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According to the STC Salary Survey, it looks like with 3 years experience
and non-managerial, she should be expecting between $40-42K (average) up to
$46-48K (at 75 percentile level). The top 10% of the field at those
experience and professional levels only around $55K, and my bet is that what
differentiates that top 10% is expanded technical skills or strong
specialization. (Note -- that's the top 10% in non-managerial roles.)
To get that high a salary, she's really got to be prepared to take on
additional responsibility through management, etc., or she has to have some
specialized skills to bring the table. I cannot imagine paying someone $65K
to document user interfaces on relatively non-complex systems like payroll
systems. I *could* see a salary at that level for taking personal
responsibility for the success of a documentation project, though -- she'd
have to be ready for it to potentially infringe on the rest of her life,
though.
I, too, am curious to know why the magic number is $65K....
