Lexicographer : Salary and conditions

Range of typical starting salaries: £18,000 - £21,000 for an assistant editor, £20,000 - £25,000 for an editor.
Range of typical salaries at senior level/with experience: £19,500 - £35,000 for a senior editor and up to £45,000+ for a project manager.
As the profession is small, opportunities to take up senior positions are limited.
Lexicography, in common with other areas of publishing, is not a highly paid profession and many lexicographers do the work principally for the love of it.
Hours are generally nine to five, especially for junior positions. However, people in more senior posts will work overtime as necessary to get a job done by its deadline. The work is almost exclusively office-based.
The majority of lexicographers work on a freelance basis, usually after working in the profession for a few years and having built up contacts.
It is possible to work part time, particularly if freelance, although this may be difficult in an in-house project management position.
The number of companies publishing dictionaries within the UK is small, so in-house posts are restricted to the cities where these publishers are located, e.g. Oxford and Cambridge.
Travel is not a common feature in the role of lexicographer, though if you work on bilingual dictionaries you may attend conferences and promote the dictionary overseas.

Post this page to:

AGCAS

Written by AGCAS editors

Date:

February 2011