What a technical writer costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 45,500 jobs, what an employer pays on top of it, the pay in every state, and which of the job's core tasks already show up in AI use.
Medians for the whole US. Your own cost depends on where you hire, the benefits you offer and the hours worked.
- Median wage
- $90,390
- Hourly wage
- $43.46
- Loaded per hour
- $54.13
- Middle half earns
- $70,880 to $115,510
- Jobs in the US
- 45,500
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A technical writer in the US is paid a median $90,390 a year, $43.46 an hour, across 45,500 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $112,580. Of its 8 core tasks, 6 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in 2 of those Claude mostly did the task rather than assisting.
The work, task by task
The 8 core tasks O*NET lists for technical writers, most important first, and how each showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026. The bar splits those conversations between Claude doing the task and Claude helping a person do it.
- 01Organize material and complete writing assignment according to set standards regarding order, clarity, conciseness, style, and terminology.Claude.ai: 45% did the task, 55% helped · API: 99% did the task
- 02Maintain records and files of work and revisions.Claude.ai: 75% did the task, 25% helped · API: 94% did the task
- 03Edit, standardize, or make changes to material prepared by other writers or establishment personnel.Claude.ai: 34% did the task, 66% helped · API: 96% did the task
- 04Analyze developments in specific field to determine need for revisions in previously published materials and development of new material.API: 100% did the task, 0% helped
- 05Review published materials and recommend revisions or changes in scope, format, content, and methods of reproduction and binding.Claude.ai: 30% did the task, 70% helped · API: 70% did the task
- 06Select photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and charts to illustrate material.Claude.ai: 40% did the task, 60% helped · API: 93% did the task
- 07Confer with customer representatives, vendors, plant executives, or publisher to establish technical specifications and to determine subject material to be developed for publication.
- 08Assist in laying out material for publication.Claude.ai: 53% did the task, 47% helped · API: 84% did the task
6 of 8 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026, and 1 more only in its sample of API traffic, where businesses run Claude inside their own software. A task without a row had too few conversations for Anthropic to publish, which is not the same as none. Shares are of all sampled Claude.ai conversations, so small figures are normal: 1.67% of every conversation that month was about this occupation.
Pay by state
The median annual wage in each state and DC, and the same wage fully loaded. New Jersey pays the most, $122,320; Arkansas the least, $61,180. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 6 gaps here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $85,840 | $106,910 | $74,210 to $104,860 | 630 |
| Alaska | $83,200 | $103,630 | $61,920 to $93,500 | 130 |
| Arizona | $79,780 | $99,370 | $67,600 to $100,270 | 730 |
| Arkansas | $61,180 | $76,200 | $51,660 to $74,590 | 150 |
| California | $104,000 | $129,530 | $84,250 to $141,280 | 5,280 |
| Colorado | $100,610 | $125,310 | $82,060 to $123,490 | 1,320 |
| Connecticut | $101,870 | $126,880 | $83,220 to $116,660 | 770 |
| Delaware | $90,370 | $112,560 | $62,830 to $109,790 | 80 |
| District of Columbia | $117,810 | $146,730 | $84,990 to $128,610 | 440 |
| Florida | $86,240 | $107,410 | $74,570 to $103,810 | 2,550 |
| Georgia | $73,070 | $91,010 | $59,760 to $97,390 | 1,680 |
| Hawaii | Not published | · | · | 30 |
| Idaho | Not published | · | · | 430 |
| Illinois | $88,700 | $110,480 | $73,140 to $106,650 | 1,040 |
| Indiana | $75,510 | $94,050 | $63,540 to $89,500 | 540 |
| Iowa | $66,520 | $82,850 | $57,660 to $83,760 | 640 |
| Kansas | $73,550 | $91,610 | $61,310 to $84,510 | 480 |
| Kentucky | $81,070 | $100,970 | $60,020 to $99,240 | 340 |
| Louisiana | $63,790 | $79,450 | $58,020 to $76,670 | 320 |
| Maine | Not published | · | · | 310 |
| Maryland | $100,990 | $125,780 | $79,730 to $125,440 | 1,780 |
| Massachusetts | $109,200 | $136,010 | $86,060 to $134,620 | 1,850 |
| Michigan | $85,270 | $106,200 | $66,810 to $107,520 | 970 |
| Minnesota | $83,270 | $103,710 | $66,000 to $102,180 | 910 |
| Mississippi | $65,220 | $81,230 | $60,810 to $80,150 | 70 |
| Missouri | $80,840 | $100,690 | $62,440 to $101,770 | 500 |
| Montana | $75,070 | $93,500 | $73,340 to $75,330 | 160 |
| Nebraska | Not published | · | · | 190 |
| Nevada | $88,750 | $110,540 | $70,910 to $104,260 | 230 |
| New Hampshire | $96,300 | $119,940 | $72,810 to $109,430 | 230 |
| New Jersey | $122,320 | $152,350 | $83,150 to $135,010 | 1,550 |
| New Mexico | $94,970 | $118,290 | $63,440 to $125,980 | 420 |
| New York | $98,310 | $122,450 | $73,440 to $121,500 | 1,610 |
| North Carolina | $86,320 | $107,510 | $70,390 to $103,590 | 2,860 |
| North Dakota | $72,990 | $90,910 | $54,790 to $110,090 | 70 |
| Ohio | $76,480 | $95,260 | $61,350 to $99,570 | 1,350 |
| Oklahoma | $69,760 | $86,890 | $57,200 to $83,990 | 600 |
| Oregon | $84,000 | $104,620 | $69,880 to $122,100 | 590 |
| Pennsylvania | $87,620 | $109,130 | $71,980 to $105,300 | 1,330 |
| Rhode Island | $102,360 | $127,490 | $81,780 to $105,640 | 150 |
| South Carolina | $82,540 | $102,800 | $66,700 to $103,550 | 700 |
| South Dakota | $63,350 | $78,900 | $53,730 to $75,500 | 70 |
| Tennessee | $79,550 | $99,080 | $63,540 to $102,430 | 480 |
| Texas | $82,750 | $103,070 | $63,720 to $105,630 | 3,340 |
| Utah | $80,270 | $99,980 | $64,910 to $102,590 | 570 |
| Vermont | $87,860 | $109,430 | $65,000 to $101,370 | 60 |
| Virginia | $93,600 | $116,580 | $75,510 to $113,510 | 2,280 |
| Washington | $104,070 | $129,620 | $78,680 to $131,940 | 1,620 |
| West Virginia | Not published | · | · | 130 |
| Wisconsin | $80,030 | $99,680 | $62,380 to $99,960 | 910 |
| Wyoming | Not published | · | · | 30 |
The same benefits ratio applies in every state, because BLS does not publish benefit costs by business size for each state. The middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile wage.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure is copied from a public file. The only arithmetic is the loaded cost: the wage times 1.2455.
- Wages
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation 27-3042 (Technical Writers). Annual figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, as BLS computes them, so they already include pay for paid leave.
- Fully loaded
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (2026 Q2), private businesses with 1 to 49 workers: $37.64 an hour in total compensation over $27.88 in wages plus $2.34 in paid leave gives 1.2455. Paid leave sits in the denominator because the annual wage already pays it.
- Tasks
- O*NET 31.0 core tasks for 27-3042.00, the ten most important by their importance rating. A few occupations list fewer core tasks.
- AI use
- Anthropic Economic Index, release of June 2026, conversations from May 2026. "Did the task" is Anthropic's automation share, where the user directs Claude to do the work; "helped" is augmentation, where the user works with Claude to learn, check or iterate.
- Not measured
- What a particular business pays, and whether an AI system can do a task well. The AI figures count conversations about a task, not jobs replaced.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. AI use data from the Anthropic Economic Index by Anthropic, under CC BY. Wage and benefit data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What would an AI system cost for this work?
Put $112,580 beside the running cost of a system doing the tasks above, with the build counted in year one.
BLS wages May 2025 · O*NET 31.0 · Anthropic Economic Index