technical or professional positions. There is no version of this period that runs 90 days for a general role. That number belongs to a different tool, covered next.

Three conditions govern how the probation period actually works. 

• First, it must be in writing, naming the probation period explicitly, or the law treats the relationship as indefinite from the first day, per Article 39-C. 

• Second, it cannot be extended, repeated for the same worker, or stacked with the training contract described below, per Article 39-D. 

• Third, ending it requires the employer to show the worker did not demonstrate the knowledge or skills the role requires, taking into account the opinion of the company’s Joint Commission on Productivity, Training, and Development (Comision Mixta de Productividad, Capacitacion y Adiestramiento), a body every workplace is required to have under the law.

If the relationship continues past the probation window without a termination, it converts automatically to an indefinite relationship, and the probation period itself counts toward the worker’s seniority, per Article 39-E.

The 90-Day Training Contract: A Different Tool Entirely

This is where the actual 90-day figure lives in Mexican labor law, and it is not a trial period for an experienced hire. Article 39-B defines the initial training contract (capacitacion inicial): up to 3 months for general roles, up to 6 months for managerial, administrative, or specialized technical roles. It exists for a worker who does not yet have the knowledge or skills the position requires and is being brought on specifically to acquire them under the employer’s direction.

The distinction matters for a very practical reason. If you are hiring an experienced professional, the training contract is the wrong instrument, because the person is presumed to already have the skills, which is what the 30-day probation period is designed to test. Using a 90-day training contract for a role that is really a probation situation, or trying to apply both to the same worker for the same position, is exactly what Article 39-D prohibits. Get the label wrong, and you risk both being invalidated, which converts the relationship to indefinite from day one.

Severance Pay in Mexico: The Liability That Survives Probation

Here is the part that catches first-time employers: none of the above eliminates severance exposure. It only defines the narrow, documented conditions under which you can avoid it.

Article 47 lists the specific, provable causes that let an employer end the relationship without severance: dishonesty, violence, repeated unjustified absence, and a short list of similarly serious conduct. Outside that list, or without the paperwork to prove it, Article 48 gives the worker the right to demand reinstatement or severance, with back pay accruing from the date of dismissal for up to 12 months if the case is litigated. 

Article 50 sets the severance itself: 3 months of integrated salary (the 90 days’ pay most people mean when they say “the 90-day rule”), plus a seniority premium of 12 days’ salary per year of service, plus 20 days’ salary per year of service if reinstatement is ordered and the employer declines to comply.

This liability does not wait for probation to end. It is present on day one. A worker dismissed in week two without documented cause is entitled to the same 3 months’ severance as a worker dismissed after 3 years, because the constitutional indemnity is not tenure-based. 

A worked example: a Mexico City hire earning 60,000 pesos a month, dismissed in month two without a documented Article 47 cause or a properly evidenced probation failure, is exposed to roughly 180,000 pesos in constitutional severance alone, before any accrued benefits or back pay if the matter reaches a labor court.

For a broader legal overview, read the Legal 500 Mexico Employment and Labour Law guide. 

How This Compares Elsewhere in Latin America

Mexico labor laws’ structure is not a regional default. Latin America is not one labor market, and a US employer planning to hire in more than one country should not assume Mexico’s rules travel.

Brazil is not comparable at all. Its CLT labor code and employer-tax burden create an entirely separate compliance and cost structure, built around Brazil’s own deep talent ecosystem, and Brazilian employment law does not map onto the rest of the region. Colombia allows both contractor and direct-employee structures more comfortably than Mexico does, though a compliant full-time hire typically runs 30 to 35 percent above base salary once statutory costs are included. Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica lean toward contractor structures for much of their commercial and technical hiring, which shifts the compliance conversation toward correctly structuring the contractor relationship rather than toward severance exposure.

The common thread is not the specific number. It is that every country in the region sets its own rules on notice, severance, and worker classification, the same way European countries differ from each other, and Mexico’s constitutional job-stability principle is one of the stronger versions of that protection in the region.

A Decision Framework for Your First Mexico Hire

For broader planning, review Lupa’s guide to hiring in Mexico. Work through these five questions before you write the offer, not after someone accepts it.

1. Classify the role honestly. Is this a general position, or does it qualify as managerial, administrative, or specialized technical? That classification determines whether 30 days or 180 days of probation is even legally available to you.
2. Decide the structure. A direct employee through your own Mexican entity, an Employer of Record placement, or a genuine contractor are the three real options. Review Employer of Record vs. staffing agency before choosing an intermediary. If you are comparing an outsourced recruiting model with a staffing engagement, review RPO vs. staffing before choosing the operating structure. A contractor only holds up if the role passes the subordination test: multiple clients, the person’s own tools and schedule, and no direct supervision from you. Mexico’s 2021 outsourcing reform and REPSE registration requirements narrowed this path significantly, and a full-time, exclusively supervised contractor is the profile authorities reclassify first.
3. Put the trial mechanism in writing before day one. Probation or training contract, named explicitly, in the signed agreement. Without it, Article 39-C makes the relationship indefinite from the start, whatever you intended verbally.
4. Build your evidence plan before you need it. Write the specific, objective criteria the role requires, and keep dated records against them from week one. You want to be able to answer, in writing, exactly what the person did not demonstrate.
5. Budget for the exit, not just the hire. Assume the 3-month severance exposure exists unless you can point to a documented Article 47 cause or a properly evidenced probation failure. Price that risk into your hiring plan, not into how you treat the person once they start.

If the first hire is likely to become a repeat hiring program, Lupa’s Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions can provide an embedded recruiting structure aligned with the company’s hiring plan. 

If the Hire Is Not Working Out

When a new Mexico hire is genuinely struggling inside the trial window, the sequence matters more than the speed. The safest approach to termination of employment in Mexico is to confirm the legal structure before communicating a decision.

1. Document the specific gap in writing as soon as you see it, tied to the criteria you set at the start, not to a general sense that it is not working.
2. Loop in local counsel or your Employer of Record provider before you say anything to the employee. Whether you are inside a valid probation period, inside a training contract, or past both and fully indefinite changes what you can do next.
3. Consider a mutual separation agreement. Article 53, Section I treats termination by mutual consent as carrying no liability for either party, and it is a common, lower-friction path for a relationship that clearly is not working, versus a unilateral dismissal you would then have to defend.
4. Do not wait past the statutory window hoping the problem resolves itself. Once probation or the training contract lapses without action, the relationship is indefinite, and the calculus shifts entirely toward the same severance exposure as a multi-year employee.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 90-day rule in Mexico?

There is no single “90-day rule” in Mexico. It may refer to a 90-day initial training period or the 3-month severance payment for unjustified dismissal. Probation is generally limited to 30 days for most roles. 

How long is the legal probation period in Mexico?

Mexico allows probation of up to 30 days for most roles and up to 180 days for managerial, administrative, or specialized technical positions under Article 39-A. The probation period must be included in the employment contract. 

Can I dismiss someone in Mexico without cause during probation?

Not automatically. Employers must document that the employee failed to demonstrate the required skills or knowledge. Without sufficient evidence and the required process, termination during probation may be treated as an unjustified dismissal with normal severance obligations. 

What is Mexico’s initial training contract, and how is it different from probation?

The initial training contract (capacitacion inicial), under Article 39-B, runs up to 3 months for general roles or 6 months for managerial roles. It trains employees who lack required skills, while probation evaluates employees expected to already have them. Both arrangements cannot be used together for the same role.

How much does it cost to dismiss an employee in Mexico without cause?

Unjustified dismissal may require 3 months of integrated salary, a seniority premium of 12 days per year of service, and potentially back pay. These obligations can apply even early in employment unless the employer proves a valid termination cause under Article 47. 

Should my first Mexico hire be a contractor or a direct employee?

Use a contractor only when the relationship is genuinely independent. Full-time, exclusive, closely supervised work may create misclassification risk. For companies without a Mexican entity, hiring through an Employer of Record can provide a more defensible employment structure. 

How does Lupa help with a first Mexico hire?

Lupa defines the role profile, designs the selection process, and sources the person, so the hiring decision itself is sound before compliance ever becomes a conversation. For the legal structure of the contract and payroll, we work alongside your counsel or Employer of Record provider rather than replacing them.