Australians with digital skills are earning significantly higher salaries, according to new research from Indeed and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Indeed and ADB “Skills That Pay 2026 Report” analyses more than six million job postings across Asia-Pacific, and found digital skills attract a substantial wage premium. Workers with digital skills were even found to earn more than their colleagues without them, for performing the same role at the same company.
Jobs requiring basic digital skills pay around 4% more than roles requiring no digital skills, while positions requiring intermediate digital capabilities attract an 11% premium. For workers with advanced digital skills, the salary boost is approximately 26%.
Digital skills a requirement
The report’s findings illustrate that employers deem digital skills essential for roles across the Australian employment spectrum.
Indeed and ADB’s research found that nearly nine in ten job ads across the region now require a level of digital competency, with only 13% of ads not listing digital skills as a prerequisite.
“Digital skills are no longer a nice-to-have—they’ve become a baseline requirement for career progression and higher earnings,” said Callam Pickering, Senior APAC Economist at Indeed.
“Interestingly the strongest growth in digital skill requirements is occurring in occupations that have not traditionally been considered highly digital.”
Notably, the biggest shifts are occurring outside the technology sector. The report shows that digital upskilling is increasingly concentrated among occupations that have historically not required digital expertise.
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Roles in areas like retail, customer service, education and healthcare are progressively shifting from basic digital literacy towards more advanced capabilities—including data analysis and familiarity with digital platforms and AI-powered tools—as employers integrate new technologies into everyday operations.
“Australians who invest in developing their digital capabilities are positioning themselves for better opportunities and stronger wage growth,” he continued.
“As technology reshapes virtually every occupation, digital literacy is becoming as fundamental as traditional literacy and numeracy.”
“Indeed’s findings highlight a growing need for both employers and policymakers to support digital upskilling initiatives as workforce requirements continue to evolve. The workers and organisations that invest in building digital capability today will be best positioned to thrive in the future labour market.”
AI is supercharging salaries
By the end of 2025, 5.8% of Australian job postings referenced AI skills or capabilities—double the rate recorded a year earlier.
According to the Indeed and ADB report, AI-related skills deliver an additional salary premium on top of existing digital capabilities. Jobs requiring AI usage skills attract a further wage uplift of around 4%, while roles involving AI development can command an additional premium of approximately 6%.
“This underscores the importance of expanding opportunities for workers to acquire and continuously upgrade their digital skills, so they can adapt to technological change and share in its benefits,” commented Silvia Garcia Mandico, Economist at the Asian Development Bank, and one of the study’s co-authors.
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