Abstract: Against the dual backdrop of the continuously rising penetration of industrial robots and the growing scale of the migrant population, the gender income gap in China’s labor market presents new complexities. However, existing literature lacks systematic empirical research on how industrial robots affect the gender income gap for the crucial demographic of migrant workers. Therefore, this paper utilizes data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the China Economic Census (CEC), and the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) to investigate the impact of industrial robot application on the gender income gap among the migrant population. Our findings reveal that the application of industrial robots exacerbates the gender income gap among migrants in China’s labor market, and this effect exhibits significant heterogeneity across different economic regions and city characteristics. Further mechanism analysis indicates that industrial robots widen the gender income gap by altering employment opportunities and reshaping job characteristics, a mechanism that is particularly pronounced among the low-skilled group. This study provides empirical evidence for understanding the structural transformations of the labor market in an era of intelligence and offers valuable insights for formulating public policies aimed at narrowing the gender income gap for the migrant population.

Key words: industrial robots, migrant population, gender income gap, low-skilled labor