Typical comp shape
Technical writers usually earn rsu (smaller grants). Common employers include Stripe, GitHub, Atlassian. Grant sizes run 40-50% below engineering at the same level, so ESPP participation often becomes the largest equity lever.
What North Dakota changes
In North Dakota, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 2.5% state tax on top of federal. For a senior technical writer with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
Planning cadence
For a technical writer in North Dakota, the three planning windows are: after each RSU vest (withholding check and sell-vs-hold), before any ISO exercise (AMT model at federal only), and in Q4 (estimated tax top-up to clear the safe harbor).