Paying Your Dues

Our level of experience is one of the most important aspects in the setting of salary level. Generally, we estimate experience based on the number of years a person has been working with a particular activity. In the WinWriters Survey we asked the respondents how long they have been involved with each of the three activities: technical writing, Help, and the Web.

While 95% of the respondents indicated they had Help experience, only 67% had experience with Web development. Help developers with more than three years of experience accounted for 45% of the respondents, while only 20% had more than three years experience working with the Web.

Experience with Help provided a 14% edge in annual salary over technical writing experience when viewed across all levels from 0-9 years of experience. The big jump, however, comes from Web experience. For those who are just starting out, Web skills command 25% higher salaries than technical writing skills and about 13% more than Help skills. At every level, those with Web experience have an average of 14% higher salaries than those with technical writing experience.