Which pays more, UX Designer or UX Researcher?

The median advertised salary for each is in the table above, along with the 25th and 75th percentiles so you can see the spread rather than one number.

Which has more openings?

Both counts are live and computed at the same moment, so the comparison is like for like.

Postings are read from company career systems continuously; the age row shows how old the listings themselves are.

Side by side

UX Designer vs UX Researcher

UX Researcher pays more: a median of $109,000 against $104,500. There is 3.1× more demand for UX Designer. UX Researcher is the more remote-friendly of the two, by 5.5%.

Comparison

Side by side

Measure	UX Designer	UX Researcher	Gap
Open postings	41,872	13,684	+28,188
Posted this week	2,780	1,189
Median salary	$104,500	$109,000	$-4.5k
25th percentile	$82.5k	$86k
75th percentile	$130k	$135k
Salary disclosed	4.4%	5.0%
Remote share	6.8%	12.3%	-5.5pp
Median age of posting	51d	52d
Open over 60 days	30.4%	34.1%
Visa sponsorship	25.3%	24.4%

Pay

Pay distribution

UX Designer

$47k$181k

UX Researcher

$49k$189k

Freshness

How old the listings are

UX Designer

just posted51d median90d+

UX Researcher

just posted52d median90d+

Demand

What each side asks for

UX Designer — technologies

Python

72.0%

Terraform

65.8%

JavaScript

59.6%

SQL

53.4%

TypeScript

47.2%

React

41.0%

Azure

34.8%

UX Researcher — technologies

Python

72.0%

Figma

65.8%

JavaScript

59.6%

Azure

53.4%

Airflow

47.2%

PostgreSQL

41.0%

dbt

34.8%

UX Designer — employers

Halcyon Energy

9.4%

Rivergate Media

8.7%

Ironbark Manufacturing

8.0%

Quarry Analytics

7.2%

Cobalt Financial

6.5%

Kestrel Health

5.8%

Lakeshore Hospitality

5.1%

UX Researcher — employers

Rivergate Media

9.4%

Northwind Systems

8.7%

Meridian Software

8.0%

Brightline Retail

7.2%

Halcyon Energy

6.5%

Cobalt Financial

5.8%

Tidewater Insurance

5.1%

More comparisons

Other Design comparisons

Graphic Designer vs Product Designer Graphic Designer vs UI Designer Graphic Designer vs UX Designer Graphic Designer vs UX Researcher Product Designer vs UI Designer Product Designer vs UX Designer Product Designer vs UX Researcher UI Designer vs UX Designer UI Designer vs UX Researcher

Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.