The skills that pay the most

Across 1,058 disclosed-salary designer listings (baseline median: $162k), adding ml to the job description correlates with a $43k salary bump — 27% above listings without it.

Ranked by dollar premium (median salary of listings mentioning the skill minus median of listings without it). Minimum 20 mentions required to qualify.

1.
ml
+$43k
$204k median with · $160k without · 27% premium
n = 46 listings
Fluidstack, Linktree, FOX Tech, Jack & Jill
2.
craft
+$42k
$183k median with · $141k without · 30% premium
n = 441 listings
Vetcove, Discord, DoorDash, Brex
3.
agents
+$40k
$200k median with · $160k without · 25% premium
n = 72 listings
TikTok, Assort Health, Smarter Technologies, Superhuman
4.
ai
+$33k
$176k median with · $144k without · 23% premium
n = 600 listings
Deloitte, DoorDash, Brex, Ibotta
5.
experimentation
+$30k
$190k median with · $160k without · 19% premium
n = 82 listings
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Discord, Netflix, Affirm
6.
framer
+$26k
$188k median with · $162k without · 16% premium
n = 20 listings
Deloitte, Brex, Discord, Peraton
7.
ambiguity
+$25k
$182k median with · $157k without · 16% premium
n = 170 listings
Spotify, Samba TV, Renesas Electronics, Assort Health
8.
strategy
+$24k
$177k median with · $153k without · 16% premium
n = 451 listings
Deloitte, Brex, Ibotta, Chipotle Mexican Grill
9.
llm
+$24k
$185k median with · $162k without · 15% premium
n = 31 listings
Albi, FOX Tech, Weights & Biases, PayPal
10.
mentoring
+$23k
$183k median with · $160k without · 14% premium
n = 81 listings
Netflix, Airtable, Albi, DICK'S Sporting Goods
One caveat: skill keywords correlate with seniority. A senior role asking for “strategy” pays more partly because it's senior, not purely because of the keyword. The figures above are raw correlations across all roles — treat them as directional, not causal. A more rigorous version would control for role + seniority; that's the next iteration.