Wage standards

[Fabien Vais <phantoms -at- ACCENT -dot- NET>]

Catherine, I live in cold and snowy Canada too (Montreal), and I charge
between $40 and $50 (Canadian), and sometimes higher for technical writing
work, depending on the complexity. For technical editing, rates are usually
a little lower, but not by much. Of course, my rates can rise dramatically
if the text is very complex, if I have do research on the subject, or if it
is extremely urgent. I have taken on a few jobs where I worked right through
a whole weekend, and even a couple of times right through the night. But I
charged close to $100 an hour for that job, so it was worth it. I also do
technical translation (English-French-English). For translation jobs, I
usually charge $25 per standard page, but again I have occasionally charged
up to $38 per page for much more technical jargon and tables or
illustrations. Most people don't like it when you charge by the word, so I
do my own calculations, and I charge them by the page. This usually
satisfies them.

I hope this helps. Could you tell me what the rates are like in your area of
Canada? Where are you located, anyway?

Fabien

>Catherine wrote:
>It is a cold and snowy day here in Canada.  I am doing some technical
>writing for a small company and have some questions.  I would like to get
>some opinions on wages.  If there are any Canadians, what are the going
>rates in Canada...and for those in the great USA, what would you consider
>good starting wages and upwards...

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