TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Writer's Salaries/Salary Surveys From:edunn -at- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 5 Jan 2001 17:36:11 -0500
Is there a study or tool that allows you to statistically determine your ideal
salary based on survey results?
To clarify, here's the reason I'm asking:
The latest STC survey lists salaries in different categories: Total, Employment
Level, Education Level, Sex, Age, Years of Experience, and by Province.
The problem is that it is impossible to make an accurate determination of the
figures due to the cross pollination attributes. In other words how relevant are
the numbers. For example the STC figures give females earning a mean salary of
48,420$Can (199 base) and males earning 52,540 (102 base). Does this mean
females are discriminated against? Or does it mean that more of the respondents
have less experience, lower education levels, are younger on average (or much
older), have lower employment levels (entry or non-supervisory), or (most
benignly of all) live in Manitoba instead of Ontario?
To correctly calculate your position, you really need a tool that would give the
tendencies. That is to say that all things being equal, each change of category
equates into a certain percentage or trend up or down. Say same age, education,
sex, employment level, and residence with more experience gives +X% +/- a
tolerance.
Then the calculation would be:
(Total Mean$) +U% +V% +W% +X% +Y% +Z% = $$$$$ +/- tolerance
Does such a beast only exist for HR professionals and groups willing to pay huge
amounts to stats companies or is tool available to the public? (Perhaps gov't
offered information?) All the on-line tools I've found are relocation type
affairs and all the hard copy studies are similar to the STC study and more or
less impossible to equate any real meaningful data. Although I suppose the data
provided could be analyzed in some form to produce the results I'm seeking. (Any
statisticians out their willing to volunteer?)
Eric L. Dunn
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver! (STC Discount.)
**NEW DATE/LOCATION!** January 16-17, 2001, New York, NY. http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001
Conference East, June 4-5, Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. http://www.pdfconference.com or toll-free 877/278-2131.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
