On the Clock

The number of contractors in the technical writing profession is on the rise. In the WinWriters Salary Survey, 12% of the respondents received an hourly wage that varied greatly from a low of $9.75 to a high of $95.

The distribution of wages is wide as shown in the chart below. Those earning between $41 to $60 per hour make up 36% of the respondents. This equates to an annual income of $86,000 assuming a 2000-hour work year. While that sounds like a sizeable chunk of change, most of these workers receive little or no benefits. (See the section on Benefits in the survey home page.)

Organizations award higher wages to individuals based on the amount of experience. Web development has had a significant impact here. For newbies with two years or less experience, having Web skills was worth $15 per hour more than having Help skills, and $23 more than having technical writing skills. The type of skills we possess becomes less significant with five or more years of overall experience.