WHAT is an entry/mid/senior level tech writer?

["Steven J. Owens" <puff -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Hey folks,

     I was just skimming through the summary of the STC salary survey.
They give different values for entry-level, mid-level, and
senior-level salaries, plus another adjustment for supervisory duties.

     This set me to wondering.  I know there aren't any standards for
these terms, but are there any defacto standards for what makes you a
mid-level or senior-level writer?  Or perhaps we can devote some of
that boundless energy to hammering out some passable definitions?
Don't think of this as a rank thing, think of it more as a merit badge
sort of thing.  i.e., what do you have to do to earn your senior
writer merit badge?


     I found the summary a bit hard to digest, so I tried to boil it
down.  For anybody who cares, here's my summary of the summary.

U.S. Writers
                       25%       Median    75%
All writers           $34,000   $40,000   $46,950
Entry                  25,600    29,000    32,700
Mid-level              33,550    38,600    44,000
Mid-, supervisory      38,000    44,000    50,600
Senior-level,          42,000    46,500    53,500
Senior-, supervisory   42,500    51,000    58,750

< Bachelor's Degree    34,100    40,000    46,000
Bachelor's Degree      32,775    39,050    45,250
Master's Degree        36,696    42,000    50,000
Doctorate              41,000    48,000    60,500

Computer Industry      35,000    40,524    48,000
Other Industry         33,213    38,446    44,930

U.S. Medians by Zip Code
   0****  N. England  $45,000
   1****  Northeast    39,200
   2****  East Coast   39,375
   3****  Southeast    38,000
   4****  N. Central   36,700
   5****  N. Plains    36,750
   6****  C. Plains    36,200
   7****  S. Plains    38,400
   8****  Southwest    40,150
   9****  West Coast   43,900

Canadian Writers
                       25%       Median    75%
All writers           $29,250   $32,760   $37,500
Mid-level,             27,000    31,200    35,175
Mid-, supervisory      32,250    34,500    40,950
Senior-level,          33,000    36,000    39,750

< Bachelor's           31,200    34,500    37,500
Bachelor's Degree      28,875    32,250    36,000
Master's Degree        27,713    33,750    41,250

Computer Industry      27,750    33,000    37,500
Other Industry         30,000    32,400    36,000

Canadian Medians by CPC
   H                  $31,500
   J                   32,760
   K                   33,750
   L                   32,625
   M                   35,625
   N                   36,563
   T                   34,500
   V                   34,425

Additional Compensation
     (for both Canadian and U.S. Writers)

Percentage expecting a bonus:  40.0%
Median bonus:                  $1,200
Mean bonus:                    $2,424
Percentage expecting a raise:  87.7%
Median raise:                   5.0%

Survey Methodology

Number of members questioned:  1,600
Number of respondents:           871
Number of responses discarded:   163 (non-full-time or employed in gov/educ.)
Number of responses tabulated:   708


Typical Writer Composite
          39 years old
          female
          full-time writer/editor
          4-year college degree or higher
          8 years of tech comm experience
          general computer skills
          writes in the computer industry
          paid $40,000 per year
          entered the profession from a non-technical communication position
          has belonged to the STC for at least 2 years


     I will note, for those who haven't read the summary, that female
writers are doing pretty well, at 98 cents on the dollar compared to
male writers.  According to the survey this is above average for the
national standard, and it's apparently been a 16% or so improvement
over the last nine years.  I haven't included more info on the gender
gap because I think the principle use of this information (knowing
what you're worth) should go by the overall median; scrutinizing the
gender gap provides an interesting perspective (and I recommend you
get the full summary and do so) but in general use I feel women should
*demand* to be paid by the overall median.

Steven J. Owens
puff -at- netcom -dot- com