Salary Range

• The median annual salary for entry-level medical writers and those with less than two years of experience is $55,871 as of March 2011, reports Salary.com. The middle 50 percent of these medical writers have salaries of $46,458 to $62,038 per year. The bottom 10 percent earn $37,888 per year and less, and the top 10 percent have salaries of $67,654 per year and higher.
  
  

High-Paying Cities

• Medical writers in some cities earn higher median salaries than the national median for this profession. Examples include Boulder, Colorado, where the median annual pay for entry-level medical writers is $58,244; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at $59,594; Baltimore, Maryland, at $59,687; Seattle, Washington, at $62,089; Cambridge, Massachusetts, at $62,855, Princeton, New Jersey, at $62,954; and Oakland, California, at $65,449.
  
  

Other Areas

• Median salaries for medical writers vary throughout the country. Entry-level medical writers in Fort Myers, Florida, for instance, have a median yearly salary of $51,485, while those in Madison, Wisconsin, earn a median salary of $54,248 per year. The median annual salary for medical writers in Lawrence, Kansas, is $51,714; in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, $54,035; and in Austin, Texas, $54,225.
  
  

Advancement

• An individual with more than five years of experience in medical writing and reaching the level of medical writer III can expect a substantial increase in income. The median salary for these writers is $73,918 per year, shows Salary.com. The middle 50 percent of medical writers at level III earn $67,561 to $79,275 per year. The top 10 percent have salaries of more than $84,150 per year, and only the bottom 10 percent earn $61,773 or less.
  
  

Potential

• Job listings at Indeed.com in 2011 indicate that with at least three to eight years of experience, medical writers can become very high-income earners. Some employers offer salaries in the range of $75,000 or $80,000 to $100,000 per year depending on experience. Many of the job openings are with pharmaceutical companies. The employers generally require a bachelor's or master's degree in a life science or a related field, and some prefer a Ph.D. or a medical doctor degree.