Back to Job Opportunities in Technical Communication
Back to STC Huntsville/North AlabamaThe Huntsville/North Alabama chapter of the STC (Society for Technical Communication) has sponsored a yearly salary survey since 1999. Dr. Rose Norman, Chapter Employment Chair, administers the survey and survey analysis. The participants are those listed in the North Alabama STC employment notification database, which includes chapter STC members, job seekers, and many non-members. Participants are asked to forward the survey to any technical communicator. Since 2001, this has been an online survey. This year we posted the survey online from February 6-17, 2006.
Methods. To solicit participation, we sent emails to a distribution list of 243 technical communicators in the Huntsville/North Alabama area describing this year’s survey and giving instructions to access the survey online. The participants had the option of downloading a hard copy of the survey to mail in instead of participating online (no one chose the hard-copy option). Participants could also enter a contest to win either $100.00 or a membership in the STC ($150.00 value). This year's winner was drawn at the March chapter meeting. The winner was Jackie Garner, a Senior Writer/Editor at Dynetics. Jackie picked the STC Membership as her prize option. Welcome, Jackie!
Results. We received usable surveys from 130 people (surveys that did not report gross annual salary had to be discarded). We received 111 usable responses from full-time salaried workers. Most analysis is based on these 111 respondents.
Analysis of all Responses (130 total, both full-time and part-time):
HNA STC Membership: 45 (34%) were STC HNA members.
Gender: 96 were women (72%)
Part-time: 19 were part-time workers (all but three of which were
women).
Analysis of Full-time Salaried Responses
(111 total)
Gender:
The majority were women (70%). Women were similarly represented in the 2005
National STC Salary Survey (67%). Male respondents decreased from 38 responses in
2004 to 31 responses in 2005.
| Salary Data | HNA | STC National |
| Median, All Respondents | $54,000 (up sharply) |
$65,000* (up sharply) |
| Mean Entry-Level | $34,650 (up) | $40,370 (down) |
| Mean Senior-Level, Supervisory | $71,198 (up sharply) |
$84,610 (up) |
| Mean Salary by Job Function: | ||
| Editor | $50,891 (up) | $61,350 (up) |
| Graphic Designer | $52,610 (up sharply) |
not reported |
| Writer | $57,562 (up sharply) |
$62,860 (up) |
Note: "Up sharply" denotes an increase of more than 10% over last year.
* Median national data is for zip codes beginning with 35.
All other national
data are means for the United States and so may incorporate regional
differences.
Back to Job Opportunities in Technical Communication
Back to STC Huntsville/North Alabama