New hires in knowledge-based white-collar roles being reshaped by AI earn 3.6% more on average in the open market, while experience commands a premium in healthcare and specialized fields
Payscale, the leading provider of compensation intelligence solutions, today published its 2026 Flight Risk Report, revealing which jobs have the biggest pay gaps between new hires and tenured employees. The report identifies the roles with the highest flight risk, or likelihood to leave, based on differences in pay between new hires and tenured employees in the same role.
On average, new hires with a market advantage earn 3.6% more than tenured employees, while employees in tenure-advantaged roles earn 6.1% more.
The report shows that it often pays more to stay than to seek a new job. However, certain white-collar roles being reshaped by AI have a market advantage. The jobs with the biggest new hire pay premiums are roles that require strategic judgement, critical thinking, and creative leadership — and are outpacing internal pay progression. As organizations race to adopt AI, demand for related skills is earning a premium in market, representing a potential flight risk for existing employees seeking reward for skill adoption.
While the report points to a workforce that leans toward “job hugging,” expanding pay transparency requirements mean that employees are paying closer attention to their market value. As labor market pressures continue to evolve, employers are facing increasing challenges to engage and retain talent in roles where external pay growth is increasing faster than internal salary adjustments.
“Pay gaps between new hires and tenured employees are one of the clearest signals of retention risk. When the open market consistently pays more than internal salaries for a given role, employees notice, especially in a world with growing pay transparency,” said Ruth Thomas, chief compensation strategist at Payscale. “Employers who can identify these gaps can take proactive steps to close them before attrition becomes a talent crisis.”
The top 10 roles with the greatest new-hire market advantage include roles related to marketing operations, project management, compliance, quality control, and risk analysis. While the average year-over-year wage growth for these positions is only 3.5%, top positions can command up to 12% more for new hires compared to tenured employees. Marketing Analyst III tops the list (12% new hire market advantage), followed by IT Product Manager IV (11%), Compliance Specialist Sr. (11%), and Project Management Manager (11%).
The top 10 tenure-advantaged roles show slightly higher average wage growth at 3.8% year over year. These are largely clinical positions in healthcare, including Massage Therapists (29% tenure advantage), Respiratory Technicians (22%), and Radiology Technicians (17%). Nurses (RN) in ICU/CCU show both a strong tenure premium (16%) and the highest wage growth on the list at 5.4%. The tenure advantage can also be read as a new hire advantage in the negative.
Notably, some top roles by job family and industry widely believed to be vulnerable to AI displacement are defying expectations. Roles including Executive Assistant in the technology industry and Customer Service Representative in the business services and consulting industry show a new hire pay premium, suggesting that early AI-driven disruption in back-office functions may now be resulting in rehiring at higher market rates. In aggregate, no single job family sees a new hire market advantage in the 2026 job market. Software Development & Engineering sees a tenure advantage of 15% (-15% market advantage) while Customer Service sees a tenure advantage of 28% and Healthcare 37%.
The data is clear: some roles are growing faster in the open market than internal pay structures can match, while others reward the experience organizations have already built. Neither dynamic is fixed. Pay transparency is accelerating how quickly employees notice the difference — and how quickly they act on it. Organizations that can spot these gaps early have more options. Those that can’t are left managing attrition instead of preventing it.
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