Wages Returns in Mexico: A Comparison Between Parametric and Nonparametric Approaches

This work studies the existence of salary differences with parametric and non-parametric tools, from a gender perspective using the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH). We use Mincer's equation (parametric) to control for traditional factors in wage analysis; we also use decision trees to verify the gender gap while controlling for educational level and work experience in Mexico (non-parametric) and discriminant analysis to observe other elements that influence salary. We have found that a man can have better returns on his wages than a woman, other factors such as remittances were also analyzed: scholarships, current monetary expenditure, overtime, independent income, property income, among others, all this, based on in the INEGI Survey. With this research it is concluded that women will have to have more work experience and better studies to achieve better salaries, that is, they will have to try harder than they do.