Medicine, Math Lead Mexico's Best-Paying College Degrees

Mexico's highest-paying university degrees in 2026 are concentrated in mathematics, medicine, and finance, with monthly salaries near MX$30,000, while education- and social-service-related majors pay roughly half as much, according to IMCO's report. Real income for professionals rose 10% over five years, yet labor informality among degree holders increased to 24%, and 54% of graduates work outside their field of study. 

Mathematics, general medicine, and finance graduates earn Mexico's highest average salaries in 2026, at up to MX$29,887 (US$1,675) monthly, according to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO). The institute's 12th annual Compare Degrees report also found that real income for professionals rose 10% over the past five years, even as labor informality among degree holders climbed to 24%.

"Higher education has not stopped generating benefits," says IMCO in the report, noting that college graduates earn 74% more on average than workers who completed only high school. The institute adds that most fields pay more today than in 2020, with exceptions including secondary-level teacher training, education sciences, and agricultural and livestock production. IMCO frames the wage advantage as a strategic incentive to pursue a degree, though it cautions that returns vary sharply by field of study and that the labor market is shifting faster than academic offerings.

The findings mark the 12th edition of Compare Degrees, IMCO's annual benchmark that tracks salaries, employment rates and informality across dozens of majors using National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE) data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Mathematics led the ranking at MX$29,887 (US$1,675) monthly, followed by general medicine at MX$27,823 (US$1,559), finance, banking and insurance at MX$27,290 (US$1,529), architecture and urban planning at MX$26,822 (US$1,503), and political science at MX$26,095 (US$1,462), which posted one of the sharpest five-year gains alongside food engineering, at up to 20%. Electronics and mechanical engineering, civil engineering and construction, fashion and interior design, educational planning, and computer science rounded out the top 10, with salaries ranging from MX$24,983 (US$1,400) to MX$25,953 (US$1,454).

At the other end, pedagogy, educational guidance, and social work reported the lowest average pay, near MX$16,000 (US$896) monthly. Curriculum design and pedagogy paid the least, at MX$15,934 (US$893), followed by educational guidance at MX$16,240 (US$910) and social work at MX$16,266 (US$911). The pattern reflects a broader mismatch IMCO has flagged across its research: technical, health and administrative fields increasingly outpace education- and humanities-related careers in compensation, a trend consistent with the institute's earlier findings that entry-level job growth has slowed sharply since 2021 as employers restructure junior roles. 

IMCO reports that 54% of Mexican professionals work in fields unrelated to what they studied, a share consistent across age groups and gender. The institute characterizes this as not inherently negative, since graduates can transfer skills across sectors, but warns the practice becomes a concern when professionals take roles requiring less education than they hold.

Informality among degree holders also increased, reaching 24% in 2026, up two percentage points from 2020. Therapy and rehabilitation posted the highest informality rate among professionals, at 52%, followed by veterinary medicine at 42% and gastronomy at 41%. Formation in secondary-level teaching, finance, banking and insurance, and telecommunications reported the lowest rates, each near 11% to 12%. The increase mirrors a wider national trend: Mexico's overall informality rate climbed to 55.2% in May 2026, even as the country recorded record employment of 60.4 million workers, underscoring that formal job growth continues to trail informal hiring nationally.

"Labor integration has improved, but challenges persist in accessing formal jobs," says IMCO, noting that unemployment declined for most majors over the past five years even as informal employment grew faster than formal employment. To address the gap, IMCO recommends strengthening vocational guidance in high schools with updated labor market data and proposed a public platform, potentially run by the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), to publish annual results from Mexico's higher education evaluation and accreditation system.

IMCO also links the findings to Mexico's evolving skills demand. "Mexico has an increasingly prepared workforce, while facing a labor market in transformation," the institute says, pointing to AI and other technologies as forces reshaping the skills companies require and generating new professional opportunities. The institute said access to updated labor market information is increasingly important for students choosing a major and for professionals developing skills throughout their careers.