Technical Writer HQ Salary Methodology

Salary pages can be deceptively simple: one number, a tidy range, and a “source.” But compensation is messy in the real world. Titles vary, responsibilities creep, and location (even in remote roles) can change pay by a lot.

So on Technical Writer HQ, I use a consistent methodology to create salary guides that are practical for negotiating offers, planning a career move, or sanity-checking what the market is paying right now.

What’s Included On This Page:

What Makes Us Qualified
Why TWHQ Salary Guides Are Useful, Honest, And Trustworthy
Salary Research Process
How to Build And Normalize Salary Ranges
Salary Evaluation Criteria Explained
Ethics And Transparency
Addressing Specific Career Challenges
Explore Salary Guides

What Makes Us Qualified?

I’ve written and edited a lot of career content for technical writers and adjacent roles around job searching, leveling, and compensation. The consistent theme I see is this: people don’t just need a number. They need context.

So I approach salary guides the same way I approach tool reviews:

I cross-check multiple sources instead of trusting a single dataset
I look for patterns that repeat across sources (and call out when they don’t)
I explain what actually drives the range (scope, level, location, industry)

Why TWHQ Salary Guides Are Useful, Honest, And Trustworthy

I’m not trying to publish a “viral” number. I’m trying to publish a range you can use.

That means:

No single-source ranges. Salary data can be skewed by self-reporting, job board sampling, or title mismatches.
Clear assumptions. If a range is likely being pushed up or down by location, seniority, or scope, I say that plainly.
Practical takeaways. Every guide is written to help you take action in negotiation conversations.

Salary Research Process

When I create a salary guide, I typically combine multiple categories of sources. The exact mix depends on the role.

Public And Research-Backed Wage Data

This is where I look for baseline reality. A common reference point is BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.

Job Boards And Employer-Reported Data

Job boards can move faster than government datasets, so they’re useful for spotting market shifts. The tradeoff: titles and role scope can be inconsistent.

Compensation Aggregators

Aggregators can be helpful for triangulation, but I treat them as one signal, not the final answer.

Real Job Postings With Salary Bands

When pay bands are listed in postings, they’re one of the best “current market” signals. The downside is that ranges can be wide, and not every company posts pay.

How to Build And Normalize Salary Ranges

This is the part most salary pages skip.

A “Technical Writer” title can mean very different work depending on the company. So when I build ranges, I try to normalize around the biggest drivers of pay.

Role Scope

I look at whether the role is primarily writing, or whether it includes higher-leverage responsibilities like:

Information architecture and navigation ownership
Content governance and standards
Tooling administration and publishing pipelines
Cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management

Level And Expectations

Titles aren’t consistent across companies, so I pay attention to responsibility signals (ownership, complexity, autonomy, leadership) more than the label.

Location And Remote Reality

Even in remote roles, pay can differ based on location strategy and cost-of-labor policies. When location is likely pushing the range, I call it out.

Industry And Company Stage

Regulated industries, enterprise orgs, and some high-growth companies often pay differently for the same outcomes. If that’s a clear driver, it becomes part of the explanation—not a footnote.

Salary Evaluation Criteria Explained

To keep salary guides consistent, I evaluate each role through a core set of criteria:

Base Pay vs Total Compensation

When the data allows it, I separate:

base salary
bonuses or variable pay
equity or profit sharing
benefits that materially affect take-home value

Title Clarity And Role Overlap

Some roles overlap heavily with adjacent functions (content design, enablement, knowledge management, compliance documentation). I’ll flag when the market blurs the titles.

Signals That The Range Is Skewed

I watch for common distortions like:

extremely broad posting ranges that don’t reflect actual offers
data that over-indexes on one location or industry
self-reported datasets with small sample sizes
mismatched role definitions (same title, different job)

Ethics And Transparency

Here’s the simple rule I follow:

The salary guide exists to help you make a better decision, not to push you toward anything.

Some pages on TWHQ may include affiliate links. If a link earns a commission, that supports the site and ongoing content work. It does not control what gets published, how ranges are determined, or what’s recommended.

Addressing Specific Career Challenges

Different readers use salary guides for different reasons. Here’s how I try to make the content useful in context.

Negotiating An Offer

I write salary guides to help you ask better questions, like:

“What level is this role internally?”
“Is compensation flexible based on scope?”
“What does success look like in the first few months?”

Planning A Career Move Or Pivot

Salary guides are especially useful when you’re moving between adjacent roles (for example: technical writing → knowledge management → documentation ops).