The Write the Docs Salary Survey aims to gather data about salaries for
documentarians across the world, to help our community members determine
what appropriate salary ranges are, and to provide a benchmark for
future negotiations.
In the second annual survey, which was open from mid-August until
mid-November 2020, we incorporated community feedback from the first
survey and revised the wording of some questions to reduce ambiguity. We
expanded the scope to better cater for independent contractors, people
who were currently out of work, and multiple currencies, and also added
a section about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
805 people completed the survey in 2020, an increase of 24% over 2019.
This year, while our respondents specified the currency they were paid
in, all numbers in this report have been converted to US dollars for
ease of comparison, and the actual exchange rate used has been noted.
We’d love your thoughts on this survey, so that we can continue to
refine it over the years. You can email us at support@writethedocs.org
with your ideas.
I am an independent contractor, freelance operator, or
self-employed
I was an employee, but am not currently employed
I was an independent contractor, freelance operator, or
self-employed, but do not currently have work
In 2019, respondents were asked if they were employees or independent
operators (contractors, freelancers, self-employed). In 2020, we
included new options for those who were not currently working at the
time of taking the survey. These respondents were asked to answer the
questions as if they were still in their previous employment or contract
situation, and their data is included in this report as such.
18 employees and 2 independent contractors filled out the survey on this
basis, or 2.5% of all respondents.
The ratios of employees to independent contractors stayed almost
identical: 93% of respondents were employees (versus 94% in 2019) while
the remaining 7% (versus 6% in 2019) were independent contractors,
freelance operators or self-employed.
Note for independent contractors, freelance operators, and the
self-employed:
Please enter an average across all clients/jobs that you work for in
a typical week.
1-20 hours
21-30 hours
31-40 hours
41-50 hours
51-60 hours
More than 60 hours
As in 2019, most respondents worked “full-time” hours:
95.5% worked 31 hours per week or more,
38.4% reported working between 41 and 50 hours, and
3% reported between 51 and 60 hours.
Of the 4.5% working part-time:
1.6% worked up to 20 hours, and
2.9% worked between 21 and 30 hours.
3 respondents reported working over 60 hours per week: the highest
entered value was a staggering 80 hours. In contrast, the highest
reported number from 2019 was 60 hours, reported by 4 respondents.
Note:
To help us process this information, please use full terms rather
than abbreviations. For example, use “Senior” rather than “Sr” and
“Technical” rather than “Tech”.
With typos removed, capitalization standardized, and abbreviations
expanded, 255 distinct job titles were entered as responses to this
question (versus 207 in 2019). Only one respondent did not provide a
valid job title.
The most common job title entered was “Technical Writer”, making up 33%
of all respondents - but nearly double that (63% of respondents) entered
job titles that included that phrase.
How would you broadly categorize your primary role?
Note:
If you are a team leader or manager but also work alongside your
team, please select the category of your team.
I am a writer, content creator, producer, or editor
I am a developer or an engineer
I am an educator
I work in a customer support role
I am an advocate or work in community outreach
I work in marketing
I work primarily in a management role
Other (please specify)
In your primary role, are you:
Note:
If you are a contractor or freelancer, this would apply to the
typical kind of job that you are brought on for.
A solo worker
Part of a team (either of people doing the same kind of role, or a
mixed-discipline team)
Part of multiple teams
A manager or team leader
Other (please specify)
In 2019, we attempted to illustrate the range of roles in the community
by analyzing job titles and grouping them by keyword. In 2020, we went
straight to the source and asked respondents to broadly categorize their
role themselves.
The majority of respondents (87.7%) placed themselves primarily in the
writer/creator/producer/editor role, with management coming in next at
4.8% followed by developer/engineer at 3.4%.
Support, educator, advocate/community outreach and marketing each had
single digit representation. 20 respondents (2.5%) chose “Other” and
entered a different categorization: these included information
architecture, analysis, content strategy, knowledge management and
product management.
Figure: Role Categorization - Minor Grouping (excluding writer/creator/editor)¶
Respondents were further asked to indicate if they worked primarily solo,
as part of a team (either a team made up of people doing the same kind
of job, or a multi-disciplinary team), as part of multiple teams, or as
a manager or team leader.
16.3% of respondents indicated that they work solo, a decrease from
2019 (where nearly 30% reported working alone),
52.9% worked on a single team,
17% on multiple teams, and
13.3% lead a team.
4 respondents selected “Other” and entered more information: 3 of these
were special cases but essentially each worked as part of a team or
multiple teams, while the final case indicated a solo role.
How long have you worked at your current organization?
Note:
Please select the length of time for your position at your current
organization only - your total years of experience in documentation
will be covered in the individual demographics section.
If you are a contractor or freelance operator, please select the
length of time that you have been contracting or freelancing.
Less than 1 year
1 - 2 years
2 - 5 years
5 - 10 years
More than 10 years
Due to ambiguous wording, this question caused some confusion in 2019
with some respondents possibly entering the length of time they had been
working in documentation (which is covered in the demographics section)
rather than the amount of time working with their current employer.
Improved wording and additional clarification this year cleared this up.
Up until the 5 year mark, the numbers were split quite evenly:
26% of respondents had been in their current role for less than one
year,
26.2% for between 1 and 2 years, and
29.2% for between 2 and 5 years - accounting for 81.3% of the total.
13.2% had been with their current employer for between 5 and 10 years,
and the remaining 5.5% (44 individual respondents) for more than 10
years.
Of those respondents who had been with their current employer for more
than 10 years,
61% reported between 11 and 15 years,
10 individual respondents indicated 20 years or more - 7 of these
had clocked up either 20 or 21 years, and
single respondents each reported 23 years, 27 years, and 28 years.
Proportion of role officially related to documentation¶
What we asked
7. Documentation is:
the whole of my official job description
part of my official job description
not officially part of my job description, but I am expected to
perform documentation-related tasks
not officially part of my job description, and I am not expected
to perform documentation-related tasks, but I do anyway
69.6% of respondents reported that documentation was the whole of their
official job description, and 25.6% reported that it was only one part.
3.4% reported that documentation was not part of their official job
description but that they were still expected to perform
documentation-related tasks, and 1.5% stated that although documentation
was not part of their job description and they were not expected to
perform documentation-related tasks, they did anyway.
These overall proportions remain essentially unchanged from 2019’s
results.
In 2019, we included one question about work location: whether the
respondent worked on site, remotely, or a combination of the two; the
possible responses were arranged to also show if the work location was
stipulated by the employer or the individual’s own choice.
We found that 56% of respondents worked completely on site, more than
half of them by choice, and 17% worked completely remotely, three
quarters of them by choice. The remaining 27% split their time between
onsite and remote work.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused huge upheavals in the way that we
work, particularly with regard to work location, so this question was
converted into a whole new section.
80% of respondents said that their work location had changed, either
permanently or temporarily, due to COVID-19.
Note: a small number of respondents answered “yes” to the question of
whether their work location had changed due to COVID-19, but then
selected the same option for work location before and after/since the
pandemic. These responses were filtered out of the table below but not
out of the rest of the figures for this section, as we assumed that
“yes, things have changed” was the significant response, and the options
presented for remote and onsite work perhaps did not account for all the
subtleties of work location that are possible.
Overwhelmingly and unsurprisingly, the bulk of the changes reported are
from working on-site to working remote.
Of those reporting changes, nearly half (48.5%) had previously been
required to be on-site. Of those respondents, 50% were now required to
be remote, 35% were given the option to work remotely, and another 11.5%
were now partially onsite and partially remote. Only 3% were now working
onsite.
Respondents who indicated that they had experienced a work location
change due to COVID-19 were asked if they thought that the changes would
be permanent or temporary, and also how they felt about the change.
Opinions on the permanency of the changes were quite evenly spread -
however those who predicted “no” (25.4%) or “probably no” (22.2%) - a
combined 47.6% - outweighed those that predicted “yes” (13.2%) or
“probably yes” (22.9%) - a combined 36.1%.
Figure: Predicted Permanency of Work Location Changes¶
While other aspects of living through a pandemic might be challenging, a
large proportion of respondents reported finding a silver lining in work
location changes. More than 60% of respondents reported feeling
“positive” (34.11%) or “very positive” (26.51%) about the change, 27.29%
felt “neutral”, and only 12.09% reported feeling “negative” (11.47%) or
“very negative” (0.62%, or 4 individuals).
Of those respondents (20%) who indicated that their work location had
not changed due to COVID-19, 45% were required to be remote, 38.7% were
remote by choice, and 6.3% were partially onsite and partially remote.
Only 10% (16 individuals) worked onsite, either by choice (5%) or
necessity (5%).
In response to their feelings about their work location, of the 83.8%
that worked remotely, 67.9% reported feeling “very positive” and 24.6%
reported “positive”. 10 individuals (7.5%) were “neutral” about their
work location, and no remote workers in this group felt at all negative
about the situation.
Similarly, no negativity was reported from the 16 respondents in this
group who worked on-site. Half of the on-site workers felt “very
positive” and the other half were split between “positive” and
“neutral”. In fact, only 1 respondent - from the “partially remote,
partially onsite” segment - reported feeling “negative” about their work
location, and no one reported feeling “very negative”.
Figure: Feelings about Work Location (where work location is unchanged since COVID-19)¶
Combining the results for respondents whose work location has changed
with those whose location has not gives a snapshot of the work location
of the whole community, both before the pandemic started and in the
latter half of 2020.
What comes out is - again, unsurprisingly - a complete reversal: prior
to the pandemic, more than half of respondents (58.26%) worked in
offices, but since COVID-19 that number has shrunk to only 3.6%. Remote
workers made up 20.62% of the pre-COVID-19 workforce; whereas the
pandemic has moved 87.7% of workers to remote.
More time required for people and project management
Increased oversight on productivity and time tracking
Changes related to personnel:
Hiring freezes and upcoming contracts cancelled
Team reorganizations and company restructures
Changes related to travel and events:
Work travel cancelled
In-person training, workshops, summits etc cancelled or shifted
online
Some respondents called out positive changes: remote workers in
companies who felt disadvantaged compared to their onsite colleagues
found the playing field levelled as everyone was forced to work from
home; others found themselves growing professionally as they took on new
responsibilities. Several reported being able to get more done in their
new work location, although missing social interaction with colleagues
was seen as a downside by some.
In 2019, as well as the all-important salary figure and a list of
benefits, we asked for the respondent’s level of satisfaction with their
salary and job, and if relevant, their reasons for dissatisfaction.
Upon reviewing the responses, it became apparent that we had
over-simplified a complex concept. Level of satisfaction with salary and
level of satisfaction with a job overall are often separate and distinct
- it is entirely possible to be extremely satisfied with every aspect of
a position other than the salary, and the reverse can also be true.
In 2020, we separated these two aspects - salary satisfaction and
overall job satisfaction - as well as providing a new section designed
for contractors, freelancers and independent operators with different
options for payment models (hourly rates, daily rates etc). Respondents
(both employees and independent contractors) were also able to specify
the currency that they were paid in.
11c. What is your yearly salary, before tax and without any
additional benefits?
Note:
Please do not include the currency symbol or any decimal places.
Commas can be used for digit grouping in the US/UK style (eg 50,000).
Example:
Person A receives $4,000 take home pay each month, but an additional
30% is automatically withheld by their employer for income tax.
Person A would enter 62,400 below (monthly amount multiplied by 12,
plus 30%).
As over 95% of respondents reporting working between 30 and 80 hours per
week - a “full time” role - those reporting fewer than 30 hours have been
omitted from the figures in this section.
While the survey specifically requested annual salary, a number of
respondents entered monthly salary. Where it was obvious that this is
what had occurred, the numbers were multiplied by 12 for the result
sets. There were 4 individual results where we could not be certain if
the salary figure was monthly or if a currency notation error had been
made, so these results were omitted from this section.
The following figures are therefore based on a reduced result set of 729
full-time employees.
The median salary across all regions, before tax and any additional
benefits, was USD $80,000 (meaning half of the respondents earned more,
and half earned less).
This figure does not take into account the socio-economic situation in
the countries of the very highest earners (the top 10 salaries were all
from the United States) and the very lowest (the bottom 10 salaries were
from Asia and South America) - as well as the difference between the
country of the employee and the country of the employer. Figures grouped
into regions make a more useful baseline from which to determine what
constitutes a “fair” salary.
Respondents reported being paid in a total of 31 different currencies. Where the location country of the respondent and the location country of the employer organization were different, in most cases the respondent was paid in the currency of their location country (possibly for legal reasons, in many cases). There were 21 individual exceptions to this rule, with some respondents located in Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Belarus, Canada, Argentina, Vietnam and Colombia being paid in the currency of their employer’s country.
The exact exchange rates used to convert the salary figures to USD are listed in the table below.
12. Does your salary package include any additional benefits? Check
all that apply.
Paid vacation time (in excess of government-mandated minimums)
Health insurance (in excess of government-mandated minimums)
Pension, superannuation, or retirement fund (in excess of any
government-mandated minimums)
Stocks, shares, stock options, or equity
Commission payments
Bonus payments
Professional development / ongoing education / conference budget
Meals, meal vouchers, or food-related benefits
Gym, fitness, sport, or other wellness-related benefits
Other types of insurance e.g. life insurance, accident insurance,
income protection insurance
Paid parental leave (in excess of government-mandated minimum)
Time off or bonuses for community-related activities
Unlimited PTO (paid/personal time off)
None of the above
Other (please specify)
For this section, we included the respondents with ambiguous salary
numbers that were excluded from the salary section, and also included
those working fewer than 30 hours per week - bringing the total number
to 750, or all respondents who identified as employees.
In 2019, this section caused some debate due to the differences in labor
laws in different countries: in almost all countries apart from the US,
employees are entitled to paid vacation time and paid sick leave by law,
and many also mandate pension contributions and/or paid parental leave.
Similarly, many countries have universal health care, negating the need
for employer-provided health cover. To make this clearer, in 2020 we
asked respondents to only check the boxes for vacation time, health
insurance, pension plans and parental leave if their employee benefit
was in excess of what was required by law in the country where they
live.
Professional development / ongoing education / conference budget
51.90%
Bonus/Commission payments
49.40%
Pension, superannuation, or retirement fund *
48.80%
Other types of insurance e.g. life insurance, accident insurance, income protection insurance
45.30%
Stocks, shares, stock options, or equity
44.90%
Gym, fitness, sport, or other wellness-related benefits
40.50%
Paid parental leave *
37.47%
Meals, meal vouchers, or food-related benefits
32.50%
Time off or bonuses for community-related activities
27.73%
Unlimited PTO (paid/personal time off)
21.87%
None
3.20%
* In excess of any government-mandated minimums
Of the respondents who chose “other” and entered details of their
additional benefits, most could be mapped to one of the existing
categories. The ones that could not (and which were mentioned by more
than one respondent) included:
Transportation benefits - including company vehicle and public
transport passes or reimbursements
How satisfied are you with your current salary and benefits?
Very unsatisfied
Unsatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very satisfied
On the whole, most employee respondents were satisfied (40.27%) or very
satisfied (31.87%) with their salary and benefits. Those with neutral
feelings made up 17.2% of employees, with those that were unsatisfied
(8.8%) or very unsatisfied (1.87%) in the minority.
How satisfied are you with your current job overall?
Very unsatisfied
Unsatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very satisfied
Three quarters of respondents were “satisfied” (45.73%) or “very
satisfied” (29.6%) with their job overall. 16.53% indicated “neutral”
feelings, with less than 10% indicating they were “unsatisfied” (6.27%)
or “very unsatisfied” (1.87%, or 14 individuals).
Reasons for Overall Job Dissatisfaction - Employees¶
What we asked
14b. If you are not completely satisfied with your job, is it because
(check all that apply, or check “none of the above”):
My workload is too high
My workload is too low
There is too much stress or pressure
The work is not interesting or challenging enough
Role is undervalued or underfunded
No opportunities for advancement
Unsupportive work environment
Insufficient opportunities for professional development
Outdated toolset
Management not open to change
No opportunity for remote work
I don’t feel supported as a remote worker
I don’t feel respected
I am discriminated against on the basis of gender
I am discriminated against on the basis of race or nationality
I am discriminated against on the basis of age
I am discriminated against on the basis of education level
Other (please specify)
None of the above
19 respondents - including 2 who indicated that they were “very
unsatisfied” with their overall job situation - did not indicate a
reason for dissatisfaction.
Insufficient opportunities for professional development
21.4%
Outdated toolset
20.27%
Management not open to change
16.29%
I don’t feel respected
15.15%
Unsupportive work environment
12.69%
My workload is too low
3.98%
I don’t feel supported as a remote worker
3.98%
No opportunity for remote work
3.41%
I am discriminated against on the basis of gender
3.03%
I am discriminated against on the basis of age
2.84%
I am discriminated against on the basis of race or nationality
0.76%
I am discriminated against on the basis of education level
0.38%
Of the respondents who chose “Other” and provided detail, the common
themes were:
Too many meetings or bureaucratic overhead
Frustration with competency of team members or management
Bullying and/or harassment
Instability (both related to COVID-19 and general)
Politics within the organization
Salary - Independent Contractors, Freelancers, and Self-Employed¶
Due to the low number of responses and danger of exposing identifiable data, salary data for independent contractors, freelancers and the self-employed could not be calculated in the same way as for employees. Data for this section will be released in a report update once it has been processed.
Some issues with clarity of questions in this section in the 2019 survey
meant that much of the data was not particularly useful. For 2020, we
re-worded the questions and added additional notes.
Contractors were asked to answer this section based either on their main
client or contract, or their typical client or contract.
15. What is the approximate size of your organization, in number of
employees?
Less than 10
10 - 50
50 - 100
100 - 1000
1000 - 10,000
10,000 - 100,000
More than 100,000
Very small operations of 1-10 employees only represented just 1.4% of
the total (11 responses). 10-50 employee operations accounted for
another 7.8%, with the 50-100 employee bracket next at 9.7%.
The next option, 100-1000 employees, had the largest number of responses
at 35%, and another 24.2% went to organizations made up of 1,000-10,000
employees. 10,000-100,000 employee operations employed 12.4% of
respondents, and the largest bracket, over 100,000 employees, accounted
for the final 9.4%.
Note: for software development and IT companies:
Please choose the industry that your product or service primarily
serves.
For example, if your organization produces e-learning software,
select “Education, Training”. If you work for a company that makes
point of sale systems for restaurants, select “Food, Beverages”.
Please only select “Software Development, Software Development Tools”
if your organization’s customers are software developers.
Advertising, Marketing
Agriculture
Airlines, Aerospace, Defense, Military
Automotive
Business Support, Professional Services, Sales, Consulting
The notes for this question clarified that respondents who work in IT
and software should choose the industry that their organization
services, after some confusion around this question in our 2019 survey.
While IT and software still accounted for the largest share of responses
- 36.3% - the spread of other industries gave a clearer picture of the
range of organizations employing documentarians in our community.
Telecommunications came in next at 15.2%, followed by Finance at 8.3%.
The next set of industries - Health, Professional Services, Security,
Advertising, Manufacturing, and Retail - each made up between 2% and 5%
of responses.
Education, Transport, Aerospace/Defence, Entertainment, Government,
Automotive, Construction and Utilities each accounted for between 10 and
15 responses each. Travel, Food, Science, Insurance, Non-Profit, Media,
Real Estate, Agriculture and Legal were selected by under 10 respondents
each.
The “Other” category was selected by 37 respondents. In all cases, the
entered field could be mapped to one of the categories listed.
Note:
This is the primary location of the organization that you work for.
The location where you live will be covered in the next section.
Country
State, Province, Territory or Region, if applicable
City
Respondents were asked to select the primary geographical location of
the organization that they work for.
The US accounted for 46.6% of the responses, the largest share. Second
after that was “Multi-national or global organization” with 20%.
37 other countries made up the remaining 33.4%. Israel (4.2%), Canada
(3.8%), United Kingdom (3.2%), Australia (2.9%) and India (2.4%) held
the highest share. Each of the other 31 countries listed accounted for
less than 2% of the total.
The two largest-represented age groups (26-35 year olds and 36-45 year
olds) combined formed 64% of the total respondents. 46-55 year olds made
up 19.8%, and 56-65 year olds another 9.4%.
The youngest age bracket took 5.7% of the total and the oldest bracket
(66+ years) took 0.6% or 5 individuals (there were no respondents in
this group in 2019).
57.8% of respondents identified as women, 37.5% as men, and 2.4% as
non-binary or “other” - a similar breakdown to 2019’s results. 19
respondents (2.4% of the total) chose not to answer.
How many years of experience do you have in documentation?
Less than 1 year
1 - 2 years
2 - 5 years
5 - 10 years
More than 10 years
I’d rather not say
Those who selected “More than 10 years” were asked to specify an
exact number.
3.5% reported having up to a year of experience, and 7% between 1 and 2
years. 23.9% fell into the 2-5 years of experience bracket, and 25.5%
had 5-10 years under their belts.
The largest group was those with over 10 years of experience, just under
40% of respondents. Of these, 198 reported between 10 and 20 years, 100
reported between 20 and 30 years, and 23 reported over 30 years - 7 of
which were veterans of over 40 years. The highest reported value was 44
years (1 respondent).
What is the highest level of education that you have completed?
High School or equivalent
Technical College Qualification or equivalent
College or University Graduate Qualification (Certificate,
Diploma, Associate Degree, Bachelor’s Degree)
Post-Graduate Degree (Master’s Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma or
Certificate, Doctorate)
Other (please specify)
I’d rather not say
The majority of respondents - 93.3% had completed a college or university graduate
qualification or higher - 54% had a graduate qualification (Certificate,
Diploma, Associate Degree, or Bachelor’s Degree) and 39% had completed a
post-graduate qualification (Master’s Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma or
Certificate, or Doctorate). Those completing technical college or
equivalent numbered 2.2%, and those completing high school only
(including those who did some tertiary education but did not achieve a
formal qualification) accounted for 4% of respondents, and technical
college 2.2%.
The responses entered for “Other” resulted in a new category being added
for those that are still currently studying: 2 respondents indicated
that they are currently working towards a degree.
In 2019, 58% of survey respondents who provided a location were based in
the United States. As the Write the Docs community is international, one
of our aims for 2020 was to try and expand the reach of the survey to
documentarians in more countries, in order to make the results more
comprehensive.
In 2020, we had some success with this: while the number of US residents
increased slightly (373 individuals versus 350 in 2019), this only made
up 46% of the total number of responses, meaning that the 24% increase
in total survey reach was largely from our international community.
While the number of respondents from Canada and Germany decreased, there
were significant increases in responses from Australia, Brazil, India,
Israel, Poland and Ukraine.
No responses were recorded in 2020 from Bulgaria, Greece, Iceland,
Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore or Slovakia - all of which were
represented in 2019. Bangladesh, Belarus, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea and Switzerland
appeared as new countries in the result set.
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