If you work in UX design, then you should be familiar with UX writing. If you’re a writer in tech, then you need to be. Every big company—seriously, all of them—is building UX writing teams as you’re reading this post.
With the demand for UX writers growing exponentially writers need to understand what the market looks like—and what that means in terms of compensation.
This is precisely why the team of UX Writing Hub surveyed their global community of 440 UX writers from 25 countries. Turns out UX writing is a six-figure job—and UX writers have many different job titles.
Let’s go into:
- What makes a UX writer
- How much UX writers are earning
- How to negotiate your UX writing salary
- Predictions for the future of UX writing
Am I a UX writer?
UX writing is the art of crafting the text that lives inside of digital interfaces and products.
With the endless amount of apps and digital products being created for every service you can imagine, a product’s success depends on the quality of its UX—design and writing. We’re talking about writing text on clickable buttons, making error messages simple, creating clear menus, and making sure that your flow doesn’t stop short.
So, if you know how to balance user experience and wordsmithing, UX writing is for you.
So, what’s the difference between copywriting and UX writing?
- UX writing is based on UX principles, not just voice and tone or style guides.
- UX writing only “happens” in digital interfaces.
What did we ask?
To get to know our participants, we asked:
- What’s your job title?
- What’s your employment type?
- What type of company do you work for?
- What is your annual income, and in what currency?
- What country are you working in?
- How many years of experience do you have?
What are UX writers earning?
The top 5 countries with the highest average salaries
- United States: $110,652.80
- Switzerland:$85,527.00
- Canada:$69,569.70
- Australia: $62,859.33
- Norway: $62,516.67
The most noticeable thing in this data is the significant difference between the US and the rest of the world.
Why? Our hypothesis: the value of UX writing is still sinking in. The US, especially Silicon Valley, is the birthplace of all tech trends. The six figures we see there are trickling down to other countries.
Average income by seniority level
Salaries for UX writers and digital companies
As this is still a growing field, it’s been hard for both businesses and writers to accurately position themselves when it comes to salaries.
However, UX writing brings massive value for businesses in the digital world. It’s important to know your value as a writer and set your boundaries to avoid being underpaid.
Different words in context can create better engagement, which leads to customer loyalty and eventually, more sales and customer satisfaction. Google explains it best:
If you don’t have a UX writer on board to keep content in check, your interface may end up looking something like this:
A look at the UX writing landscape
Most popular job titles used
Full-time vs part-time
This is where things get interesting as well.
Nearly 90% of participants said they are full-time employees while 7% work as freelancers. The remaining 3% are just part-time.
What kind of teams are UX writers working with?
According to our data, about 65% of global UX writers work at tech companies, while 16% work at agencies. The other 18% work in teams for marketing, consulting, and various others.
About UX Writing Hub
UX Writing Hub is a one-stop shop for UX Writers, providing in-depth education, articles, workshops, courses, product team training and more for fortune 500 product teams and many more.
We’re launching our fifth cohort of our full four-month UX writing course. If you want to have a taste of what UX writing is like, you should try our free UX Writing Course first!
by Alysa Yamada
A UX writer, copywriter, and content strategist who loves to paint and play trivia. Originally from Hawaii and now based in Prague, CZ.
