Curious..MQ and spaces...paid or not?
Posted By: WA on 2005-09-20
In Reply to:
I have read many post from fellow MQers. Some say they get paid for spaces. Some swear they do not. I know I get paid for spaces and have been with them since January, Denver office. For those of you who say they do not get paid for spaces, is this a new phenomenon? What office do you work out of and for how long? Have you copied reports in Word and counted characters and spaces? (I only have 'Works', which only counts characters, but have manually counted spaces and added that to the total characters and have come up with the same count as MQ is paying me. Now, all I have to do is take my character count and add about 22%, which is the percentage of characters that I have found out are spaces. MQ's count is always right on. So, just curious if some are not getting paid for spaces and if they know that FOR SURE! Not getting paid for spaces makes a 22% pay cut! That is a LOT! Now, I am not looking into starting any kind of battle here. But just really am curious if this is the 'wave' of the future with MQ, just certain offices, new hires, or what. Thanks! 
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They used to not pay for spaces, but a poster here said they are getting spaces paid. Are there 2
s
I would move on. I think it is so unfair not to be paid for spaces! I think we should get paid
per keystroke, but that'll never happen. I just think that these national companies are going to keep finding ways to cheat us. I found a job working for a hospital as an employee, paid hourly plus incentive, and they let us expand everything! Somebody's gonna have to kill me to make me give up this job. I will never go back to the national's again.
I feel for you though. I know that for us MTs those good jobs are few and far between and some have little choice but to work for the nationals. I just happened to luck into the job I have now. I just applied at the right time.
Good luck to you whatever you decide.
Paid for spaces
Was told years ago that the account I was on did not pay for spaces even though the contract I signed as SE said I would be. Was told that we were compensated by being given the headers and footers in our line count (yeah, right). Was then told they didn't want to lose me so if I was totally unhappy to ask my manager for another account which did pay for spaces. I, of course, was told there was no other account available at that time. On some unscientific studying and counting, figured out was losing 13% to 17% of my counts by not getting spaces. This is one of the reasons MQ is being sued by the employees in the lawsuit. Don't believe anything management tells you. Just count them for yourself.
At 9.5 cpl what are you really getting paid without spaces.
:
Why spaces are not paid for... sm
I once worked with a Transcriptionist who would pad his reports with huge lines and lines of spaces that would go undetected. He (yes he) would be paid for these elaborate line counts (we had an incentive program). If you adjust the pay rate for characters only with no spaces according to an appropriate line rate, you are assuring yourself of not being cheated by some MT who thinks they can get away with padding spaces into their documents. True story.. now lets see the end of this endless discussion.
Are you sure she gets paid for spaces?
So it would not equal to 7.5 cpl.
paid for spaces
I do get paid for spaces. We take the character count INCLUDING spaces and divide by 5 to get our word count.
I think spaces are paid for. However, there
may only be 1 space in between sentences, which is set in Word. From what I have read, the eScription platform does not pay for selection of demographics, headers, or footers. Many commands are not allowed, such as specific symbols, bold, underline, tabs, and indents, to name a few.
This is how eScription is saving hospitals millions of dollars. Yes, VR is very profitable for hospitals. Of course, that would need to compare the savings to their operating costs. However, They only seem interested in saving TRANSCRIPTION costs! So, the bottom line is, MTs are working harder and harder each year to make a decent wage, while management is working harder each year to trim our lines. This is not the MTSO but the hospital administrators.
I had a physician recently tell me, "Transcription has sunk to the lowest of the lows." I told him, "You only get what you pay for." Pay nothing, get not much in return!
Need feedback on getting paid for spaces vs not....
have an offer from AccuScribe in South Carolina, 9 cpl, but no spaces. Would like to hear opinions please, whether good or bad! TIA!
Working for 9 cpl, not paid for spaces
Does anybody else think this is not good? Working same account I used to do paid for spaces and working harder for same pay. Thinking of moving on.
Want to get paid for headers, footers and spaces?
Just in a silly mood.... 
To the "not paid for spaces" question
Why is not being paid for spaces the norm? Don't you have to tap the space bar just as you have to tap a letter key? I don't get this. This is just another way to reduce our income. DON'T ALLOW IT!
i do NOT get paid for spaces, my best friend does.. both out of the same office -- go figure
x
We're paying 9 cpl and everything transcribed plus spaces is paid for.
/
Great platform, but curious about being paid by line vs. report as well, which is best?
What the heck does getting paid by a 55 black character line?? Does this mean without spaces and doe
You just never know if this is a trick to somehow rip you off of lines. I am just very skeptic of it since I have never heard of anyone using this formula before.
My line including spaces is 65 characters. I've heard that not counting spaces
takes away over 35% of your line count. I believe it too because you have at least 15 or so spaces on each line that you type. Use your first sentence up top as an example; you had 77 char and 21 spaces - in that line that would be a little less than 30% of your characters that you didn't get paid for. I don't think it's worth it and wouldn't want to work without getting credit for my spaces.
For QA consulting I'm paid per hour; QA instructing (college) paid salary, QA editing paid per li
I am an IC and work for two different MTSOs as well as instruct at a business college.
For CURIOUS: You are not curious, you are paranoid and a sociopath
Are you referring to the sentence
'And HOW to you put a marker?'
where I typed a 't' instead of a 'd'?
It was just a TYPO!
I am an American MT!
It is so pitiful how PARANOID SOME American MTs have become, ESPECIALLY THE OLD ONES, fearing for their jobs and being afraid of getting the boot.
Trying to be 'expert linguists,' sniffing out various dialects, detecting some Indian hints, whereas they most probably live in rural areas or in cities with a population of 1,000 inhabitants.
So sad, so sad, what has become of the MTing profession?
Now, CURIOUS, start nitpicking my post.
Pay No Spaces, Type No Spaces nm
nm
without spaces compared to with spaces
10 cpl without spaces equals to how many cpl with spaces?
Spaces versus no spaces....
Can someone tell me how big of a difference it makes if a company pays for spaces versus no spaces. I have only every been paid without spaces. I have been offered a position that pays for spaces, but the cpl is less than I am making now. I am not sure if getting paid for spaces will make up for the pay cut. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
if mt paid 9, editor paid 4 or 5...how can company charge 14 and make it..sm
I know the going rate in our area is 14 cents per line. As MTs most companies here pay us 8 or 9 cents a line. Now add in the Editor rate at 4 or 5 per line..you are paying OUT more than you can charge a line. How would companies stay in biz?
Unless all work is sent by the company overseas at pennies per line, this would not pay for a company.
just curious how this works out
But how much are the US EDs gonna be paid? Typically this work is paid at 2-3 cpl. nm
:+
You don't get paid an hourly rate you get paid by line - sm
so because of how you are paid (not an hourly rate) you don't get OT, especially if you are an IC.
If those companies paid a fair wage, and paid more
all came out equal, people wouldn't feel the need to try to make up the deficit by going for the good stuff. I actually prefer the harder, juicier reports. But I can't make a living doing only that, because the pay is not commensurate with the difficulty. So even though I prefer not to, sometimes I have to pick up some of the easier, more boring 'line-o-matic' reports just to make ends meet. Tell your MTSO to make it work their while, and MTs will stop taking all the easy work away that you obviously would prefer to keep for yourself.
You wont show UE being paid because it is employer paid -
the employee will never have to pay this.
What you "should" be paid and what you "are" paid
sadly are two very different things. Good luck on demanding more..because someone else will just come along and take it for what they offer and they know it. 
10$ late if invoice is not paid within 10 days. At day 15 work stops until invoice is paid. Hardly
xx
curious MT
Trust me you should hope that VR does not catch on too quickly! It is very intense work, and you get paid squat for doing it! And you still have to type either when the voice is not recognized, ie, as in when the dictators are residents and just coming in, and you get paid the measy sum to edit reports that require more transcription than editing, so far there is yet a formual to distinguish between this! So count your blessings that VR is not making its wave across Amercia with the MT's until everyone catches on to the fact that it is not "easy money" and we need to be paid exactly the same amount of money whether we transcribe or whether we do VR. Or the companpy uses some formula you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out! Whether for personal use or for business use VR still needs to go back in the closet from whence it came! Or the Nationals need to pay us a living wage to do the editing if the clients want VR. Then I'll be more than happy to offer my 20+ years experience up to do as much VR as they want. At the moment those of us that do VR are being grossly taken for granted and our knowledge and experience used without proper compensation, because we were not totally informed about the trials and tribulations of VR and just HOW much work it truly is.
Just curious
Did you contact the MT and try to find out what the problem might be? With a Q.A. score that low (unless you're a comma freak) :) there is no hope. Personally I hate doing Q.A. but I've done it. I recall one MT that had a really low Q.A. I talked to and asked how I might help. Turns out she was a clinic MT (BIG difference) hired to do acute care on, of course, a production basis. She was about to lose everything she owned trying to make it. She ended up moving back in with her parents for a time and today so far as I know, she's a great MT. She had potential, just lacked knowledge. I think Q.A. has to realize that less than qualified MTs are hired routinely and this is not their fault.
Just curious, but
...how would you know what your company has to pay? In my experience, turnaround penalties were known by the account managers and senior management. It's a contractual detail, not public knowledge or something to be shared with transcriptionists. Then again, maybe you are in contracts, or account management, or maybe you are the CFO or COO. However, if all of your accounts truly incur no penalties, you should be buying lotto tickets, and please share the numbers with all of your friends here on MT Stars.
And yes, I've been in account management and senior management. It's not a pretty place.
Just curious
ditto your thoughts!
Just curious, but how old are you?
I barely remember Beatles.
Just Curious
What is it that makes the job so difficult for someone with as much experience as you have as an MT? I have thought about making the switch myself, and was just wondering.
just curious
Why is that there are 3-5 pages of whining about MQ and having no work and only 5-6 hits to tips on how to improve skills. Why waste time writing these "open letters" and add to your Expanders or buy an Expander or ask for tips. No one, not even MQ, owes anyone anything. You have to make a way for yourself. 1200 lines per day is level I work. My goodness, get a grip. I think they are trying to tell you all something............They need production to stay AFLOAT.....May be the work is going to MTs who are grateful to have a job.
I'm curious too.
I've been with MQ for 2 months now but we have had them begging us for overtime, offering lots of incentives and stuff. We haven't even come close to running out.
I'll be waiting to see answers though!
Just curious
so, are you going to stop the fat and ugly stuff or not?
I would be curious to see if many SE's
opt for FT (or PT) employee status because of better benefits.
Benefits were not an issue for me, so it wouldn't be enticing to me but I would be curious as to how many would convert their status if a good enough benefit program was offered. (And what the "good enough" would be defined as for everyone.)
Just curious. Break's over.
Just curious
Where is this crazy Amherst office people are always complaining about?
Now Im curious
What is the condensed version of why people are quitting MQ? You guys could have your own board there is so much conversation! The rest of us seem mute. LOL
Curious.
Does anyone know if having a consistently low body temperature can affect/cause things like: mood, memory, depression, appetite, abdominal pain, fatigue, irritability? Body temp of 96.5-98.1, mostly stays in the 97.5 range at different times of the day. Using a digital therm. in mouth to get readings. Have read about Wilson's syndrome, but have heard that it is not real. Thanks in advance.
I am curious about that, too!
nm
just curious
Has anyone sent a resume to alex-med, inc. and heard back from them yet? Thanks
Just curious; are you actually a TH MT or
nm
curious
what about Spheris did you like the most. I am looking for employee status, benefits, equipment furnished, easy platform, available work, etc.
I'm curious...
Why do some companies demand that their MTs know inside and out the rules of the AAMT yet count off if you don't type EXACTLY what the doc says, including such errors as incomplete sentences or "Upper extremities are intact x4" or dictated commas where there isn't supposed to be a comma?
Why does it matter at all if you know the AAMT by heart if you aren't allowed to put the rules to use?
Why why WHY???
AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!
curious too
How about the easiest too?
Just curious, is you second job as an MT? nm
x
Just curious...
Are they certain it is the flu? There is a test they can do now to determine if that is in fact what he has. I was just curious because it seems that he should be starting to feel better after 5 days if it's the flu. I had a flu test last week for similar symptoms, but that wasn't it so even though my strep test was also negative they treated me for strep anyway and I'm all better now.
Just curious...what do YOU think would
Maybe this person is thinking something similar about you...that they have employed you for all these years and now you are leaving. I am a small MTSO and have had a couple of people resign. One of them did not give a reason. I did not ask why. I figured if she wanted me to know why she would have told me.
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