IC earning limit for one company???

• IC earning limit for one company??? - MT
  • Ic status is not exclusive to MTs so sm - deni
  • Is it possible it is the companies policy? s/m - MI-MT
  • That's absurd - EmmaMT
  • Cannot be true. - psp
  • Never heard that one and.... - GeorgieGirl
  • Agree, that is not true - MTinNC
  • My DH is an IT IC and makes far more. Where... - Someone's pulling your leg
  • Never heard this... sm - Val

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Just thought I would add my 2 cents worth.  It would be great to be paid 10-11-12-13 cents per line (as an employee not IC), but that is not a reality in this job market.  Yes, MTs will take jobs that pay 7 cents per line, but that MTSO is not necessarily underpaying or demeaning the MTs that work for them. 

Bottom line is that you have to do your homework because, yes, there are people who can make a living on 7 cents a line and will take those jobs.   It really depends on your skills and how dedicated you are to making your maximum possible lines per hour.  The MTSO that is offering only 7 cents a line but has easy dictators can actually pay you more per check if you type more lines per hour than an MTSO that is offering 10 cents a line but has horrible quality, ESL dictators, nasty QA, etc and you can barely type 100 lines an hour because of it. 

MY TIP:  When you interview, ask what the approximate minimum and maximum lines per hour that the other MTs that are doing EXACTLY the same accounts that you are going to be doing are achieving per hour/day/pay period.  If the recruiter/MTSO will not tell you that information, you probably don’t want to work there anyway so just terminate the interview before wasting any more of your time.  The slowest MTs are probably new and the ones achieving 200-250-300 lines per hour have been there a long time and know the account(s) forwards and backwards.  If you plan to make that MTSO a long-term employer, you will have a pretty good idea of what you can potentially achieve if you stay there long enough.  Don’t let them tell you the “average” of all the MTs that work for the company or what their perfect employee Suzie Q types.   We all know every account is different, so Suzie Q who just started last week and is already doing 150 lines per hour may have easier accounts than the one you are going to be working on, so that is not very representative of what your account(s) is really going to be like.  Ask specifically about the accounts you will be assigned to and don’t let them distract you.  Again, if they don’t want to tell you, terminate the interview. 

According to the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, in 2004 !!!, the MEDIAN hourly earnings for a Medical Transcriptionist (probably  mostly hospital and office based) in May of 2004, was $13.64 an hour. 

Just for reference, it seems like most MTSOs have a 6000 lines per week minimum production standard which is about 150 line per hour (40 hour week) on average for full-time MTs.   

·        If you are being paid 7 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.07) = $10.50 per hour.

·        If you are being paid 8 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.08) = $12.00 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 9 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.09) = $13.50 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 10 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (150 x 0.10) = $15.00 per hour. 

If you are one of the highly trained experienced MT and type 200 lines per hour on average, you are even better off. 

·        If you are being paid 7 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.07) = $14.00 per hour.

·        If you are being paid 8 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.08) = $16.00 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 9 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.09) = $18.00 per hour. 

·        If you are being paid 10 cents per line, you are making a minimum of (200 x 0.10) = $20.00 per hour. 

The median hourly earnings in 2004 was $13.64 per hour.  That was almost 4 years ago.  With a minimal 2% per year cost of living/inflation increase, by 2008 the median hourly earning should be about $14.76 per hour.       

2004 --------- $13.64

2005 x 2% = $13.91

2006 x 2% = $14.19

2007 x 2% = $14.47

2008 x 2% = $14.76

So, in my humble opinion, if you are an experienced MT with 5 or more years of experience, when you call that MTSO offering 7 cents per line the accounts you will be assigned to should be easy enough so that you can make an average of 210 lines per hour within a relatively short period of time.  If they say their experienced MTs are only doing 175 to 200 lines per hour on average, that MTSO is drastically underpaying their experienced MTs and it is time for you to move on.  If they say their MTs are averaging 250 to 300 lines per hour, then that MTSO may be worth looking into further, even if their starting wage is lower than what you originally thought you should be getting paid. 

I think if WE ALL start doing this, the MTSOs will start to figure out that we are not going to work for companies that underpay our skills and experience.  If enough experienced MTs hang up on these companies, eventually they will figure out that the recruiters/supervisors need to be more honest with us regarding their pay structure and the difficulty of their accounts. 

Some food for thought !! 

More information from the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: 

Medical transcriptionists had median hourly earnings of $13.64 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.50 and $16.32. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $9.67, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $19.11. Median hourly earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of medical transcriptionists in May 2004 were:

If you want more information, check out the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web page for Medical Transcriptionist. 

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm

can make and after that you have to pay in?

My gram worked after she started drawing, and I'm pretty sure there are income limits on this kind of thing. 

/

myself to that.

5 year olds learning to play soccer?  The ball is in play and no matter what the coahes say ALL the kids go running for the ball.  Maybe we are like that, masses of us going from company to company in search of work.  This company has a new account BOOM here we go.  Now it is out.  Let's go here. 

Yep, I think it is a big game someone is playing with us.  Not a particularly funny one either. 

Axolotl is a WONDERFUL company with great benefits and competitive pay.  We have maybe 100 MTs but are growing rapidly.

What type of work do they have?  Any op reports?  Appreciate any info. 

There are a lot of companies who do not use mttest, but with mttest you can submit your resume and then do the testing immediately.  This way the company has your resume and your testing to look at  at the same time.    I have submitted resumes via posted ads, or I have just posted my resume on the job wanted boards and have been contacted.  I was offered one position without any testing at all and even no interview prior to the offer.  My current position I was contacted from posting my resume and then they asked me to test. 

I'm sure companies don't have time to read all the resumes that come in because they can get upwards of 200 resumes when they post an opening.  I was once contacted by a company to submit my resume (don't know  where they got my name).  I did submit a resume and they sent me a letter via snail mail saying that I did not have enough experience, even though I had 10 years of experience more than they require and they were the ones who contacted me.   Some companies say they hold resumes for 6 months.   With so much competition for jobs I think companies now take the most experienced and the others get filed or tossed.  It is rare that a company contact you to let you know you didn't get the job. 

Apparently, I was one of the lucky ones who passed the Medgarde's transcription test. I received a call from the recruiter that told me I should be so lucky because the waiting list for their company is long and her calendar was booked for an official interview until two weeks from now.  At that time, they would have verified the MT school I listed I graduated from and have investigated me.  Also, when my two weeks come up, I would be given an hour long interview, 1/2 hour of the test would be general questions regarding things such as my computer and the next portion would be more indepth about medical termionology and transcribing.  Last, but not least, the recruiter told me I was lucky to get a call because most do not make it thus far.  Well, should I be waiting with bated breath for my interview in two weeks.