Who Are We 1998 Results of the STC-PMC Membership Survey News & Views Feature Article

by Alan Muirhead Copyright © 1998 Alan Muirhead. Alan Muirhead is an independent technical writer and managing editor of News & Views. Originally published in News & Views July 1998 issue. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

Who makes up the membership of STC-PMC? What sort of education do they have? What do they do? How much do they make? What tools do they use? These are the kinds of questions that the 1998 membership survey was designed to answer. This, the second annual survey, was sent to members in the January 1998 issue of News & Views. Forty-nine members returned the surveys, a response of 12%. Although this was lower than last year's response, the results give an indication of the membership as a whole. Basics The Philadelphia Metro Chapter spans the tri-state area: 67% of the mailing addresses are in Pennsylvania, 17% in New Jersey, and 14% in Delaware. The distribution is shown in Figure 1, in which the size of the black circles is proportional to the number of addresses in each zip code. Figure 1: Membership by Zip Code Sixty-three percent of the membership is female. Fifty-eight percent of the chapter joined within the last five years. All of these percentages for the chapter as a whole are little changed from last year. Of the respondents to the survey, 85% said they work in Pennsylvania, 68% are female, and 45% have five or fewer years experience in technical communications. Work and experience Although age and experience tend to correlate, some older people (other than me!) are turning to technical communications later in their careers (see Table 1). The great majority of respondents (89%) work as employees of single companies; only 8% of these people wish they were working as consultants instead. All who said they were independent or sub-contractors also said that's what they preferred. Nearly everyone (94%) works full-time. No one responding to the survey said they were currently looking for work. Years Experience Age <29 <39 <49 >50 2-5 3 3 1 1 6-10 2 6 4 1 11-15 0 3 4 2 16-20 0 0 5 4 21-25 0 0 3 1 >25 0 0 1 2 Table 1: Age and Experience Compared to last year, there is a slight trend toward more full-time work and less contracting. My impression is that the job market is very strong right now, and probably everyone who looks for a job easily finds a "permanent" one. No one responding considered themselves to be in an entry-level position. Eighty percent are in non-supervisory positions (see Table 2). Position Mid-level Senior Non-supervisory 28% 52% Supervisory 7% 13% Table 2: Position Education One of those chicken-or-egg questions in our profession is whether it is better to be a writer who learns technology or to be a technically-trained person who learns how to write. At least as far as the respondents are concerned, the answer is to start as a writer. Fully one-third studied technical communications, journalism, or professional writing. Another one-third have a humanities background. Just one-sixth have a science background, and one person admitted to computer science. Other fields of study less commonly associated with technical communication that were cited by respondents included music and ornamental horticulture. The majority of those returning the survey (53%) have bachelor's degrees; 38% hold advanced degrees. Salaries and benefits Last year's PMC survey did not include questions about salaries. The STC does do a nationwide salary survey every year. Table 3 compares PMC's salaries to those reported in STC's 1997 United States Salary Survey. The percentiles indicate the percentage of the responses with salaries lower than shown; for example, 10% means that one tenth of the PMC respondents had salaries lower than $37,500. The 50% line is the median: half of all PMC respondents had salaries lower than $50,000 and half had salaries higher.   PMC STC Mean $50,801 $46,750 10 $37,500 $32,000 25 $41,400 $37,500 50 $50,000 $45,000 75 $57,000 $53,000 90 $68,400 $62,000 Table 3: Salaries Note: Of the forty-seven respondents to the PMC survey, just six reported hourly rates ($28, $30, $35, $38, $40, $47) instead of salaries. For purposes of a salary discussion, I converted those rates to annual salaries assuming 1800 hours in a year. This meant that three of the six highest salaries were in fact based on the hourly rates. This may have raised the high end of the distribution, but the PMC salaries are consistently above the STC at all percentiles. The following comparisons show only the means, since the sample size for PMC is small. Both PMC and STC results show that women's salaries are averaging less than men's (see Table 4). Gender PMC STC Male $54,860 $49,210 Female $48,960 $45,370 Table 4: Gender In PMC, the women are more strongly represented in the lower salary ranges (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Distribution if Salary by Gender As one might expect (or hope-those hours in class finally counted for something!), education makes a difference in average salary (see Table 5). Education Level PMC STC Associate's Degree $47,679 not reported Bachelor's degree $46,340 $45,090 Master's degree $56,300 $49,940 Doctorate $70,200 $55,810 Table 5: Education Although salaries tend to increase with employment level, the trend is not as pronounced in the PMC sample as in STC as a whole (see Table 6). Employment Level PMC STC Entry no responses $32,910 Mid, non-supervisory $46,170 $43,190 Mid, supervisory $42,900 $51,920 Senior, non-supervisory $52,450 $53,980 Senior, supervisory $58,170 $70,390 Table 6: Employment Level PMC salaries also tended to increase with age and experience, although the trends were somewhat mixed, perhaps because some older people are moving into the profession later in their careers. In general, people younger than forty or with fewer than ten years experience averaged in the low to mid-$40,000s, while those older than forty or with more than ten years experience averaged in the mid to upper $50,000 range. Benefits received from employers varied widely (see Table 7). No one reported receiving overtime pay. Benefit % Receiving Medical insurance 95% Dental insurance 86% Disability insurance 84% Life insurance 84% 401(k) or retirement plans 98% Paid sick leave 91% Family leave 59% Bonuses 45% Stock options 36% Table 7: Benefits Types of work Many people said that they performed more than one function in their work. Sixty percent of respondents included writer among their functions, and 28% included editor. Supervisor and project manager were both cited by 17%. Graphic artist, trainer, and usability analyst were each mentioned by less than 10%of respondents. Thirty percent of respondents worked for a computer software company and 13% worked for engineering companies. No other category (computer hardware, pharmaceutical, financial, chemical) had more than 10% response. Several write-ins mentioned hospitals. As was the case last year, most people (72%) are involved in software documentation. In addition, 45% prepare organization or training manuals, 36% create marketing materials, and 32% do hardware documentation. Less than a quarter of the respondents write technical articles, specifications, or PR materials. Last year 76% stated that they published their work at least in part as "soft" copy, so this year I broke down the category further (see Table 8). Type % responding Hard copy 94% Online, including help 60% Web 36% CD 19% Table 8: Documentation Type Computer usage Compared to last year, the shift to Intel-based PCs is even more pronounced: 96% of all respondents (that's all but 2 people) use PCs. Fifteen percent use Macs and 15% use workstations or mainframes. (Many people use more than one kind of machine.) Everyone responding had access to a computer at work, and 94% had computers both at work and at home. All but one has access to email. Three-quarters have access to the web at work, and nearly two-thirds have access to the web at home as well. All of these numbers are the same or higher than last year. Interestingly, web usage is reported to be lower than last year. While last year 35% said they were on the web more than ten hours per week, this year it was only 9%. In fact, more than half of this year's respondents say they spend less than three hours per week on the web, while last year nearly three-quarters spent more than three hours per week. Does this mean the novelty is wearing off? Or is it that people have identified a few good sites, go there for their information, and get off without surfing? Check out the chapter web site! One in five (same as last year) says they haven't. It's worth a visit. Our role and our profession The survey concluded with questions about the strategic role we play in our companies. We have mixed feelings about how we are perceived in the workplace. The same number of people (19%) feel that technical communicators are valued and consulted in the workplace as feel that technical communicators are considered expendable commodities. Most respondents (62%) feel that technical communicators are part of the team at work, but only as writers. Several respondents commented that the perceptions varied with the team and the project. But we play major roles. More than half stated that they make strategic decisions, and a quarter make budgetary decisions, about total documentation creation and delivery. Nearly half make decisions for their group. And our roles and jobs are changing. Three-quarters of those responding said their job definition had changed in the last ten years. Many mentioned that their work now is more focused toward online or the web. Several have moved into a marketing role (but one went the other way). Several others have become managers or supervisors. How can the profession improve? For several, the answer is one word: certification. For others, improvement means gaining respect. One person commented: "The technical communications profession could improve by defining very clearly...the core processes of communication-audience analysis, brainstorming, editing, proofing, testing, and so on-and lay claim to them." If we don't do that, we'll wind up as "text janitors" who simply clean up what others do and don't ever contribute-or are recognized for-our true value. Thanks to all those who returned the survey. I hope you find the information useful and thought-provoking.

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s Posted August 1, 1998 (dls)