There are a lot of factors...

• Opinions wanted, please! - workin'
  • inhouse MT - knitgranny
    • Opinions wanted - pauline
      • Thanks! I appreciate it!.....n/m - workin'
    • Thanks to all!!! - workin'
      • Consider this. - winnie
        • Thanks! - workin'
  • My opinion - gourdpainter
    • There are a lot of factors... - MT
  • At least 40 bucks an hour is what we are worth - nm - mtme
  • sorry, meant to post on main board....nm - workin'

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How big is the page? In other words, how many lines define a page, and how many characters in the line? Or, if paid by line, how many characters in the line? Are spaces included? For both, are headers and things included. I assume you're referring to Silent Type. I have always heard they paid archaic wages per page. There are posts on Company Board about them - I would search back a few pages. I know they make you travel to their offices for 2 or 3 days, and even though I live in NJ, I would never stoop to that in this day and age - not very high tech.

I've been in the MT field for 16+ years now, produce quality work that I have always taken pride in, and my work ethic, well let's just say I do not think that there has been one weekend, Christmas day, etc. that I have not worked in 16 year iin this profession, and those times being mainly at night.

I agree with some of what you state, however with that said, you may want to ponder a few other things. I have met many, many hard working, highly experienced MT's who likewise produce quality documents, take great pride in their work, and even have a stronger work ethic than I.  I hear the same story, over and over from MT's such as they, the lack of respect in general for this profession declining over the years, along with declining wages, outsourcing, etc.

Another thought that you may want to ponder is regarding outsourcing. There are subskilled and substandard MT's in the US, however they are in a minority. By far most are intelligent, hard working and dedicated individuals.  The reason that this industry is being outsourced has little to do with the quality of the US MT. The industry is being outsourced strictly due to the ability to procure cheaper labor elsewhere. Period. Yes, the Indian MT, etc., works hard and does not whine as you state. They are paid 3 or 4 cents per line for their work. I don't know if you are aware of the cost of living in India, however it is far below that in the US; for example monthly cable television is $5.00 per month, etc., so the rate that is being paid there furnishes that MT with a nice lifestyle, thus nothing to whine about, as this industry used to provide to the equally hard working US MT.

It is often convenient to point one's finger at a small handful of people in a given profession and state that to be the cause of an industry that is declining in the US. Even if that were the case in the MT profession one also then needs to take a look at other professions such as engineering, the IT industry, support centers, etc. that are being outsourced, and likewise in those fields the jobs are not being outsourced due to the incompetance or lack of work ethic of the American worker.

1.  The cost of living has increased drastically since 1992.  That $15 an hour was worth far more than it is today. 

2.  TIME, which to many is the most important factor.  You really can't put a value on what you're losing with your family when you have to work *that couple more hours* to make what you made 15 years ago.  In fact, if we had worked that *couple more hours* 15 years ago, we would have been paid time and a half as overtime.  Also, 15 years ago when I worked in house I was paid hourly.  If it took me a little extra time to find the address for a copy the doctor wanted sent, I was still paid the same.  Have you figured the percentage of lost work now working production and trying to find the addresses, first names, correct spelling of referring physicians, etc., for the hundreds of different doctors from multiple accounts for multiple national MTSOs over the 15 years? Our job requires the same, if not more, amount of unpaid time...yet we're not paid hourly anymore.

3.  I really liked your phrase *the benefit of working from home.*  LOL  Sure, we don't have to buy business clothes or pay for gas, but what is the employer saving by having us work at home?  We buy the computer, buy the printers to print out the hundreds of pages of account specs, the ink, the electric, the internet access, our research materials, and in some cases even the software.  In fact, this brings me to the next point you never considered.

4.  IC status.  More and more MTSOs are asking for IC status.  When I started working at home about 14 years ago, I was an employee making 12 cpl WITH the best health insurance I ever had, weekends off, all holidays except 2 off with pay, AND 2 weeks paid vacation.  Here it is 15 years later and the MTSOs not only want us to work for less than we did then, but they don't even want to pay benefits, taxes, disability insurance, or unemployment insurance.  They want us to pay all that for less than what they paid us 15 years ago...AND THEN, they want to tell us what hours to work, what days to work, and how much work we have to do in a day.  In other words, they want to treat us as employees, but put the price of all the employee *extras* on our backs. 

And you're content with all this??  Maybe I shouldn't use the word content.  You're used to all this and accept it?  Now I see why posters have made the correlation between battered spouse syndrome and our profession.  The more you become used to the abuse, the more you accept it.