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Desarro. soc. | eISSN 1900-7760 | ISSN 0120-3584

Employment automation in Mexico and its effects on wage disparities

No. 100 (2025-07-17)
  • Owen Eli Ceballos Mina
    Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Azcapotzalco
    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1931-8388
  • Humberto Guadarrama Gómez
    Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Azcapotzalco
    ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6209-5390
https://doi.org/10.13043/DYS.100.1

Abstract

New technologies are reshaping the global economy and labor markets. This article examines the effects of job automation risk on wage gaps in Mexico. Using data from the 2024 National Survey of Occupation and Employment, the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method is applied, correcting for sample selection bias, to estimate the effects of automation probability on wages. The findings reveal negative impacts of automation on wages, particularly affecting low-skilled workers. Due to regional human capital specialization, the Central and Southern regions face grater wage gaps, which can be explained by observable differences among workers. In contrast, the Northern, Northwestern, and Western regions face the strongest effects of wage discrimination due to automation probability. The study concludes that education plays a strategic role in reducing wage gaps caused by the risk of automation.

Keywords: automation, wage gap, human capital, technological change, mexico

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