> She is a writer and not a software engineer. Comparing her salary to software engineer interns therefore isn't fair.
I'm going to call BS on that. Written communication is a high-leverage activity that if you are going to the trouble of having a dedicated position for it, paying that person well is a pretty good idea. Perhaps not as well as an engineering role of similar seniority, but about as well as a design or QA role (and for similar reasons).
Paying that person less than an intern is both shortsighted and insulting.
The question is not if writing is important. It's very easy to argue that a nurse is more important than any engineer, but they are never paid as well, people have more or less accepted that.
I'm not arguing for the importance of writing except in the sense that similar arguments used to be made for the importance of design.
If you actually have a dedicated writer on staff (as opposed to outsourcing it to a marketing agency), paying them less than an intern is as mind-bogglingly stupid as paying a full time designer less than an intern.
BTW, nurses may get paid less than engineers, but they don't get paid less than medical residents, which is a more appropriate parallel to an engineering intern.
I'm going to call BS on that. Written communication is a high-leverage activity that if you are going to the trouble of having a dedicated position for it, paying that person well is a pretty good idea. Perhaps not as well as an engineering role of similar seniority, but about as well as a design or QA role (and for similar reasons).
Paying that person less than an intern is both shortsighted and insulting.