How Much does a Tech Writer get Paid?
Hourly rates and salries for technical writers fell dramatically following the dotcomm crash. Rates had become artificially inflated during the boom, with many unqualified and unskilled practitioners hanging out their shingle as a technical writer. Many employers became disillusioned, observing that they were not getting value for money. The pool of technical writers reduced to a more sustainable level after the crash and most that were left had a commitment to technical writing as a profession.
The same trend has quickly emerged in the shadow of the Global Financial Crisis. Documentation and online help are dispensable, so technical writers have been among the first to be retrenched.
Salary is affected by many factors that are not directly related to your skill or experience. For example, IT-related jobs tend to pay better than jobs in industrial companies. Offices that are located in the city's central business district or high-tech precincts almost always pay more than equivalent jobs in outer suburbs or regional centres.
The following salary surveys provide some guidelines.
Society for Technical Communication (Austalia Chapter) slary survey, 2003 http://www.stc-aus.org.au/Survey/surveyresults03.htm
Techwriter Placements salary survey - http://www.astcnsw.org.au/activities/survey2000.htm
Morgan & Banks - http://www.hudsonresourcing.com.au/documents/au_technology.pdf
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