For decades, organizations have talked about paying for skills instead of jobs. 

The idea is simple. Reward people based on what they can do, not just the role they hold. 

But in practice, it has always been difficult to execute. 

Skills are hard to define, harder to measure, and nearly impossible to track consistently across a workforce. 

At the same time, the market is shifting fast. 

AI-related skills are in high demand, showing up in job postings across industries. But new data shows those skills don’t always translate into higher pay. 

So organizations are facing a disconnect. 

They know skills matter more than ever. But they don’t yet have the systems or structures to consistently pay for them. 

In this episode of Comp and Coffee, Ruth Thomas is joined by Sara Hillenmeyer, VP of AI and Data Science at Payscale, to explore why skills-based pay has remained out of reach and why that may finally be changing. 

Together they unpack how AI is reshaping demand for skills, why the market isn’t consistently rewarding them yet, and what needs to happen for skills-based pay to become a reality at scale. 

This conversation looks at the data, the technology gap, and the structural shifts required for organizations to move from jobs-based to skills-based compensation.