At 40 hours a week? Is that gross line or 65 char?
Posted By: Still too many variables. sm on 2006-05-19
In Reply to: What about us lowly folk... - EmptyMT
You'll never get an accurate comparison unless you have every single detail lining up, i.e., same rate per line, same amount of hours, same type of work, same doctors dictating, same amount of Expander entries, same typing speed, same method of payment, etc., etc.
It just doesn't matter what anyone here posts -- it's going to be different for each individual. There is no real true way to predict what you will make at this profession!
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
What is a 55 char gross line compared to a 65-char line including spaces?
t
Made 60K last year working 50 hours a week being paid on gross line
nm
65 char per line is not the same as gross?? sm
You said "Anyway go with gross line, I still quote it as 65 characters per line which it is but I count by gross and 12 font."
65 char per line is NOT the same as gross. How in the world do you come to the conclusion that it is? If it was the same, then the 65-char line would not even exist. Gross line count means that even a line containing only one word is counted as a whole line. 65-char. line means that a line must contain at least 65 characters (i.e., letters, numbers, or symbols) to be counted as a whole line.
Gross line does not equal 65-char. line and you are doing a huge disservice to your clients and to the other MTs asking for advice here by saying it is. Clients do sometimes check the line counts to see if they match (obviously yours don't so you have been lucky so far) and if you bill them at gross lines and they are counting at 65 chars per line, your line count will be quite a bit higher and it will look like you have been padding your line counts.
Please, do clarify how it is you feel a gorss line is the same as 65 char. per line. Also, font does make a difference when using gross lines but does not make a difference when using 65-char lines so again, your theory that you are switching fonts tells me you are, indeed, charging gross lines and yet are quoting clients at 65 chars a line.
Does anyone else think this is just a tad on the shady side ???
Gross versus 65 char line
Can someone tell me how a gross line is calculated. Thanks.
What's the diff between a gross line and a 65-char line?
Mebbe just got my first OWN ACCOUNT YAY! He said to charge him the "going rate" since I pay him that. This could be the start, baby! (I hope)
65-char line to client and charge for gross? sm
That's a bit underhanded. If they ever get suspicious, your line counts are going to exceed what they count at 65 char. a line. You said yourself that 65-char/line and gross line are two different things, so why do you contract with the client saying you bill for one and actually bill for another ?? That's shady, IMO, and I would never quote my client a 65-char line and then charge them for gross line.
I quote a price per gross 65 char line, say 12 cpl, but then convert
I have one client who doesn't want bulk and is Franklin condensed 10; another is on Garamond 12 with a 1 inch margin R and L. I take a large block of type, put in a format that gives me 65 char per line and do a line count that way and get a price for the whole block, for example, 58 gross lines at 12 cpl = $6.96. Then I take the same type and format it as the client wishes, get a line count and divide the dollar amount by the lines. If their formatted version came to 28 lines, then 6.96 divided by 28, would come to 24 cpl for their format. I always include a line on the invoice to indicate their 65 char line rate. Something like
2586 extended lines at 0.24 cpl = $620.64
(your line rate converts to 0.12 cpl for standard 65 char line)
I always educate the client as to the industry standard of the 65 char line which allows clients to compare apples to apples...
Two companies, both 65 char lines including spaces, one pays 0.10/l and the other 8.5/gross line. n
x
7.5/gross line or 10/65 char line?
Anyone have any idea which would come out to more? TIA
How many hours a day do you work? Are you still paid per gross line?
Not saying I don't believe you. One has to consider too that you have 20 years of experience, that makes a BIG difference in production. I'm about four times faster now than I was when I first started out. Newbies need to consider this too when contemplating MT as a career.
Gross lines vs. 65-char
A gross line is anything on a line IS a line - usually the standard is Courier 12, 1 inch margins - that way, if a doc wants Arial or Times New Roman or any other font, he will know that it will always be counted in Courier 12 regardless of the font he uses.
65-char means based on a 65-char per line basis, lines are counted, so it is not a "line" unless there are 65 characters on it - the counting programs that count this convert the document to one big long document without returns, etc., linking all the characters in one long line and counting them that way. Clearly you can see how many fewer lines you would get by this method. When this was brought into the business it was touted as a "fairer" way of counting - but the only one it is "fairer" to is the doctor - it cuts the lines vs gross lines an average of over 30% - for example, if you are making 7 cpl for a 65-char line, you are in reality making 4.8 cpl gross lines - quite a difference.
Gross lines versus 65-char, etc.
I think the above poster misunderstood me. I was trying to simplify the difference between counting a gross line and counting a line via character - which IS basically blowing out the document to full 65 character lines (with or without spaces)and counting them, versus counting anything on the line as a line.
That is true, though - the best way to compare documents is to look at the gross line count (after changing margins and font to 1" and Courier 12 respectively), then taking the character count and dividing by 65. Many who have never been paid by gross lines or have not really compared the difference would be amazed to see how many less lines you get on a 65-char count.
10 cpl per 65 char line
I include all spaces, headers, footers, etc with a 24 hour TAT.
65 char line
while you are in a Word document, click on Tools from the bar at the top. Then click on word count. You will see characters (no spaces) and characters (with spaces). If you are paid by 65 characters with spaces, take that number and divide it by 65. Then take the result and multiply the result by .08 or .09 if you are paid 8 or 9 cents per line. That is the amount of money you made for that one letter.
1385 by 65 char line.
nm
.11 cpl/60 char. line for hospital
account that I do from home and am also considered an employee. They pay my insurance and also offer family insurance for 110.00 a month. I also have another account for a brain and spine trauma center that pay me .13 cpl/65 char. line.
A gross line IS a gross line regardless if it's 90 characters long or 1 character long... SM
I'm very sorry that your lines are 90 characters line and you get paid by gross lines. You are cheating yourself - that's not my fault. You cannot change the definition of a gross line. So I gues I'm not understanding what you are trying to say. Now if you are trying to say that your line equals 90 characters and that's how you figure your lines, than you are not using gross lines. You have defined a line to be 90 characters, whereas most MTSOs define a line as 65 characters. If that is the case, then I must say again, you are cheating yourself.
So which is it, do you get paid by gross lines or by a 90 character line?
Gross line = each line on page counts as a line, even if it's only 1 word. nm
x
Here's the thing. We were paid on a 50-char line SM
because we were on new software and it was hard (before EDiX). Then we went to 60 char and you have never heard the screeching and griping (LOL. We just didn't know).
I have told this story before, but for five years I was the supervisor in the MT dept. All I did was evaluate MTs, line counts, average lines per hour, just endless figuring. I could tell you off the top of my head what any particular dictation should count out to.
In fact, after I decided to go back to transcribing, I knew the very day that my former employees started cheating - our line counts were posted by ssn on a computer-generated list. I knew that work like the back of my hand.
When EDiX did their spiel, I was eager to start with them because I knew how they supposedly counted their lines and I knew how many lines a day I could type. Man, I was gonna be RICH.
Not one line count EVER matched what it used to. Bad thing about that is, I just got blank silence on the telephone when I asked what was the deal. When I asked my immediate supervisors how they were counting these lines, I got "I don't know. I'll get back to you." Nobody ever answered my question. I gave them a year full time, and then I had to start working other jobs to make ends meet so I quit.
They asked me to come back, and I said I would, part time. They said they really needed me on that account. All told, I was employed there three times in three years. I never made enough money to even cover my basic expenses. I cannot live like that.
My biggest problem with nationals, and the reason I refuse to work for them, is that the money goes to the suits first, the MTs next. People who do what we do simply do not need that much supervision. If they hire newbies who do need extensive supervision (and they do, we all did), we all pay for it in that situation -- I'm not against hiring newbies, by the way, but the $ it takes to hold their hands the way the need their hands held should not come out of the pocket of the veteran MT who sits down and chugs out her work day in, day out.
So no more nationals for me. I make three times what I made at EDiX now, working for a company that could be considered a national because we're scattered out, but it's still run by the owner, and her aim in life is for us to make as much $$$ as possible because then SHE does. That's the way it should be.
National companies treat MT as a cost center and that is not right. That's for the facilities to do. The MTSO should treat us as an income-generating entity instead of a hole to divert money away from their executives. They've got it all wrong!
I charge by 65-char line with spaces...sm
The two accounts I've worked on wanted 0.5 inch margins on both sides. One of the accounts wants 10-point Times. The other wants 12-point Times. They want the margins so big because they are trying to save on their paper costs, because the sticky back paper (I think that's what they use) is apparently quite expensive. I send the documents via e-mail for them to print on their own. Anyway, charging for a 65-character line with spaces nets me more than a gross line because of the margins, font, and typeface. Try it with your line counter. I have one built into my Instant Text (which I don't use for invoices) and SylCount. Both of them show that the gross line is quite a bit less when the margins are this big.
Why not charge for spaces? You type 'em like you type a letter or number! 
10 cents/line 65 char. w/spaces,
Small company (about 7 of us, I'm the only part-timer) Acute care, mix of dictators, 1 year part-time experience.
65-gross line vs.65-gross character line
Can someone explain the difference between these two? I am assuming that the gross line is better than the gross character line. How much better is being paid by the gross character line than just by the standard 65-character line? Does anyone know how much difference it would make in dollars and cents?
Thanks.
typing 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week
is TOUGH.
on my wrists I mean.
and not getting any benefits... and for a salary of less than 30K? not really worth it...
A gross line is anything on a line is a line. A line set at 65 characters means it sm
has 1-inch margins on each side. The maximum number of characters on that line would be 65 and that includes spaces. If there is 1 character on that line it is a line.
A standard 65-character line usually consists of 65 characters with spaces unless, of course, the employer does not pay for spaces and then it would be 65-characters without spaces.
Only if that is coupled with a line definition of greater than 55 char.
.
then they'll offer you 8 cents/ 65 char line. very sad nm
dfd
127 if based on 65-char line (8243 divided by 65 is the formula) nm
c
I just re-read his email and he said he paid 9 cpl per 55-char line! Must be offshore. sm
I'm going to bring up the offshore issue with him and HIPPA issue as well. My OB/GYN just switched over to that practice to do just GYN and specialize in urological gyn, so they have my records too and I sure don't want them overseas. Even if they don't want to hire me, that's fine and I'm not going to sales pitch him at all, but I don't want my records outsourced.
Gross line means anything on a line is counted as a line.
You can get an idea in the difference using documents you have already created, assuming you're working in Word. Simply open a document and check the properties. Click on the statistics tab and you will see the number of lines as well as characters with and without spaces. If you're currently getting paid by the line and a line is 65-characters with spaces, do the math and see how that number of lines compares with the number of lines in your stats.
One thing to keep in mind: if you have a blank line between paragraphs, instead of hitting the enter key twice, format your document to give the appearance of blank lines between paragraphs.
Gross line, also including blank lines because my line rate is so low. It all works out in the wash.
x
$.06 gross line / .70 = approximately $.0857 cents per 65 character line.
A gross line is anything on a line versus 65 gross characters per net line the other way. You make more money working for the gross line than for the 65 gross character line, as long as the line rate's OK.
A gross line is any line with typewritten characters on it - no matter how long or SM
how short. So your gross lines may be longer than 65 characters, but you get credit even for a line as short as "Sincerely,". If your gross lines are not being counted that way, then you are not being counted on gross lines and are probably getting screwed. I'd look into that if I were you.
Yes if gross line or 65 character line with spaces....Good Deal!!! nm
x
Curious, do most IC's usually charge by the gross line or 65 character line?
Thank you~
A gross line is any amount of characters on a line
for instance...
MEDICATIONS:
Effexor
Prevasid
A 65 character line without spaces is black marks on the page only and 65 w/spaces is everything... tabs, spaces, numbers, letters, bold, etc.
Gross line versus character line....Sm please
I am thinking of taking a job that pays by the gross line and not a 65-character line. I have never worked this way. Does this literally mean if there is one little word on a line you get paid for it? I have not pinned her down on a line rate but I am just thinking I am going to be comparing apples to oranges and am wondering how to accomplish that.
Thanks for any help!
gross-anything on line counts as line,even one word
xx
Right around 10 hours a week
Less with really good dictators. More if you get mostly lousy ones. :)
One guy I've got I could do in 8 hours. Wish I had him all the time.
Another guy is a "pauser" and he would probably take more like 14 hours.
Average is right around 10 hours.
how many hours a week is that?
I need a company like you have!
PT - 24 hours a week
about $24,000 a year.
It would be more but, as my name says, I have 3 kids. The twin babies distract me a lot. I expect to make more when they are older :-)
now maybe $45,000/yr 40 hours/week...nm
dddd
I don't think so - but 80 hours a week would
and work more than 40 hours/week you are due
compensation. If your company requires you to work 7 days a week I'd find a new job. They may ASK you to work extra as workload dictates but by no means should you be required too. Many companies require 1 weekend/month or every other weekend, but there are off days during the week, unless you WANT to work.
If you are an IC you work what you commit to. If a company can get you to work as an IC by holding over your head you dictate the hours you work, versus working a set schedule, why not. With having to compete with companies offshoring they have to cut expenses where they can and cutting benefits, etc. is where they do it. I don't like it, but in order to stay in business they have to, but they also can't require you to work 7 days/week either.
I go to the gym 4 days a week for 2 hours
each. I do 1/2 hour on 2 different machines and then go use the weights for the last hour. I had a trainer when I first joined and he taught me a lot about how to change my routine but his favorite job was the torturing. The gym has a day care that costs me $10 extra a month so I usually go right after I finish work at 1. You need to make time to exercise. It was hard at first to get into it but I love it now.
5-10 hours per week, approximately $78K...sm
send the work out, send the work back, put out fires, bill the clients, pay the IC's, make everybody happy...mind you, I feel I've earned it. Many was the night I was up until 12 typing my brains out and many the time I've gone in and done proposals only to get shot down. I could make A LOT more if I typed the accounts too - but I'm happy with what I make with the little time I put in. I'd rather have my freedom than the money right now, I guess. Plus I'm keeping 5 or 6 other people employed.
2-4 hours of dictation a week
IC MT with 13 years experience looking for a few hours of clinic, hospital or general dictation to do per week. Anything available?
I work 40 hours a week and more
if there is work and I don't slack off and barely take a break. I do acute care and seldom leave a blank. According to my Expander stats, I am saving myself 23 hours of work and do 22% of the total in expanders. My pay has actually gone down especially this year and I am using more Expanders every day. That's my story.
gross line is anything on a line, even just your initials. sm
spaces really don't matter in a gross line count.
But that's a GROSS line, not a 65 character line.
So a newbie would have no problem at all hitting 150 lines per hour. A gross line is any line with a printed character on it.
Which is better? Gross line or 65 character line? It's
nm
A gross line may be close to 65 ch.pl but she said line
z
|
