Terrible....can't make a living on that.

• IC pay - need opinions - curious
  • Questions for any seasoned transcriptionists.... - KC
  • I know something about this - midwestmt
  • Psych pay -- too low - Patti
  • think, people! If she does 250 lines/hour, same docs daily, will make $15/hour - average N/M
    • Yeah, take home 70% for IC and make aprox $10.50/hour or .04cpl - Don't forget to account for SE taxes nm
      • you're right, about SE taxes; wasn't thinking about IC status with that. - for IC, I guess that is pretty low. Thanks. N/M
    • Doesn't seem a valid point to me. Most people can make 250 lph sm - LTMT
  • Terrible....can't make a living on that. - nm
  • That seems pretty low to me, esp. for your exp and it's IC., even though Psych is fairly simple. - anon
  • I'd like to find an "on-calL" position too, but not for 6 cpl. sm - ltmt
  • if easy platform and few ESLs, you'll do okay with same doctors daily. - Use templates/shorthand - n/m
  • Ridiculous - Daphne
  • Are you a newbie and how many lines do they want you - to do each day?? If you're not new, forget it!
    • not newbie -10+ years experience - curious
    • ...NM up there. - NM
  • psych - cm
  • In my experience there are lots of ESL - me

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I have been an on-site MT for 15 years and have clinic-only experience in several specialties.  I am considering a change to working from home.  I am wondering if it is possible to work from home and still make good money.  Do you folks feel that you do just as well as you would working on-site? 

I currently work for one of the larger MT companies that is mostly VR, platform isn't bad, but just not able to get my line count up.  I was curious if it just me or if there were MTs out there who were doing good on VR and glad they have made the switch.  Thanks. 

situation that is getting worse all the time with lost accounts and over hiring and not knowing yet what the pay scale will be.

And while you are at it, TT Management,

BITE ME!!!  You were fools to file this lawsuit.  $294.50 to lose all credibility in the MT World.  Sad, truly sad...

And many thought you were one of the good guys.

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

Why is it so hard to share their profits with the at-home MT's? ? ?   Give me MONEY for Christmas because so much has been taken throughout the year -- I won't it back -- or at least some of it !  I will buy my own gift or pay my light bill or buy my children/grandchildren a gift with it.

In general, the top echelon is getting so greedy at most MTSO's!   They would have nothing w/o the MT's constantly tapping those keyboards . . . and I mean it gets more and more difficult for us MT's as with each passing year to make a decent living . . . I dare say a living of any sort.  Only those MT's who have husbands to support them are happy with whatever few cents they are offered, because it is only play money for them anyway.  Hubby pays all the bills.   I guarantee you that if a poll were taken of the Happy MT's with their at-home job, it would either be hubby making living for them OR mommy not having to pay a babysitter to work outside the home.  Those in HR/management, with a little research, can easily see how our paychecks are dwindling month by month due to lower wages because ASR/VR is taking away the decent dictators and leaving only the horrible dictators (who take lots of time to transcribe a quality report), lack of cost-of-living raises, rising electricity bills at home that the MT has to pay, high-speed internet/phone bills higher and higher and loaded with taxes, rent/mortages/taxes/insurance continuously rising. 

The office staff don't have to think about those at-home costs, as theirs are paid by the MTSO during their working hours/shift, nor do they have to worry about the lack of raises, etc, because in-house employees get raises automatically with tenure or with a 6-month or annual review or at the discretion of management at any time.

Personally, my line count continues to decrease; I don't know what the reason is because in the past many years, I could transcribe 200-400 lines per hour, and I do good to transcribe 100 or 150 an hour with the horrible dictators sifted out by the VR machine Dictaphone ExText.  

Please don't yell at me -- because I am thankful for a paycheck -- but why is the burden put on my fingers to WORK HARDER AND HARDER to earn that paycheck.  Don't say try ASR/VR because it will double your income, because I have tried that and know better and have proven that theory to be wrong -- at least on Dictatphone ExSpeech you can't !

The other thief of a good line count/wage for the U.S. MT's is the majority of our work going offshore because it can get done CHEAPER !  Who is all that extra money saved by offshoring our work going to ??  Not the at-home MT.  That is exactly why I request MONEY for my Christmas gift from my employer, rather than some promo gift that is handed out to any and everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL US MT's in the good 'ole USA !  ! !

Is there anyone out there supporting themselves and able to make living with a transcription company?  i I have been wanting to make a switch but need a push.  thanks so much

In short....the answer about Is it possible to make a decent living with them, without having to work 40 or 50 hours per week?.... NO 

1,100 workers worked their last day on Friday.  What do they tell their kids.  You are worrying about a measly Christmas bonus and jealous of CEOs?  What about these auto workers? 

Have some dignity and stop with the 2-year-old me, me, me.  Be lucky you have an income and are not being told sorry this is your last day a week before the holiday season. 

No one is ever just happy they wake up in the morning these days.  It's always want, want, want... 

That's terrible.  I agree that's what it is but did they come out and admit they were sending the jobs to India?

Did they say people were layed off on the spot or did they give people a few weeks/days until their last day?

Was a severence package offered? Something.

How could they do this just before the holidays.

The platform was terrible.   Too many specifics on the demographics. 

They lost an account and waited until the last minute to tell us.  When we kept running out of work, they kept giving excuses like, it's election day, it's martin luther king day, etc. 

There are plenty good, honest companies.  I would suggest looking elsewhere.

that past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior.  Did you ever have your days in the beginning when you could have been one of their cheerleaders?  I know I did.  Yet, I still saw those unhappy posts and, rather than automatically think they were lying, instead I wondered how they got so unhappy.  I think I found the answer.

I work for a large MTSO and after four years have not received a cost of living increase. Is this standard operating procedure? Things cost more than they did four years ago. Do you think CEO is getting the same pay as four years ago? Any thoughts?