[innocentoldguy]

Some companies do value technical writers and pay them as much as engineers, but they are still pretty rare.

There are three things that I think are preventing technical writing from being more widely valued:

1. Software companies tend not to distinguish between technical writers who are good at English vs. technical writers who are good at engineering, understand their audience, and can articulate complex ideas to that audience effectively.

2. Technical writers who are good at English make about half as much as technical writers with engineering skills, but they also muddy the hiring waters and drag salaries down for everyone else.

3. Most corporate-people think because they can type up a decent email they can write technical documentation themselves. They're usually wrong on both counts.