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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Must be paid MINIMUM WAGE for each hour -sm

Posted By: JK on 2009-06-26
In Reply to: TT and unemployment...sm - bowen

worked under 40/wk if employee in the U.S., regardless of work type, job description.  In addition, must be PAID FOR ALL WORK PERFORMED - I won't even go there.


Att: Flamers: You can look this up yourself in DOL regulations.




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minimum wage is $ 7.--/hour.....nm
nm
$1,000 divided by 40 hours is $25.00 an hour. Where do you live that that is minimum wage? nm
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QA should be paid $30 an hour minimum

A good Transcriptionist should be easily able to make $20-30 an hour, and I know there are those who make more.  Since QA supposedly requires more knowledge and expertise, how can any company offer only $14 an hour?  And why would anybody take that?  I really don't understand it at all - makes no sense. 


In the real world any job that requires more expertise will pay more.  Medical transcription seems to have it backwards - just my opinion.


 


I believe that would come to a little over minimum wage...
Not good at all!
Minimum wage at best, probably not that!
I would not take any QA/editing position unless it is a set hourly rate. Again, I have said it before, do not sell your fellow QA/editors down the drain like AAMT has sold us. Hourly is the only way!
They have to pay minimum wage s/m
They have to pay for minimum wage if you do not reach that on your line counts.
Minimum Wage

You have hit on a point that the service owners did not plan for.  Pursue this with the DOL office in your state:


USMLSU Initiative
Washington,  DC


ONLINE, REAL-TIME CONFERENCE CALLS/MEETINGS BEING SCHEDULED FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF 2009 !


Respect, reasonable compensation, and humane treatment for all U.S.A. Medical Transcriptionists


VR or not, need to pay MINIMUM WAGE--sm
Not just my 2 cents' worth -- that's the LAW in all 50 US states.  At 3-4 cents a line, this is hardly possible, especially at the start, to make at least a minimum wage that any 16-year-old kid makes delivering groceries.  Add to that all the UNPAID work we are required to do for the privilege of being fleeced by the MTSOs, CCs, researching doctors, endless demographic work having nothing to do with transcription...
Minimum wage

You cannot by law make less than minimum wage.  If you are making less than minimum wage I would tell the company, they have to make up the difference.  If they don't then you should call the labor board.


If you cannot make minimum wage with this, then
get another profession. I make over $20 per hour. You are a poor excuse for a Transcriptionist if not able to do. End of message and end of talking about something apparently not everyone is able to do.
California's minimum wage is higher than SM
the federal minimum wage, this may be why.
Heck, NO!! I'd never survive on minimum wage. nm
xxx
So you don't mind working for less than minimum wage?
That's what a good Editor would make because most good editors that have 100% listen I know get between 2000-3000 lines a day. I think not. People like you who take these jobs bring all of us who have worked hard down. If you have only been an MT for 2 years, I would not think you would even qualify to be QA
when minimum wage goes up do IC rates increase also?
x
MT, minimum wage, single moms, etc...sm
Medical transcription requires a great deal of skill and knowledge. It is not a minimum wage job, or should not be a minimum wage position. Years of learning and experience are involved to master this profession. No qualified MT, single mom or otherwise, should be working at minimum wage levels, in turn necessitating the help of assistance programs. This is too skilled a profession, and it is a shame that it is not so slowly sinking to the level of a minimum wage-type job.
Oh nice..getting late..how about MINIMUM WAGE.. LOL

No, soon the government will increase the minimum wage
and MTs will be the working poor. Sad business this is.
Minimum wage only applies to employees.
nm
No, she said 1000 monthly - not weekly. Less than minimum wage! nm
x
LABOR BOARD / MINIMUM WAGE LAWS

Regardless of all the bull dished out by the MTSO companies, especially as it pertains to VR, i.e., We're cutting your pay 50%, so you'll have to work twice as hard - but you're going to LOVE the platform.  Also get tired of hearing about Learning Curve and wonder if my grocer, landlord & hungry kids understand this learning curve concept. 


However (and the MTSOs can like this or lump it) WE MUST BE PAID FEDERALLY-MANDATED MINIMUM WAGE for workers with employee status - whether straight typing, VR or being required to babysit computer during no/low work.  Of course, it's exploitation to cut wages in half from an already insultingly low rate & most MTs are surely feeling the pinch.  But whether 2, 3, 4 or 10 cpl ... minimum wage must be paid.  (Sorry Suits/MTSOs - the law is there for a reason!)


Minimum wage laws are for employees only, not independent contractors
Would you pay your plumber or pool cleaner (examples of other IC jobs) more because the minimum wage increased?
Couldn't Amphion be held liable for minimum wage
I'm just sayin'
Our work is considered piecemeal and not subject to minimum wage laws. Just what I've been told
MT
Is it Wage & Hour or Labor Board...sm
To help get payment. MW is trying to screw me - gave my lines to somebody else and are dragging their feet BIG time. Gonna report them, tired of it and need my money.
has anyone reported OSI to wage hour commission
MS size=2>because they CONSTANTLY harass you about working on your days off but you aren't allowed to put the hours on your timesheet if it throws you into overtime. That is against the law - to work without recording your hours. I am going to report them if nobody else has.

OSI was reported to wage & hour about this last week
/
Wage-hour takes nonpay of overtime very seriously

3 people have just last week reported a large national company for requesting people to work without recording hours in order to avoid overtime. They have moved on to better things but had all documentation they needed.  They were told this is a serious offense.  Note if your company asks you to work without recording hours or that overtime is not approved it is against the law and you can take legal action. This is true for any company.



 


Notify Wage and Hour Division in your state....
xx
Paid 50% of already deflated MT wage to clean up somebody else's mess...nm
nm
Yep, on a keychain PLUS they paid me a fair wage the entire year. (nm)

Are there any QAs out there that are getting paid by the hour at 15+/hour? If so, where are you and
how are the work conditions/requirements/benefits,etc?
MT paid by the hour?????
Does anyone know of any Transcription companies that pay by the hour instead of by the line.  Please let me know of any.
Are you paid by the hour? Why do you care
what is on your timesheet?
They are paid by the line, not the hour. nm
x
Getting paid by audio hour
I have not gotten paid by audio hour before and just wondered if anyone has an idea what good pay per audio hour is? It's straight typing for seminars/speakers. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Not that many QA people are paid by the hour sm
I am on furlough from a job that paid me hourly to QA. I was paid $16 and hour and I can do almost double that with VR or with typing. I QA for other reasons.

At my FT job that I still have, the QA is paid 3.5 cpl to edit reports and VR is 4.5 cpl. Given what QA has to deal with, which are traditional reports with the worst dictators and numerous blanks, that is almost not enough. Our VR platform is good, not outstanding, good. I have reports where I hardly change a thing and I feel overpaid. One of our accounts has MTs who are not doing their VR properly and the VR on THAT account is a pain in the backside. My primary is excellent, however, and I got to 400 lph in the first couple of days I used it. About 10 days in, I did more like 500 an hour today.

VR is not for every MT. Typing the old-fashioned way is not for everyone either. Personally, I am glad that no one has offered me hourly to do VR because they would not pay me what I am already making...and it is early days yet. Paying QA hourly has lead to some pretty shoddy work and QA people who bilk the system, I know because I have seen it.

Your points are valid. I am wondering what VR system you are using and who you work for. I tried it on WordClient Extext about a year ago...AWFUL. I am on ExEditor now and it is a breeze. I have a friend who has done Escription for a few years and loves that platform. Now, both Escription and ExEditor learn corrections as they go along. The problem is that so many MTs don't know their stuff, have a slightly different style or, sadly, don't care about their work and they are not actually editing the work. That adds up to a mess for those who care about their work, know their stuff and are making an honest effort. My main account has the best our company has to offer in the way of MTs because the account is very picky. End result? Excellent and constantly improving VR script.

There are just so many variables with this, more than with traditional MT, even with ESLs figured in.

Oh and by the way, we have some terrible ESLs they put through VR and I love it! Slow boring dictators are easy with VR. Even the slurring, sloppy talkers are good. Add in that my hands hurt a lot less and I am less tired at the end of a day...well I am ecstatic.
taking a low wage does not lower the pay for a field. The fact that they are offering stated wage
means that is the market. You don't see ads for McDonald's for $36/hour and you don't see ads for A.G. Edwards for $20,000/yr. If they didn't think they could fill a job for $14, they wouldn't post it. Notice MT jobs are now posting at 5, 6 and 6.5. So guess what editors are going to make?
Or you're paid by the hour/not line
Or, you are paid by the hour/not line.
When I worked in-house I was paid by the hour....

only had to maintain 135 lph...but I never heard of anyone who was reprimanded for not maintaining that. The nice thing was the hourly pay (between $13 and $17 an hour) whether there was work or not, PTO, etc. Had work 98% of the time and if not we could go down to medical records and help out or go home early.


Why do MTs who are paid by the hour cherrypick the normals off accounts.

Line counts shouldn't be that important to them. 


I was paid by the hour and turned in my hours and noticed then cut in half
Turned in 60 hours for 2 weeks and noticed only 28 hours. They went through my timesheet and changed number of hours each day. Never signed anything saying they do not pay for downtime so you sit 20 hours a day trying to get in your 1,000 lines a day with no work coming in so they do not want to pay because they did not have work, but I was online 20 hours babysitting each hour catching a job here and there.
I was paid by the hour to work from home for a large hospital. nm
x
Bare minimum? I make over $50,000 a year in 40 hours a week. That is not bare minimum. sm
Bare minimum would be $8 an hour which is $16,640 a year or $10 an hour which is $20,800 a year. I make more than twice that and that is NOT bare minimum.

I worked to get my typing speed to 80 wpm. I worked to get my Expanders user-friendly and plentiful. I am not the fastest because I look up what I do not know, but I am lucky to have a very good memory so if I type it a few times, I do not have to look it up. I keep notes when I run across something I do not know. I am interested in my profession and read the magazines for our profession and network with other transcriptionists during my free time, devoting a minimum of 2 hours per week to networking and learning new things.

I am not the fastest MT, but I am accurate and boiled it down to simple math. I need to transcribe 250 lines per hour for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. At 10cpl, that is 2000 lines a day x 5 days per week x 50 weeks per year. I take 2 weeks off per year during July to visit my grandchildren (unpaid), 1 week a year to vacation with my husband (paid) and 1 week a year to spring clean (paid). I have worked for the same company for 4 years and 8 years for the one before this.

I treat my work hours as work hours and take 1/2 hour for lunch which I do not include in my 8 hours. I pretend that I am working outside the home and do not answer the door, get the mail, do laundry, etc. If I have a good day and go over the 2000, I bank it in my mind for days that are not as good and make sure that I get 10,000 lines each week.

My W2 each year is consistently $50,000. A few years it was higher, but I worked a few weekends, which I no longer do.

It IS possible.
think, people! If she does 250 lines/hour, same docs daily, will make $15/hour
nm
100,000/year - no way. I charge $35/hour and work 10 hour days - sm
AND I DO NOT CLEAR $100,000/YEAR.


what's not to believe - I said that I charge $35/hour and work 10 hour days AND DO NOT MAKE - sm
I DO NOT MAKE $100,000/YEAR

try READING the post.
$35/hour x five 10-hour days = $1,750 gross/week.
x
$20 an hour is not even average for radiology. You should not make less than $25-30 per hour. sm
I work for Keystrokes and have for 3 years. I average 25 reports an hour, which is $31.25 an hour. I have 401, health insurance, direct deposit, life insurance. My lead tells me I'm wonderful when I talk to her, but I do not need a daily pat on the back.

I also have a good friend who works for them on a clinic. She only makes 0.08 per line but does 300 lines an hour, which is $24 an hour, again higher than your $20.

I don't think we're selling ourselves short. There are companies out there that are good to work for, 6 or 8 of them that I know of personally. Don't settle for $20 an hour.
Well if I could do 500 lines per hour, I would be making 35.00 an hour. sm
nothing to sneeze at. More than fair for having a 2-year degree. Come on people, we are all acting like we expect 6-digit incomes! Whatev!
Training on the system, not paid, but if you are physically typing reports then you are getting paid
nm
Oh, yea -- PAID, too. Grandmother PAID LEAVE would be a great drawing card to TT !!

Just love that PAID TIME OFF !!