Consistent discount signal
Generic skills mark entry-level roles — not skill value
Customer Service, Communication, Problem Solving consistently appear 27–41% below the median salary in every category where they show up with enough data. This isn't because these skills are worthless — it's because they're listed by employers filling frontline and junior positions, regardless of industry.
A Finance job listing "Customer Service" is likely a bank teller role ($59k), not an analyst ($100k+). The skill is a proxy for the role tier, not the skill itself.
Consistent premium signal
Specific and cross-functional skills signal senior roles
Technical Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Product/Project Management command 24–39% above median across every category they appear in. These skills require domain expertise and are harder to fake in a job description — employers can only list them when the role genuinely demands them.
"Technical Leadership" in IT pays 39% above IT median. In Engineering, 27% above. The signal is consistent because the specialization is real.
How to read a job posting
A job's skill list is a seniority signal in disguise
The data suggests a simple heuristic: count the generic skills vs. specific skills in any job description.
If the "required skills" section is dominated by Communication, Customer Service, Problem Solving, Teamwork — the employer is likely filling a commodity role that competes on volume, not expertise. Salary will reflect that.
If the required skills include Technical Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration, specific tools or methodologies — the employer is describing something harder to find, and the salary follows.
This pattern holds across Finance, Engineering, IT, Operations, Sales, and Product — it isn't a category quirk.