The skills that pay the most

Across 2,755 disclosed-salary designer listings (baseline median: $167k), adding evals to the job description correlates with a $64k salary bump — 38% 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.
evals
+$64k
$230k median with · $167k without · 38% premium
n = 21 listings
Microsoft, Microsoft AI, Sigma, Cox Automotive Inc.
2.
craft
+$42k
$185k median with · $143k without · 30% premium
n = 1337 listings
Vetcove, DoorDash, Brex, Chipotle Mexican Grill
3.
ai
+$38k
$178k median with · $140k without · 27% premium
n = 1802 listings
Deloitte, Stripe, DoorDash, Ibotta
4.
agents
+$36k
$198k median with · $162k without · 22% premium
n = 305 listings
TikTok, Assort Health, Smarter Technologies, UiPath
5.
ml
+$28k
$193k median with · $165k without · 17% premium
n = 139 listings
Stripe, Amazon, Fluidstack, FOX Tech
6.
zero-to-one
+$28k
$194k median with · $166k without · 17% premium
n = 47 listings
Smarter Technologies, Yahoo, FOX Tech, Achieve
7.
experimentation
+$25k
$188k median with · $163k without · 15% premium
n = 297 listings
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Discord, Rocket, Etsy
8.
framer
+$21k
$188k median with · $166k without · 13% premium
n = 54 listings
Deloitte, Brex, Discord, Peraton
9.
typescript
+$21k
$188k median with · $166k without · 13% premium
n = 54 listings
Chalk, Mochi Health, Bayview Asset Management, LLC, Palantir
10.
scale
+$20k
$178k median with · $158k without · 13% premium
n = 1118 listings
Vetcove, DoorDash, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Spotify
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.