The skills that pay the most

Across 607 disclosed-salary designer listings (baseline median: $166k), adding craft to the job description correlates with a $42k salary bump — 30% 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.
craft
+$42k
$183k median with · $140k without · 30% premium
n = 260 listings
DoorDash, Discord, Brex, Chipotle Mexican Grill
2.
experimentation
+$42k
$203k median with · $161k without · 26% premium
n = 53 listings
Discord, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Netflix, Affirm
3.
ml
+$41k
$204k median with · $163k without · 25% premium
n = 30 listings
Intel, Fluidstack, FOX Tech, Jack & Jill
4.
interaction
+$39k
$180k median with · $141k without · 28% premium
n = 263 listings
Discord, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Samba TV, Renesas Electronics
5.
agents
+$38k
$200k median with · $163k without · 23% premium
n = 30 listings
TikTok, Assort Health, Smarter Technologies, Superhuman
6.
code
+$26k
$184k median with · $157k without · 17% premium
n = 80 listings
Brex, Broadcom, Affirm, hackajob
7.
ambiguity
+$25k
$182k median with · $157k without · 16% premium
n = 99 listings
Spotify, Samba TV, Renesas Electronics, Assort Health
8.
strategy
+$23k
$175k median with · $153k without · 15% premium
n = 316 listings
Ibotta, Brex, Discord, Chipotle Mexican Grill
9.
hiring
+$22k
$178k median with · $156k without · 14% premium
n = 224 listings
DoorDash, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Netflix
10.
prototyping
+$21k
$177k median with · $156k without · 14% premium
n = 187 listings
Discord, Brex, TikTok, Renesas Electronics
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.