WritersUA 2006 Salary Survey

The software user assistance community is well established as a major segment of the technical communications field. The work you do in developing effective user assistance is now recognized as an essential component of any application, whether it is based on the desktop or on the Web.

But do you know what you're worth? How do you stack up against your peers? How do location, experience, and the size of your organization affect your salary? What kind of user assistance development skills command top dollar in the marketplace? What should you expect when it is time for a salary increase?

The WritersUA Salary Survey is designed to supply you with answers to many of these questions. The survey is specifically designed to collect data about User Assistance authoring professionals. Over 20,000 people reviewed our 2005 survey. We welcome your participation in this latest installment.

About you

In which state or province do you predominantly work?

For those who work in the U.S., please enter the first three digits of your ZIP Code.

What is your gender?

Female Male

Your education and training

What is the highest level of education you have completed?

High School Community College/2- or 3-year degree
College/University/4-year degree Graduate School

Do you have college education in a field directly related to technical communication?

Yes No

Where have you learned most of your core user assistance skills?

Your work experience

How long have you worked in the technical communication field?

How much experience do you have of developing some form of software user assistance?

How much experience do you have of developing Windows Help (WinHelp or Microsoft HTML Help)?

How much experience do you have of developing web content (web sites or browser-based Help)?

What percentage of your work is management or supervisory?

0 - 24% 25 - 49% 50 - 74% 75 - 100%

Your employer

For the following questions, consider your employer to be the organization you have worked for the most this year. If you work as a contractor through a placement agency, consider your employer to be the agency client you have worked the most for this year.

Do you work as a contractor?

No Independent contractor Contractor through a placement agency

How many people are directly involved with user assistance development at your organization?

1 - 5 6 -10 11 - 25 26 or more

How many employees are in your organization?

Indicate if, over the past six months, your working conditions have been significantly affected by the following (please select all that apply):

Permanent staff layoff    Contract staff layoff
Increased workload due to staff cuts    Canceled project(s)
Training and/or travel budget cuts    No (or less than normal) salary increase

Your compensation

What is your current annual compensation in U.S. dollars? Include bonuses but not stock options. If you work on contract, use your taxable gross revenue from user assistance-related employment. If you worked less than a full year, adjust the amount to represent a projected annual salary. (Get the current exchange rates to U.S. dollars from major world currencies.)

Enter the salary as a whole number (without cents). Please do NOT include a "$" or commas, periods, or other non-numeric characters in this box.

How many hours do you work in an average week?

Enter the hours as a whole number. Please do NOT include non-numeric characters in this box.

How satisfied are you with your current overall compensation?

Very satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

If you receive stock options, what value do you place on them when evaluating your total compensation package?

How satisfied are you with any non-monetary benefits associated with your position?