MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's National Commission on Minimum Wages, or CNSM, announced Friday an increase of 4.6 percent in daily base pay.

The commission, composed of representatives of government, business and organized labor, said in a statement that the increase will take effect Jan. 1.

For the purpose of establishing minimum pay levels, the CNSM divides Mexico into three zones - which are not internally contiguous - based on the relative cost of living.

In Area A, including Greater Mexico City, the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur and the cities of Acapulco, Ciudad Juarez, Nogales, Matamoros and Coatzacoalcos, among others, the minimum wage will rise to 54.80 pesos ($4.15) per day.

Workers in Area B, which comprises cities such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, Hermosillo, Tampico and Poza Rica, will be entitled to minimum daily pay of 53.26 pesos ($4.03).

The minimum daily wage in Area C, consisting of parts of 21 states and individual municipalities in eight other states, will be set at 51.95 pesos ($3.95).

Looking toward the future, CNSM members have agreed to begin a process of diminishing the wage differential between the respective areas, the statement said.

Commission chairman Basilio Gonzalez said the decision on the wage hike was unanimous and that the increase would help "alleviate the economic crisis, reconciling diverse interests for the benefit of Mexico."

Employers, he said, pledged to make a "maximum effort to save the country's productive infrastructure and to preserve sources of employment, in line with a moderate attitude from the labor sector in its wage demands."

Prior to the CNSM announcement, the powerful Coparmex business group said a hike of more than 4 percent in the minimum wage would be "dangerous" for Mexico, hurting firms that are already struggling to cope with the global economic slowdown.

An Web-based economics publication said in July that Mexico's 39 richist families have a combined wealth of some $135 billion, equivalent to 13.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Roughly half of Mexico's 107 million people subsist on less than $4 a day.