UX writing is both an in-demand skill and an attractive career path. This fascinating field involves writing and designing content for digital products, to guide the end user, engage them, and generally provide them with an easy and delightful user experience.
Whether you’re looking to hire a UX writer for your team, to start your career as a UX writer, or are already working in the field and want to benchmark your salary—this guide is for you.
In it, we explore how much UX writers earn around the world, as well as what factors impact a UX writer’s salary. And, in case you’re new to the role, we’ll also touch upon what a UX writer does and the most important skills for the job.
Read on to learn:
What does a UX writer do?
UX writers create the copy for websites, apps, and other digital products, but they aren’t the same as marketing copywriters. While copywriters help sell a product, UX writers write with the primary goal of enhancing and facilitating the user experience.
This means that, in addition to writing the microcopy for menus, buttons, labels, error messages, and any other place in the user interface that needs it, they’re also doing user research and helping create the product voice.
A UX writer is part of the UX team, and has a thorough understanding of the user, which they use to craft copy that guides them at each step in their journey with a product.
How much do UX writers make?
UX writing is a relatively new field. As such, there isn’t a whole lot of salary data available for UX writers right now. In fact, for some territories, there’s barely any data at all. As the field matures, this will soon change—but for now, we’ll have to work with what we’ve got!
Note: All the salary figures featured in this guide are based on salary data from Glassdoor*.
So let’s explore the country with the most data first: the United States.
Average UX writer salary in the USA
| Junior: 1-3 years | Mid: 4-6 years | Senior: 7-9 years | |
| USA | $58,000 – $86,000 | $67,000 – $99,000 | $71,000 – $106,000 |
| Boston | $66,000 – $92,000 | $76,000 – $108,000 | $80,000 – $115,000 |
| San Francisco | $71,000 – $103,000 | $86,000 – $124,000 | $91,000 – $132,000 |
| Austin | $58,000 – $84,000 | $67,000 – $97,000 | $70,000 – $102,000 |
The average UX writer salary in the USA is $74,997. While the data across the country is good for UX writers, the tech hubs of Boston and San Francisco are especially impressive, paying better than average, with UX writers in Boston making $90,478 on average and UX writers in San Francisco making $99,235. Meanwhile, UX writers in Austin aren’t doing too bad with an average salary of $80,517.
Salaries for the content designer job title, a role very similar to (if not interchangeable with) that of the UX writer, are pretty much on par. On average, content designers make $69,323 per year.
Learn more: What is a content designer and what do they do?
Average UX writer salary in the UK and Ireland
UX writer salary data in the UK isn’t quite as robust as in the USA. However, the UK does report a range of £40,000 to £69,000 for UX writers in the country as a whole, with an average salary of £52,555 per annum.
The data also show a range of £45,000 to £75,000 for London, England and a range of £40,000 to £65,000 for Edinburgh, Scotland. Meanwhile, the average pay for a content designer in the UK is still good at £43,531.
In Ireland, the average salary for a UX writer is €54,500 per year. (Since there was limited data on Glassdoor for Ireland so we took into account local recruiters like Prosperity.)
Average UX writer salary in Canada
In Canada, the UX writer salary range lies between CA$68,000 and CA$106,000, with an average salary of CA$84,416 per year.
In addition, in Toronto, there’s a range of CA$69,000 to CA$110,000, and in Vancouver a range of CA$64,000 to CA$94,000. In comparison, the average content designer makes CA$78,148 per year.
Average UX writer salary in Australia
In Australia, the average UX writer salary ranges from AUD$104,000 to AUD$134,000, with an average UX writer salary of AUD$125,000. The job title content designer, meanwhile, has an average salary of AUD$101,500.
What factors impact a UX writer’s salary?
There are several things that impact a UX writer’s salary, including:
Demand
UX writing and similar titles are increasingly in demand. More screens need designing, and they require words as part of the package, so UX writing will continue to grow. That growth will continue to drive up salaries.
Level of experience
Level of experience can impact salary, with mid-level UX writers making more than junior UX writers and senior UX writers making more than mid-level UX writers. But even for junior level professionals, UX writing is better paid than many other sectors.
Location
It’ll come as no surprise that big cities pay better. For instance, London pays 9.5% better than the UK as a whole. Similarly, a UX writer in San Francisco makes 17% more than the national average.
Working remotely is also becoming bigger with UX writers. While there isn’t a lot of data available, with average pay at $103,000 in the United States, it seems working remotely can be lucrative.
Employer
Many UX writers work in the tech industry, but even if their job titles are the same, their compensation can vary. For instance, UX writers at Apple are likely to make more than those at Capital One.
Are UX writers in demand?
The short answer is yes. In fact, while UX writer is a common title, content designers, technical writers, and content strategists are widely seen too. UX writing is more in demand than ever and the trend only continues to grow as more people hear of and hire UX writers, along with more people training to become UX writers.
What skills do you need to become a UX writer?
There is no standard UX writer profile. As a relatively new field, there’s no one-size-fits-all pathway—and you’ll find that UX writers come from all different professional backgrounds. With that said, all UX writers must demonstrate the following skills:
Writing skills
The ability to write clean, concise copy is a given in UX writing. Writing microcopy in a user-friendly way is a prized skill.
UX design principles
Being able to design a product as a UX writer is about making sure the product works well. Knowing UX design principles can help you do this. UX design principles are guidelines for designing the overall user experience.
User empathy
UX writers can’t let their ego get in the way. User empathy, which is the ability to understand and consider the needs and feelings of users, will prevent UX writers from doing this.
Content strategy
The other side of user empathy is content strategy, which ensures UX writers meet specific business or project goals through the planning and managing of the creation of content.
A learning and growth mindset
The field of UX writing is still relatively new, so UX writers must take the initiative to stay up-to-date on the newest developments in this growing field.
How to become a UX writer
UX writers are increasingly sought after. There are tons of job openings and that demand is only expected to increase. If you want to join the discipline and become a UX writer, you can make yourself more attractive to employers by taking a course in UX design, UX writing, or content design.
For example, the UX Design Institute offers a 10-week professional certificate in content design. You may also want to take a general course on UX design to learn the basics. You can take a short course on UX Design Fundamentals at the UX Design Institute.
* All the salary figures featured in this guide are based on salary data from Glassdoor over last three months. The immediate salary figures could vary slightly but they are in the range mentioned above.
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