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Data study · Skills

Skills and pay What still goes with higher pay when you compare jobs at the same level.

Many "skills that pay" lists just rediscover that jobs needing more education pay more. Comparing occupations within the same O*NET Job Zone removes most of that effect. Three thinking skills stay strongly associated with higher pay; speaking and social perceptiveness do not.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Published October 28, 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 · BLS OEWS May 2025
Key finding

Within the same Job Zone, occupations that rate complex problem solving, critical thinking and judgment as more important tend to pay more (rank correlations 0.48, 0.47 and 0.46 across 732 occupations). Speaking and social perceptiveness, which look linked to pay when all 732 jobs are pooled (0.56 and 0.41), show almost no association within the same level (0.01 and −0.04). This is an association between occupations, not proof that a skill raises pay.

The chart

All 732 jobs pooled vs within the same Job Zone

Data

Rank correlation between skill importance and median pay, all 732 occupations pooled vs within the same Job ZoneFor 35 O*NET skills across 732 occupations. A table with every value follows the chart.All 732 pooledWithin the same Job Zone (bar: 95% interval)−0.200.000.200.400.600.80Complex Problem SolvingComplex Problem Solving: all 732 occupations pooled 0.78Complex Problem Solving: within the same Job Zone 0.48 (95% interval 0.42 to 0.54)Critical ThinkingCritical Thinking: all 732 occupations pooled 0.78Critical Thinking: within the same Job Zone 0.47 (95% interval 0.40 to 0.52)Judgment and Decision MakingJudgment and Decision Making: all 732 occupations pooled 0.77Judgment and Decision Making: within the same Job Zone 0.46 (95% interval 0.40 to 0.52)Operations MonitoringOperations Monitoring: all 732 occupations pooled −0.09Operations Monitoring: within the same Job Zone 0.41 (95% interval 0.34 to 0.47)Systems AnalysisSystems Analysis: all 732 occupations pooled 0.74Systems Analysis: within the same Job Zone 0.40 (95% interval 0.34 to 0.46)Systems EvaluationSystems Evaluation: all 732 occupations pooled 0.73Systems Evaluation: within the same Job Zone 0.38 (95% interval 0.31 to 0.43)TroubleshootingTroubleshooting: all 732 occupations pooled −0.13Troubleshooting: within the same Job Zone 0.37 (95% interval 0.30 to 0.43)Quality Control AnalysisQuality Control Analysis: all 732 occupations pooled 0.00Quality Control Analysis: within the same Job Zone 0.35 (95% interval 0.29 to 0.41)ScienceScience: all 732 occupations pooled 0.58Science: within the same Job Zone 0.35 (95% interval 0.28 to 0.41)Operations AnalysisOperations Analysis: all 732 occupations pooled 0.60Operations Analysis: within the same Job Zone 0.33 (95% interval 0.26 to 0.40)Operation and ControlOperation and Control: all 732 occupations pooled −0.21Operation and Control: within the same Job Zone 0.33 (95% interval 0.26 to 0.39)Management of Personnel ResourcesManagement of Personnel Resources: all 732 occupations pooled 0.59Management of Personnel Resources: within the same Job Zone 0.32 (95% interval 0.25 to 0.38)MathematicsMathematics: all 732 occupations pooled 0.53Mathematics: within the same Job Zone 0.32 (95% interval 0.25 to 0.38)MonitoringMonitoring: all 732 occupations pooled 0.55Monitoring: within the same Job Zone 0.31 (95% interval 0.24 to 0.38)Active LearningActive Learning: all 732 occupations pooled 0.73Active Learning: within the same Job Zone 0.29 (95% interval 0.22 to 0.36)Equipment SelectionEquipment Selection: all 732 occupations pooled −0.12Equipment Selection: within the same Job Zone 0.28 (95% interval 0.22 to 0.35)Time ManagementTime Management: all 732 occupations pooled 0.56Time Management: within the same Job Zone 0.28 (95% interval 0.21 to 0.34)Equipment MaintenanceEquipment Maintenance: all 732 occupations pooled −0.20Equipment Maintenance: within the same Job Zone 0.28 (95% interval 0.20 to 0.34)RepairingRepairing: all 732 occupations pooled −0.18Repairing: within the same Job Zone 0.27 (95% interval 0.20 to 0.34)Technology DesignTechnology Design: all 732 occupations pooled 0.40Technology Design: within the same Job Zone 0.26 (95% interval 0.19 to 0.33)Management of Financial ResourcesManagement of Financial Resources: all 732 occupations pooled 0.43Management of Financial Resources: within the same Job Zone 0.24 (95% interval 0.17 to 0.31)InstallationInstallation: all 732 occupations pooled −0.07Installation: within the same Job Zone 0.24 (95% interval 0.17 to 0.30)Management of Material ResourcesManagement of Material Resources: all 732 occupations pooled 0.36Management of Material Resources: within the same Job Zone 0.24 (95% interval 0.16 to 0.31)ProgrammingProgramming: all 732 occupations pooled 0.54Programming: within the same Job Zone 0.23 (95% interval 0.16 to 0.30)Reading ComprehensionReading Comprehension: all 732 occupations pooled 0.70Reading Comprehension: within the same Job Zone 0.21 (95% interval 0.14 to 0.28)CoordinationCoordination: all 732 occupations pooled 0.48Coordination: within the same Job Zone 0.19 (95% interval 0.12 to 0.25)WritingWriting: all 732 occupations pooled 0.69Writing: within the same Job Zone 0.17 (95% interval 0.10 to 0.25)Learning StrategiesLearning Strategies: all 732 occupations pooled 0.63Learning Strategies: within the same Job Zone 0.15 (95% interval 0.07 to 0.23)InstructingInstructing: all 732 occupations pooled 0.58Instructing: within the same Job Zone 0.14 (95% interval 0.07 to 0.21)NegotiationNegotiation: all 732 occupations pooled 0.48Negotiation: within the same Job Zone 0.08 (95% interval 0.01 to 0.15)PersuasionPersuasion: all 732 occupations pooled 0.50Persuasion: within the same Job Zone 0.08 (95% interval 0.01 to 0.15)Active ListeningActive Listening: all 732 occupations pooled 0.59Active Listening: within the same Job Zone 0.08 (95% interval −0.00 to 0.15)SpeakingSpeaking: all 732 occupations pooled 0.56Speaking: within the same Job Zone 0.01 (95% interval −0.06 to 0.08)Social PerceptivenessSocial Perceptiveness: all 732 occupations pooled 0.41Social Perceptiveness: within the same Job Zone −0.04 (95% interval −0.12 to 0.04)Service OrientationService Orientation: all 732 occupations pooled 0.20Service Orientation: within the same Job Zone −0.15 (95% interval −0.22 to −0.07)
Hollow dot: all 732 study occupations pooled. Filled dot: within the same Job Zone, with its 95% bootstrap interval. Sorted by the within-zone value.
Every skill

All 35 skills

Data

SkillWithin Job Zone95% intervalAll 732 pooledSignificant after correction
Complex Problem Solving0.480.42 to 0.540.78yes
Critical Thinking0.470.40 to 0.520.78yes
Judgment and Decision Making0.460.40 to 0.520.77yes
Operations Monitoring0.410.34 to 0.47−0.09yes
Systems Analysis0.400.34 to 0.460.74yes
Systems Evaluation0.380.31 to 0.430.73yes
Troubleshooting0.370.30 to 0.43−0.13yes
Quality Control Analysis0.350.29 to 0.410.00yes
Science0.350.28 to 0.410.58yes
Operations Analysis0.330.26 to 0.400.60yes
Operation and Control0.330.26 to 0.39−0.21yes
Management of Personnel Resources0.320.25 to 0.380.59yes
Mathematics0.320.25 to 0.380.53yes
Monitoring0.310.24 to 0.380.55yes
Active Learning0.290.22 to 0.360.73yes
Equipment Selection0.280.22 to 0.35−0.12yes
Time Management0.280.21 to 0.340.56yes
Equipment Maintenance0.280.20 to 0.34−0.20yes
Repairing0.270.20 to 0.34−0.18yes
Technology Design0.260.19 to 0.330.40yes
Management of Financial Resources0.240.17 to 0.310.43yes
Installation0.240.17 to 0.30−0.07yes
Management of Material Resources0.240.16 to 0.310.36yes
Programming0.230.16 to 0.300.54yes
Reading Comprehension0.210.14 to 0.280.70yes
Coordination0.190.12 to 0.250.48yes
Writing0.170.10 to 0.250.69yes
Learning Strategies0.150.07 to 0.230.63yes
Instructing0.140.07 to 0.210.58yes
Negotiation0.080.01 to 0.150.48no
Persuasion0.080.01 to 0.150.50no
Active Listening0.08−0.00 to 0.150.59no
Speaking0.01−0.06 to 0.080.56no
Social Perceptiveness−0.04−0.12 to 0.040.41no
Service Orientation−0.15−0.22 to −0.070.20yes
Robustness

Does the headline survive?

Data Within-zone coefficient under each alternative.

SkillPearson on log payemployment-weightedpay tails trimmed (1%/99%)10 most influential jobs removedmean instead of median25th percentile pay75th percentile payZone 1 split out (O*NET 30.1 zones)
Complex Problem Solving0.490.550.470.460.480.480.470.47
Critical Thinking0.490.530.450.450.470.470.460.45
Judgment and Decision Making0.470.570.450.440.470.450.460.45
Speaking0.050.150.02−0.020.04−0.010.04−0.02
Social Perceptiveness0.03−0.03−0.04−0.07−0.02−0.05−0.02−0.06

Every check kept the three thinking skills at or above 0.44 and the two people skills within ±0.15. The closest call is speaking in the employment-weighted check (0.146, just inside the 0.15 limit).

What it means

How to use this

Advice

If you are choosing what to show on a resume or in an interview, concrete evidence of solving complex problems and making judgment calls is the kind of work that goes with higher-paid roles at every level. Communication still matters for doing most jobs well; it simply does not separate higher-paid from lower-paid jobs at the same level. See the resume skills page for each role's own O*NET ratings.

Data

Download

CC BY 4.0. Cite as: TryHired, "Skills and pay: what holds within the same job level" (2026-10-28).

Method

How this was computed

Method

How this page is built

Occupations: O*NET-SOC codes ending in .00 whose 6-digit SOC matches a BLS detailed occupation with a published national annual median (cross-industry). 732 occupations qualified; 149 O*NET specialties were excluded so no wage is attributed to a narrower title, and 29 occupations had no matching BLS wage. Skills: the 35 O*NET 31.0 skills, importance scale; estimates O*NET flags Recommend Suppress were excluded (none in this sample).

Statistic: the rank (Spearman) correlation between a skill's importance and the annual median wage, computed separately inside each Job Zone (Job Zone 1-2: 309, Zone 3: 165, Zone 4: 144, Zone 5: 114 occupations. Since O*NET 30.2, Job Zones 1 and 2 are one category, “Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed”, so no occupation is rated Zone 1 on its own; 31 occupations in this study were Zone 1 in O*NET 30.1, and a robustness check splits them out again) and combined across zones, weighting each zone by its number of occupations. Uncertainty: 2,000 bootstrap resamples (95% interval). Significance: 5,000 within-zone permutations of wages, Holm correction across all 35 skills; the smallest attainable adjusted p-value with 5,000 permutations is about 0.007.

Robustness, recomputed for every skill: Pearson correlation on log pay, employment-weighted correlation, trimmed pay tails, removing the 10 most influential occupations, the mean, 25th and 75th percentile instead of the median, and the old five-zone grouping with Zone 1 split out (O*NET 30.1 Job Zones). The headline was required to survive all of them.

What this page can't tell you
  • Why the association exists. Occupations differ in many ways at once; this is not evidence that learning a skill raises anyone's pay.
  • Anything about individual workers: both inputs describe occupations, not people.
  • Skills O*NET does not rate, or pay outside the occupations BLS publishes.
  • Every occupation. The study covers 732 U.S. detailed occupations that have O*NET 31.0 skill ratings and a published BLS national annual median; O*NET specialties, occupations without a BLS wage, and all non-U.S. jobs are outside it.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 national estimates. Public domain. bls.gov/oes