How we compile the numbers we publish
NearSkill publishes compensation figures and platform research under a written methodology. Rates come from live listings first, every source carries a date, unpublished pay stays blank, and outliers are excluded rather than smoothed. This page states the rules and the limits behind every figure on the site.
Who compiles this
Career guides and platform pay reports carry a byline. Ankit Kumar writes and reviews them, and every page shows the date it was last checked. Named authorship is the point: a figure with a person behind it can be questioned, and a figure without one cannot.
The compensation tables work differently from the prose. They are computed at render time from live listing data through a database function, not typed by hand into a page. When the underlying roles change, the numbers move with them.
Compensation figures
Rates come from employers. Where two sources disagree about the same track, the higher tier below wins, and the page notes which one it used.
- Live listingPrimary
- A rate an employer published on an opening that is live on NearSkill right now. This outranks everything else, and it is what the tables default to.
- Platform-published bandSecondary
- A range the platform itself publishes for a track or network. Used when live listings do not cover that track, and always labeled with the month it was read.
- First-hand payout recordTertiary
- A documented contractor payout or reviewer report. Treated as evidence about payment reliability, never as the headline rate for a platform.
- Published figure, sourcedSupporting
- A named third party such as a news outlet or review platform. Carries the outlet and the date inline, so you can check it.
Rows excluded from every range
One broken row can flatten or inflate a band, so four rules run before the range math.
- Hourly rates above $500Almost always a data-entry error or a total contract value entered in an hourly field.
- Yearly figures above $2MDistorts a band built from hourly contractor work, where the top of the market sits far below that.
- Flipped rangesA minimum higher than its maximum is a broken row, not a bargain. Excluding it beats silently repairing it.
- Unpublished ratesCounted separately and shown as empty. Never estimated, never borrowed from a similar posting.
Evaluation rubrics
A role rubric describes what a job asks for across 21 fields. For platform roles it also records the assessment stages a candidate passes through, so you know what you are walking into before you start.
What we compile from
- Assessment stages the platform publishes on its own site.
- First-hand candidate accounts of the process, labeled as accounts.
- The role’s own requirements, skills, and seniority signals.
- Published rates, kept separate from unpublished ones.
What we cannot verify
- Whether a platform’s stated acceptance rate is accurate.
- How a specific reviewer scored your assessment.
- Whether a listed rate survives negotiation or rehire.
- Internal process details a platform does not publish.
Where a platform does not publish how it assesses candidates, the rubric records the gap instead of describing a process we inferred. An honest blank beats a confident guess.
Corrections and updates
Figures change because the market changes. When a published number is wrong, we correct it and say so rather than editing quietly.
- Report a figure
- Email support@nearskill.in with the page and the number. Include a source if you have one, and it moves faster.
- What gets corrected
- Wrong rates, misdated sources, misattributed company facts, and broken links to a platform page.
- How it is recorded
- The page review date moves forward. Corrections that change a published figure are noted in the copy.
- Review cadence
- Pay pages recompute continuously from live data. Written guides and platform research are rechecked on a rolling basis.
Commercial relationships
Platforms named on this site, including Mercor, Micro1, Turing, SME Careers, and Terac, are employers whose roles NearSkill lists. Being listed is not an endorsement, and a platform cannot pay to change its position in a comparison, a rate table, or a category listing.
NearSkill is free for candidates and is paid by the hiring side. Where NearSkill is engaged to fill a role, the employer pays a fee contingent on a successful hire. We do not run affiliate or referral arrangements on these pages, we are not paid per click or per application, and no employer pays us for candidate data. That is why a rate table here cannot be bought: there is no mechanism in our model for a platform to pay for placement. The full disclosure sits in the Terms of Service.
Common questions
How does NearSkill calculate salary percentiles?
From rates employers published on live openings, computed at render time rather than stored. Roles without a published rate are counted separately and excluded from the range. Implausible rows, including hourly rates above $500, yearly figures above $2M, and inverted ranges, are dropped before the math runs.
Does NearSkill estimate pay when a job does not publish it?
No. An opening with no published range shows an empty compensation field. We do not model a number from similar roles, and we do not borrow a band from another employer. A blank field tells you the employer withheld pay. A guess would hide that.
Who writes and reviews NearSkill content?
Career guides and platform pay reports are written and reviewed by Ankit Kumar, the founder, and each page carries its own review date. Compensation tables are computed from live listing data rather than written by hand, so they update when the underlying roles do.
How are the evaluation rubrics compiled?
From platform-published assessment processes and documented candidate accounts, then written into the structured rubric fields. Each stage names what it tests. Where a platform does not publish its process, the rubric says so rather than describing an inferred one.
Does NearSkill accept payment to rank a platform higher?
No. Ordering in comparisons and category listings follows the same published rules for every entry. Any commercial relationship that exists between NearSkill and a platform is disclosed on this page rather than reflected in a ranking.
How do I report an error in a pay figure or platform detail?
Email support@nearskill.in with the page and the figure. Corrections that change a published number are dated and noted on the page, and the review date moves forward. We would rather publish a visible correction than leave a wrong figure standing.
Reviewed . Related: How the matching pipeline works and the Privacy Policy.