Salary?

[Beth Friedman <bjf -at- wavefront -dot- com>]

I'm currently in a job where I work on salary, and I'm trying to negotiate 
a raise based on the fact that my job requires (although it doesn't consist 
entirely of) technical writing.

Unfortunately, I'm having difficulty finding any salary statistics that 
justify what I'm asking for.  The 1999 STC salary survey gives the median 
salary in my area of the country at $46,000 for technical writers, and the 
mean salary for writers my age or with my level of experience at about the 
same.

This looks low to me, based on the hourly rate I was getting when I was 
contracting full-time as a technical writer (started at $30/hour in 1996 
and over the next couple of years bumped it up to $40/hour -- and these 
days I'd probably ask for $50/hour).  The group of local tech writers I 
know seem to be in much the same range.

The one local salaried tech writer I know is making $60,000, but I will 
grant that he's a good negotiator.

Am I just in a pocket of overpaid tech writers?  If not, does anyone know 
any online statistics that do a better job of reflecting current reality?

Thanks for any help!

--
Beth Friedman / bjf -at- wavefront -dot- com
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose 
from." --Andrew Tanenbaum