It is fairly common in the working world for those with management responsibilities to earn more than their colleagues in the trenches. User assistance development appears to be no exception. The survey asked the respondents what percentage of their work is management or supervisory. The results show that those spending more than three-quarters of their time in management activities earn, on average, $86,797 per year. There is a significant and steady increase in average compensation as the management load increases.

The supervisory pyramid is also very narrow at the top. Only 18% of the respondents spend more than half their time in supervisory tasks and enjoy the higher salaries. Two-thirds of the respondents spend less than 25% of their time in management or supervisory tasks.

There does not appear to be a glass ceiling for women in this area. Of those respondents spending 50 to 100% of their time in management, 69% are women. This matches the 68% representation of women participating in the survey.