Tech Writing Rates in MPLS

[Ruth Glaser <ruthg -at- GORETEK -dot- COM>]

Wow, was I overwhelmed with responses, mostly to post my findings to the
list. It seems that despite our extreme weather, many writers are quite
interested in relocating to our fair city, Minneapolis (which BTW is one
heck of a place to live when it's not bone chillingly cold - please, no
jokes about that not being very often.)

For those of you interested in relocating, Alexander Adrian Szczepaniak did
an excellent post on what the contract market is like here. I, however, was
questioning from a different point of view. I need to hire contract writers
and because of the descrepencies he described, I wanted to know a fair price
for all involved.

The most common thread was that the rate depends entirely upon the type of
work and the level of experience/expertise required.

Here is what people reported (the discrepancies reflect multiple responses):

Milwaukee:      freelancers charge $40-60
                consulting firms charge $50-high 60's and pay 50-70% of that

Minneapolis:    freelancers charge $40-50
                contract firms pay writers from teens to 30's
                contract firms charge $35-60 & pay writers $25-32
                freelancers charge $25+

Atlanta:        software writers earn $25-45

Seattle:        contract firms charge $55-60

It seems as though there is enough interest to continue this thread at the
list-level. More input is welcome.

Many thanks for all your thoughtful responses.

Ruth T. Glaser
ruthg -at- goretek -dot- com


--
Ruth T. Glaser                      e-mail: ruthg -at- goretek -dot- com
Goretek Data Systems, Inc.          Phone:  (612) 639-5043
900 Long Lake Road #151             Fax:    (612) 639-5090
New Brighton, MN                    O-