Levels.fyi tells LDS the AI pay premium has stopped growing

Levels.fyi's compensation analysis for Lets Data Science found that the median AI pay premium over non-AI peers has stopped growing, with an L3 ML/AI engineer earning 1.34 times a non-AI peer in late 2024 and 1.29 times by mid-2026. The 90th-percentile-to-median ratio for ML/AI engineers widened from 2.06 to 2.23, indicating growing concentration, while the median recruiter at OpenAI earns about $580,000 on a sample of seven, versus $155,000 in the broad market.

Levels.fyi prepared a compensation analysis for Lets Data Science from its US salary submissions, and the findings cut against the prevailing story. The median AI premium is real but has stopped growing: an L3 ML/AI engineer earned about 1.34 times a non-AI peer in late 2024 and about 1.29 times by mid 2026. ML engineers have held a stable gap of roughly 40 percent over data scientists for two years, with no convergence. What is growing is concentration: the 90th-percentile-to-median ratio for ML/AI engineers widened from 2.06 to 2.23 while the broad software population barely moved, and the extreme numbers are employer effects. The median recruiter at OpenAI earns about 580,000 dollars on a sample of seven, which Levels.fyi flags as directional, against 155,000 dollars in the broad market.