Mexican Workers Research Paper

for the Mexican worker. The logic and goals of the government are sound but the results are minimal, in reality maquiladora industries invest little in technology or human capital development; this trend has depressed the development of technologically advanced maquiladoras, human capital development that would diversify and develop the Mexican economy. Samstad and Pipkin establish the variance between first, second and third generation Maquiladoras, first generation factories are structured as high intensity / low skill labor operations, second generation factories marry labor with technological advancement and third generation factors make service sector and technologically trained positions central. Unfortunately, empirically this development …show more content…
Human capital is the development of skills, knowledge and training that individuals can transfer to other work environments and is an integral component of a developed economy. The benefit of human capital is significant as it can be passed through generations, triggers endogenous growth factors and through direct personal benefit it can effectively address mobility issues in the poor. Human capital, through the investment and generation of more skilled workers, is an integral part of moving an economy from a manufacturing to a service-based model. In order for a corporation to invest in their workers’ skills development, there must be an incentive for the firm who wants to train, invest in and continue to pay the wages for better skilled workers. The foreign direct investment that was invested from 1992 to 1999 did not contribute to job training. This level of labor turnover negates the logic of investing in individual workers “There is also often little motivation to raise skill levels across the workforce, since low wages limit the payoff of higher productivity and can make it more cost effective to hire a few skilled workers in segmented positions instead.” The labor turnover rate in maquiladoras means that few people remain employed for a long time, the average is 3 to 4 years the vast majority remaining employed in one location for less than a year. The average turnover rate from 1995 to 2000 “varied from around 5% monthly in most cities and ranged as high as a 15% per month elsewhere.” Instead of implementing a plan to develop Mexico’s industries, the corporations hire outside of Mexico, keeping the more profitable service sector positions within the transnational corporation’s country of