Payscale, a prominent supplier of compensation intelligence and workforce analytics solutions, has unveiled its 2026 Flight Risk Report. The document focuses on the jobs that have a higher chance of employees leaving due to pay gaps between newly hired and long-serving staff.
The report identifies “flight risk” by comparing the wage levels of newly recruited and established employees undertaking similar roles. The results be a useful tool for the employers in identifying employee retention risks, planning workforce, and devising compensation strategy amid changing labor market scenarios.
New Hires Enjoying Higher Pay Than Old Employees in Certain Positions
The report reveals that new employees in roles having a market advantage are paid on average 3.6% more than their respective tenured counterparts. In comparison, workers in tenure-advantaged positions earn on average 6.1% more than newly hired workers in the same role.
The report indicates that for most professionals, staying with their employers can still be beneficial to their compensation soon. Still, there are several white-collar occupations that are being fueled by new technologies and business needs, Because of this, new hires get to command higher salaries than existing employees.
Positions that feature strategic decision-making, critical thinking, leadership, and AI-related skills are the ones to get the biggest market premiums. Since companies are committing big funds to artificial intelligence and digital transformation, employees having these highly sought-after skills gain higher potential in the market and this may pose employee retention issues for the employers.
Compensation Disclosure Increases the Risks of Employee Turnover
The report further highlights that with pay transparency rules and employees having access to compensation data, salary disclosure is Much impacting on the employees’ desire to stay at the job.
People now have more knowledge about their market worth than ever before, Because of this, it is easy for them to spot salary differences and difficult for employers to disregard them. Due to Really external salary increases are greater than internal pay progression in certain jobs, organizations could be exposed to higher risks of employees leaving if their compensation strategies do not respond to the changing market conditions.
“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.”
Roles With the Highest New-Hire Pay Premiums
Payscale’s analysis found that several professional and management positions are experiencing significant market-driven salary premiums for new hires.
The top 10 roles with the strongest new-hire advantage are concentrated in areas such as:
- Marketing operations
- Project management
- Compliance and regulatory functions
- Quality assurance
- Risk management
Although average annual wage growth across these positions is approximately 3.5%, some roles show substantially higher compensation for newly hired talent compared to existing employees.
Also Read: Thredd Extends ID DISTRIBUTION Partnership to Drive Expense and Benefits Innovation
Leading the list are:
- Marketing Analyst III – 12% new-hire market advantage
- IT Product Manager IV – 11%
- Compliance Specialist Sr. – 11%
- Project Management Manager – 11%
These findings indicate that employers may need to reassess internal compensation structures for strategic and technology-adjacent roles to remain competitive in attracting and retaining talent.
Healthcare Roles Continue to Reward Experience
While certain professional positions favor new hires, many healthcare occupations continue to provide significant compensation advantages for long-tenured employees.
The report found that the top tenure-advantaged roles experienced average annual wage growth of 3.8%, slightly exceeding the growth rate seen in market-advantaged positions.
Among the occupations with the strongest tenure premiums are:
- Massage Therapists – 29% tenure advantage
- Respiratory Technicians – 22%
- Radiology Technicians – 17%
- Registered Nurses (ICU/CCU) – 16%
Notably, ICU and critical care nurses also recorded the highest wage growth among tenure-advantaged positions, increasing 5.4% year over year.
These results suggest that organizations continue to place significant value on accumulated experience, institutional knowledge, and specialized expertise within clinical environments.
AI’s Impact on Hiring Is More Complex Than Expected
One of the report’s more surprising findings involves occupations often viewed as vulnerable to AI-driven automation.
Certain roles traditionally associated with administrative or customer-facing work are now showing notable new-hire pay premiums. Examples include:
- Executive Assistants within the technology sector
- Customer Service Representatives within business services and consulting
Rather than experiencing widespread displacement, these positions appear to be evolving alongside AI adoption, with organizations increasingly seeking talent capable of working effectively in technology-enabled environments.
No Job Family Shows an Overall Market Advantage
When analyzed at the broader job-family level, no major occupational category demonstrated an overall new-hire market advantage in the 2026 labor market.
Instead, several key job families showed meaningful tenure advantages:
- Software Development & Engineering: 15% tenure advantage
- Customer Service: 28% tenure advantage
- Healthcare: 37% tenure advantage
These findings reinforce the idea that while select roles may command external hiring premiums, many organizations still reward long-term experience and retention across broader workforce segments.
Proactive Compensation Strategies Are Critical
The report highlights an increasing problem for employers: the challenge of equalizing salaries internally while keeping up with the fast-changing market pay trends.
There are some jobs which see an external salary increase so much that it surpasses the normal compensation schemes, on the contrary, the same old ones keep on rewarding the employee’s loyalty and the knowledge that has been gathered over the years. As pay transparency spreads, the employees get to know more easily about the salary differences and based on that, they can decide on the next steps in their career.
Companies that take compensation trends seriously, cover the emerging gaps in pay, and keep their salary policies in line with the market realities will have a better chance of keeping the best employees. In fact, those who do not make the changes might end up moving from holding on to talent to the replacing of talent, which is often done at a much higher cost.
