Workers send nearly 3M messages a day to ChatGPT about wages, OpenAI reports

Summary

OpenAI reports that workers send almost 3 million messages every day to ChatGPT asking about pay — mainly to convert hourly rates to annual figures, benchmark salaries, and estimate what a role or employer might realistically pay before applying, negotiating or switching jobs. Searches skew towards roles where pay is less transparent or more negotiable (creative and athletic industries, management and healthcare), while standardised sectors such as office support and food service show fewer queries. The research also notes higher-paid workers search more often and that around 18% of wage-related queries concern entrepreneurship and self-employment income after costs.

Key Points

Nearly 3 million daily ChatGPT messages relate to wages and compensation, per OpenAI.
Common queries include pay conversions, market benchmarking and salary expectations for specific jobs or employers.
Searches are concentrated in fields with uncertain or negotiable pay: creative, athletic, management and healthcare roles.
Higher-paid workers are more likely to query pay, since accurate information yields bigger decisions and payoffs.
About 18% of wage searches are about entrepreneurship — workers estimating net income after costs and demand variability.
Growing pay-transparency laws and more companies sharing ranges are changing information access, but gaps remain.

Context and relevance

This finding sits at the intersection of HR practice, compensation strategy and AI adoption. As employees increasingly use generative AI for quick, private pay information, employers face heightened pressure to be transparent and consistent with pay data. The trend complements legislative shifts: more states are enacting pay-transparency laws and many firms are moving to publish ranges — but where pay is ambiguous, workers will keep turning to tools like ChatGPT to reduce information frictions.

Why should I read this?

Short version: people are quietly using AI to do your pay research for them — and that changes recruitment, negotiation and retention. If you work in HR, rewards or hiring, this is a fast heads-up that candidates and staff are coming to the table better informed (and sometimes armed with bespoke calculations). Read it so you can tweak job ads, pay communication and negotiation guidance before AI-driven expectations catch you off guard.