The average working hours of Chinese workers remain relatively high, while the application of industrial robots in China is experiencing rapid growth. It is imperative to conduct an in-depth discussion on whether this trend can mitigate the issue of overtime work. Drawing on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2010 to 2018, matched with regional industrial robot installation data, this paper conducts an empirical study using a Probit regression model to investigate the impact of industrial robot application on overtime work and the working-hour disparity between skilled and less-skilled workers.

The findings suggest that the application of industrial robots significantly raises the likelihood of overtime work among Chinese workers. Mechanism testing reveals two main paths: One is through the income incentive effect, particularly among low-income workers, and raising minimum wage standards effectively mitigate this effect. The other is through the job displacement pressure brought by industrial robots. Workers in occupations with a higher risk of automation-induced displacement, and those with limited social security coverage—such as rural migrant workers, individuals covered only by basic rural medical insurance, and those without pension insurance—are particularly vulnerable. Further analysis of working-hour disparity indicates that the promoting effect of industrial robots on working hours is stronger in the sample of less-skilled workers, which further widens the working-hour disparity between skilled and less-skilled workers. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition results reveal that, over the sample period, less-skilled workers worked an average of 7.648 more hours per week than their skilled counterparts, with robot exposure contributing 0.491 of those additional hours.

The contributions of this paper include that: (1) It explores the impact of industrial robots from the perspectives of overtime work and working-hour disparity, enriching the research on the micro effect of industrial robots. (2) It deeply analyzes the mechanisms through which industrial robots affect overtime work, providing new ideas for understanding the phenomenon of long working hours under the wave of artificial intelligence revolution, and promoting high-quality employment and common prosperity. (3) It analyzes how industrial robots affect the working-hour disparity between skilled and less-skilled workers, enriching the research on working hours.