A percentile is a position in the BLS distribution. It is not a promised offer or career forecast.
10th
$57,440
25th
$70,880
Median
$90,390
75th
$115,510
90th
$145,270
National context
What changes around the median
Technical Writers ranked 3 of 36 detailed arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations with a published annual median. The national annual mean was 7.3% above the median, showing why one center point does not describe the full distribution.
Area estimates below use the same SOC code and release. They do not adjust for cost of living, experience, benefits, hours, employer mix, or remote-work policy.
Published metro rows
Highest medians for Technical Writers
Ranked only among metros with a published annual median. No cost-of-living adjustment.
Six highest published annual medians
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: $140,700. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA: $135,470. Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA: $129,590. Kennewick-Richland, WA: $119,160. Trenton-Princeton, NJ: $117,130. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH: $111,750.
Use the published range, job count, place pattern, and survey limits as separate facts. The guide stays tied to SOC 27-3042 and the May 2025 BLS release.
Questions, answered
Technical Writers: common wage questions
What is the median wage for Technical Writers?
The May 2025 BLS OEWS release published a U.S. median of $90,390 per year for Technical Writers. It is an occupation estimate, not a promised offer or an individual's pay.
How many Technical Writers jobs does BLS estimate nationally?
BLS published an employment estimate of 45,500 wage and salary jobs. The estimate is not a count of current openings and excludes the self-employed.
Why is the mean wage different from the median for Technical Writers?
The published annual mean is 7.3% above the median. The mean uses every published wage value, while the median marks the middle of the distribution.
Which metro has the highest published median for Technical Writers?
From market data to your evidence
Tailor for a real Technical Writers job, not a generic wage number.
Pick an eligible listing, then MeritLog can help you prepare from experience you have confirmed. WageScope never turns a BLS estimate into a qualification or résumé claim.
The May 2025 BLS OEWS estimate puts the U.S. median for Technical Writers at $90,390 per year. Median means the middle. Half of the wage values used for this estimate fall below that point. Half fall above it. The median is not one worker's pay. It is not a job offer. It is one clear mark for the middle of a broad national pay range.
BLS also lists 45,500 wage and salary jobs for Technical Writers. That count covers jobs in the survey's scope. It does not count open job ads. It also leaves out people who work for themselves. The wage and job counts share the same May 2025 reference point, so they can be read together without mixing time periods.
The Technical Writers mean of $96,970 per year is 7.3% above the $90,390 median on the same published median. Mean means BLS adds the wage values and divides the total by the number of jobs behind the estimate. A gap between mean and median shows that the shape is not even. It does not explain the cause of the gap.
BLS names this record Technical Writers and gives it SOC 27-3042. The two-part code is the stable key for this page. A role with a close name keeps a different code, wage row, job count, and area pattern. WageScope never joins two SOC records because their words sound alike.
For SOC 27-3042, the U.S. row reports 45,500 wage and salary jobs. Its annual median is $90,390 per year. Its matching mean is $96,970 per year. These facts come from one national row and one May 2025 release.
The same SOC 27-3042 appears in 52 state or territory rows, 140 metro rows, and 18 nonmetro rows in this artifact. A missing local row stays missing. The national record does not fill it, and a nearby SOC does not stand in for it.
Read the Technical Writers wage ladder from low to high
The 10th percentile is $57,440 per year. The 25th percentile is $70,880 per year. The median is $90,390 per year. The 75th percentile is $115,510 per year. The 90th percentile is $145,270 per year. Each point marks a place in the same national wage spread.
A percentile is a rank point. It is not a career step. For example, the 10th percentile means 10% of wage values are at or below that mark. It does not mean a new worker starts there. The 90th percentile means 90% are at or below that mark. It does not mean a worker can reach it after a set number of years.
The middle half runs from $70,880 to $115,510 per year. That span is $44,630. The full 10th-to-90th span is $87,830. These spans show why one median cannot stand in for every Technical Writers job.
What the gaps around the Technical Writers median show
The median is 57.4% above the 10th percentile. The 90th percentile is 60.7% above the median. The two sides do not have to match. A wider upper side can pull the mean up. A wider lower side can pull it down. The data shows the shape, but not the reason for that shape.
The 25th-to-median step is $19,510 per year. The median-to-75th step is $25,120 per year. These two steps give a closer look at the middle half. They are often more useful than a single top-to-bottom gap because they keep the center in view.
Use this ladder as a fact check when you read a job post. A posted range can sit below, near, or above these BLS marks. That does not make the post wrong. A job may differ by place, hours, level, field, employer, or work rules. Keep the posted range tied to that listing. Keep the BLS range tied to the whole occupation.
Metro areas with the highest published Technical Writers medians
WageScope found 136 metro rows with the same published annual median for Technical Writers. It sorts only those rows. It does not fill a blank row. It does not turn a blank into zero. The first six rows below have the highest published medians in this release. The list is a wage rank, not a rank of places to live or work.
The first row is San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, at $140,700 per year. The middle metro row by published pay is Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA, at $84,300 per year. That middle metro mark gives one more check on how far the top rows sit from a common place in the set.
These are nominal wages. Nominal means the dollar amount shown in the source. This list does not adjust for local price levels. It also does not tell us how many openings an area has now. Use a local page to see price-level context when an exact BEA row exists. Use the separate job block to inspect current employer-title matches.
1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has a Technical Writers median of $140,700 per year, or $50,310 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. BLS lists 920 jobs there, against 45,500 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 2.78.
2. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA has a Technical Writers median of $135,470 per year, or $45,080 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. BLS lists 1,020 jobs there, against 45,500 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.46.
Job count
Metro areas with the largest Technical Writers job estimates
A large wage can appear in a small job market. A large job market can have a lower wage. That is why WageScope keeps pay and job count in separate views. The six rows below have the largest published employment estimates for Technical Writers among metro rows in this release. Employment means the number of wage and salary jobs in scope. It does not mean open roles.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV has the largest listed metro estimate in this set, at 2,370 jobs. Its median is $99,910 per year. Compare that with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, which leads the published median list. The leaders may match, or they may not. Each list answers a different question.
Job count can help you see the scale of a local labor market. It cannot show churn, new hiring, job quality, remote work, or the chance that one person will get hired. Current listings add a second view, but they are a dated sample of posts. WageScope never turns the listing count into a demand score.
1. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV has 2,370 estimated Technical Writers jobs, or 5.2% of the national 45,500 job estimate. Its median is $99,910 per year, or $9,520 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. Its location quotient is 2.58.
Local share
Where Technical Writers has a larger share of local jobs
Location quotient is a share check. A value of 1 means the role has the same share of local jobs as it has across the nation. A value above 1 means the local share is larger. A value below 1 means the local share is smaller. It is not a count. It is not a wage. It does not say that a place is growing.
Huntsville, AL has the highest published location quotient in this bounded metro set, at 4.41. The same row lists 340 jobs and a median of $96,470 per year. Reading all three values keeps a high share from being mistaken for a large market or high pay.
A small area can have a high location quotient because the role makes up a large part of a small local job base. A large area can have many workers and a lower quotient. Use the quotient to ask where the role is common in the mix. Use employment to ask how many jobs BLS estimated. Use the wage fields to ask what the published pay range looks like.
1. Huntsville, AL has a Technical Writers location quotient of 4.41. BLS lists 340 jobs and a median of $96,470 per year, or $6,080 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. The U.S. job estimate is 45,500.
2. Dubuque, IA has a Technical Writers location quotient of 4.11. BLS lists 70 jobs and a median of $57,400 per year, or $32,990 below the U.S. Technical Writers median. The U.S. job estimate is 45,500.
SOC family
How Technical Writers sits in Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media
Technical Writers is SOC 27-3042. BLS places it in the Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media major group. Among 36 detailed roles in that group with a published annual median, Technical Writers ranks 3 of 36 by median. This is a pay rank inside one source family. It is not a rank of skill, value, status, or career fit.
The closest same-family medians help set a fair peer frame. They do not claim that the work is the same. Official SOC titles can cover different tasks and settings. WageScope uses the family only because BLS publishes that link. It does not infer a career move, a skill match, or a hiring path from the wage gap.
Use these peer rows to spot whether the $90,390 median sits near many family roles or far from them. Then open a role's own page before using its number. Each role has a different code, job count, wage spread, and place pattern. One family label does not erase those facts.
1. Producers and Directors, SOC 27-2012, has a U.S. median of $90,360 per year. Its gap from Technical Writers is $30 per year.
2. Commercial and Industrial Designers, SOC 27-1021, has a U.S. median of $83,910 per year. Its gap from Technical Writers is $6,480 per year.
Data care
How much care to use with the Technical Writers estimate
BLS marks the employment relative standard error at 2.1%. It marks the mean-wage relative standard error at 0.9%. A relative standard error, or RSE, is a survey precision flag. A smaller RSE often means less sampling uncertainty. It is not the chance that one worker's pay is right or wrong.
The employment RSE applies to the 45,500 job estimate. The mean-wage RSE applies to the published mean of $96,970 per year. These fields do not give a matching RSE for the median or each percentile. WageScope shows the fields BLS published and does not move one RSE to another measure.
Survey values can change when BLS updates its methods, sample, models, or source year. That is why this page keeps May 2025 in view. A later release can replace these facts only after MeritLog pins the new official files, checks the rows, and reviews the page again. A changed number is not treated as a correction unless the source says so.
A simple way to compare Technical Writers across places
First, compare the same wage metric. Use annual with annual or hourly with hourly. Next, check the source date. Keep May 2025 BLS rows together. Then read employment and location quotient beside pay. This stops a high median from standing in for market size or local share. Last, add BEA price-level context only when the exact place has an approved row.
A state, metro, and nonmetro area are not the same kind of map. Do not rank them in one list without saying so. WageScope groups like with like. It also keeps a national row as a broad bench mark. A local page can show the local row, its state row when that link is exact, and the U.S. row without blending them.
If a value is blank, keep it blank. If BLS marks a top code, read it as a lower bound. Do not fill a blank from a nearby place. Do not turn a wage gap into a claim about taxes, hours, benefits, work rules, or a household budget. Those facts are not in the OEWS row.
Move from Technical Writers wage data to one real listing
The job block on this page uses a strict employer-title match for Technical Writers. It may show fewer rows than the full MeritLog job search. That is on purpose. A false negative is safer here than a job card for a different role. Each card keeps its employer, place, source, and seen date. The cards do not change the BLS wage data.
Open one listing and read its own pay, work place, level, and needs. Compare its posted range with the BLS spread only as context. A posted range is set by an employer for one role. The BLS range is a survey view across many jobs. Neither source proves that a person is fit for the work.
When you tailor a résumé, use work facts you can back up. Do not turn $90,390 into a skill or result. Do not copy a BLS job count into your work history. MeritLog can help shape confirmed experience for a chosen listing. The wage page stays public and read only. It does not save a job or create a résumé on page load.
This page does not say what one Technical Writers worker earns. It does not promise that a job pays the median. It does not state a starting wage. It does not explain why the mean and median differ. It does not add benefits, tips, stock, bonus pay, taxes, or work hours unless BLS includes them in the published wage measure.
The page does not count people who work for themselves. It does not turn 45,500 into current openings. It does not read private MeritLog jobs or Career Memory. MeritLog does not use the page to build a private career profile. While public analytics are on, GA4, Ahrefs, and Meta may receive the public page URL; Your Privacy Choices or Global Privacy Control turns that off. The page does not send its text to a model.
The best use is narrow and clear. Read the May 2025 BLS wage range. Check how the role changes by place. Add the separate 2024 BEA price level when an exact row exists. Inspect a dated employer-title match. Then make a résumé choice from facts you have confirmed. Keep each source tied to the question it can answer.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA has the highest annual median among the metro rows with a published value on this page, at $140,700. This is a nominal BLS estimate with no price-level adjustment.
Are the current job listings included in the BLS wage calculation?
No. MeritLog shows eligible live public-catalog listings separately, with their own source and observation date. Posted pay never changes the official BLS distribution.
3. Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA has a Technical Writers median of $129,590 per year, or $39,200 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. BLS lists 40 jobs there, against 45,500 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 0.72.
4. Kennewick-Richland, WA has a Technical Writers median of $119,160 per year, or $28,770 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. BLS lists 80 jobs there, against 45,500 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 2.07.
5. Trenton-Princeton, NJ has a Technical Writers median of $117,130 per year, or $26,740 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. BLS lists 100 jobs there, against 45,500 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 1.38.
6. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH has a Technical Writers median of $111,750 per year, or $21,360 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. BLS lists 1,590 jobs there, against 45,500 across the U.S. The local location quotient is 2.01.
2. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has 2,170 estimated Technical Writers jobs, or 4.8% of the national 45,500 job estimate. Its median is $111,050 per year, or $20,660 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. Its location quotient is 0.78.
3. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH has 1,590 estimated Technical Writers jobs, or 3.5% of the national 45,500 job estimate. Its median is $111,750 per year, or $21,360 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. Its location quotient is 2.01.
4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA has 1,460 estimated Technical Writers jobs, or 3.2% of the national 45,500 job estimate. Its median is $104,000 per year, or $13,610 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. Its location quotient is 0.8.
5. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA has 1,220 estimated Technical Writers jobs, or 2.7% of the national 45,500 job estimate. Its median is $107,580 per year, or $17,190 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. Its location quotient is 2.
6. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX has 1,030 estimated Technical Writers jobs, or 2.3% of the national 45,500 job estimate. Its median is $86,520 per year, or $3,870 below the U.S. Technical Writers median. Its location quotient is 0.87.
3. Durham-Chapel Hill, NC has a Technical Writers location quotient of 3.9. BLS lists 390 jobs and a median of $94,520 per year, or $4,130 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. The U.S. job estimate is 45,500.
4. Lexington Park, MD has a Technical Writers location quotient of 3.79. BLS lists 80 jobs and a median of $97,810 per year, or $7,420 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. The U.S. job estimate is 45,500.
5. Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT has a Technical Writers location quotient of 3.64. BLS lists 130 jobs and a median of $100,650 per year, or $10,260 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. The U.S. job estimate is 45,500.
6. Idaho Falls, ID has a Technical Writers location quotient of 3.07. BLS lists 70 jobs and a median of $101,790 per year, or $11,400 above the U.S. Technical Writers median. The U.S. job estimate is 45,500.
Precise employer-title matches for Technical Writers
Matched from employer-posted title terms, not a BLS classification. Confirm the listing's location because this occupation-wide set is not a U.S. place filter. A posted range never changes the official distribution above.
