Mexico City, December 27 (RHC-teleSUR), -- For the last two decades, salaried workers in Mexico haven't been able to garner more than 35 percent of the dividends generated by the economy, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In a study that covers the years from 1990-2010, Mexico ranks only above Peru in terms of workers' salaries as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP).

By contrast, the wages of other Latin American nations average 10 to 25 percent higher. Costa Rica is first on the list with salaries at 56.7 percent of the GDP, followed by Brazil (51.4), Honduras (47.4), Paraguay (47.2), Chile (45.4), Uruguay (45.8) and Argentina (42.9).

However, it hasn't always been this way. In the 1970s, Mexico's salaried workers received 40.2 percent. But in 2013, Mexican workers’ earnings only amounted to 27 percent of the GDP, and they continue to fall.