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 26 to March 9, 2007.
Methods. To solicit participation, we sent emails to a distribution list of 232 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 STC member Charlotte Shea, a writer at Qualis Corporation. Since Qualis pays Charlotte's membership dues, she chose the $100 prize option.
Results. We received usable surveys from 123 people (surveys that did not report gross annual salary had to be discarded). We received 101 usable responses from full-time workers. Most analysis is based on these 101 respondents.
Analysis of all Responses (123 total, both full-time and part-time):
HNA STC Membership: 42 (34%) were STC HNA members (this is 70% of our
membership as of February 2007).
Gender: 76 were women (62%), 46 men (37%, up from 28% men in
2005)
Analysis of Full-time Salaried Responses
(101 total)
Gender:
The majority were women (63%). Women were similarly represented in the 2005
National STC Salary Survey (67%). Male respondents increased from 31 responses in 2005
to 36 responses in 2006.
| Salary Data | HNA 2006 |
STC National 2005* |
| Median, All FT Respondents | $56,800 (up) |
$65,000** (up sharply) |
| Mean Entry-Level | $32,080 (down) | $40,370 (down) |
| Mean Senior-Level, Supervisory | $82,100 (up sharply) |
$84,610 (up) |
| Mean Salary by Job Function: | ||
| Editor | $59,500 up sharply) |
$61,350 (up) |
| Graphic Designer | $51,414 (down slightly) |
not reported |
| Writer | $57,549 (down slightly) |
$62,860 (up) |
Note: "Up sharply" denotes an increase of more than 10% over last year.
* STC national data for 2006 were not available when this was done (due out in May 2007)
** 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