Depends on whether you are paid hourly or on production.
Posted By: SM on 2009-01-15
In Reply to: Without starting a war, how much time is reasonable to spend on reasearch (sm) - CuriousMT
If you are paid on production, then I wouldn't even spend five minutes researching a physicians name because it's the MTSOs responsibility to make sure have up to date physician lists available to you. Nothing irks me more than starting a new job with an MTSO who expects you to hit the ground running, but gives you very little to start with!
If you are paid hourly, then I would spend up to 10 minutes trying to figure something out.
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Paid production/hourly
To those of you who are paid production (other than MQ) - are you limited to working 39 hours a week? I don't understand being paid by the line, yet being treated as an hourly worker. Just curious as to whether this is the norm at other places.
are you paid by production or hourly?
nm
Nope. We get paid production too. Unfortunately, hourly QA is out the door.
They are fewer and farther between than you could imagine. AND, for those of us who have been fortunate enough to be paid production (I'm one of the unfortunate CBay editors who was fired just before Christmas.)
We paid hourly with incentive for high production. So she's making money when she's just
sitting there. I don't know if it is a habit or not because this is the first time I've really had to work with her for any length of time. I usually only work a couple of hours a day with her when our shifts overlap. I think I'm definitely going to ask the girl I'm filling in for what she thinks about her.
You're expected quota depends on whether you are paid hourly or per line. SM
I'm paid hourly and I was told the requirement was 50 or more reports per day. I've never worked QA per line, but I'm sure their line quota is pretty high, at least 2000 or better per day, as you get credit for every line in every report you QA.
Hope this was the answer you were looking for.
Hourly/Production
If an MT is paid hourly, then the law states that OT is mandatory. But, "certain computer related occupations" per the Department of Labor, are considered exempt. I tried to find the right web page for it, but I couldn't find it. I know that even my husband, who works by production, does not get paid OT. Most times they will offer an incentive when they want the work to get done faster, but no OT. If anyone finds the link, let us know!
editing pay hourly or production
I'm currently working editing newbies and am getting paid by the hour. I really enjoy it and feel my 32 years of MT knowledge is being put to good use; however, next month the company is changing editors to production pay and I will probably quit. I don't think I can make any money and still do a good job. Do most companies paid editors on production? Seems counterproductive to me.
Hourly pay versus production pay
Are there any of you who made the transition from an hourly paying job to a production-based job? If so, how did it turn out for you?
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.
Needing to make a decision... hourly or production...
If you had the choice between a shift lead type position at somewhere between $14 to $16 an hour or production on an account with a lot of normals. The shift lead gets you experience editing, supervising, etc., but the production account you are just transcribing. You can make a lot more money at the production job, but the shift lead will get you started in a more management type of position, which would you choose? You will be stuck at that hourly wage with the lead position, but there are possiblities of moving up with the company. But, the money on the other account is quite good, as there are a lot of free lines. I am just so confused and have to make a decision, as I cannot work them both at the same time.  Any suggestions, comments, or feedback? Thanks.
you just described the hourly fram of mind, production is driven, or lose.
period. You could benefit from in-house-paid-breaks employment and the pay that comes with it.
the difference between being business and being someone else's business.
I work for an agency, type for a major hospital - no hourly wage - just production. nm
x
If you could get paid hourly...sm
If you could get paid hourly, no incentive, just straight pay, what would you want to get paid? We are in transition right now where I work and we are trying to come up with a new pay scale and one of the possibilities is no incentive, just straight hourly pay. What do you think would be a reasonable hourly rate to suggest? Thanks!
If you are paid hourly, you obviously are not an IC. sm
As a regular employee, you may have to keep strict hours. This is just part of the package. Sometimes you can find a company that will allow you to flex your schedule as an employee, but most will not.
Only working as an independent contractor can you have true flexibility. In my experience, an employer can ask you to set the hours you will be working, but if you have to work other hours instead, the company has no control over this. All they can do is not give you any more work. That is the limit of their control. There are companies that try to enforce hours on their ICs, but this is not legal.
You should look for a job as an IC, if you want true flexibility. However, be aware that there will usually be no benefits such as insurance, vacation, etc.
If someone else has a different experience as an IC, hopefully they will let us know. Good luck to you.
I think most QA are paid hourly. nm
.
Anyone paid hourly?
I've been doing transcription for about a year and a half. I do radiology work and love it. The company I work for will only pay hourly for radiology. The only way to get paid production is to do clinic work (not my favorite). My pay is terribly low - only $8.50! I was wondering what others are paid when paid hourly. Also, if you can suggest any good companies to do radiology work for I would appreciate that.
Since you are paid hourly,
I'm not so sure a raise would be in order. If you are working OT, you should be getting OT wages and fairly compensated.
Setting up templates and such is a good skill, but lots of regular secretaries can do that who can't do transcription, so maybe you are actually being overpaid if you are getting a transcriptionist's hourly wage for secretarial work.
It is good that you are willing to be flexible and take on a different project, but I'm not sure if you should get a raise for that. Maybe a bonus, but not a raise.
paid hourly isn't much better
I've been at my current editing job for 3 years and I've always been paid hourly, but I only get paid for the hours spent actually editing. I don't get paid to download any of the voice files that I must have in order to do my job. If my boss needs me to look up an old file and send it to her, I don't get paid for that. If she wants me to give feedback on how a Transcriptionist is doing - that's on my own time as well.
On my invoices, I have to break each day's time down by how much was spent on which doctor's editing -- I can't include anything else.
It's our livelihood - our $$ depends on our production
If the managers' pay depended on how well they served us, or anyone else involved in the MT business, they might understand better.
The managers, supervisors, CEO, CFO, sales people, and tech people get paid the same everyday payday, even if they spend half their day playing games. Our paycheck depends on not only our skills but many factors that are out of our control - ISP connectivity, platform performance, QA competency, etc.
If you are not paid on production, does
it really matter??? You are not losing money by doing these other things and if that is part of your job description, then you have to do it.
Are there any hourly paid jobs as an MT?
I was wondering if anyone knew of a company that paid hourly pay. I am kind of getting tired of grinding my fingers to the bone to make a living  . Thanks for your help. sm
Nope. Not if I'm being paid production.
If I'm being paid hourly I'll do that, but they can't have it both ways. If they expect us to do that, they can pay us for it.
Do you get paid by the hour or production?
`
If you're paid on production, SM
I'd very strongly recommend buying a program. Looking things up in a book takes so, so much more time, and wild card searches are the pits at very best.
We are paid on a production system,
a tiered system determined by # of lines per pay period, not per hour. With each tier reached you get an extra 0.05 cpl on top of your normal cpl. Minimum line count per pay period (2 weeks) is 12,000 lines. Not at all hard to reach. The cap is 2 cpl above your starting cpl.
Are you paid hourly? If so, I'm surprised they allow you to work with such little ones.
r
I get paid hourly $18.00. The hospital I work at don't believe sm
in production because of the error rate, blanks, etc. just to make money. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo happy.
That's harsh. Hardly anybody is paid hourly in this field
It's all production pay. It's not theft to get your line quota in and knock off for the day. Why should the fast ones be penalized for being good? Why should they have to do more work than the others? You can't fire somebody for meeting their contracted production in a timely manner.
Working at Home/Getting Paid Hourly
I sent in this info to an MT head hunter:
I am looking for a work-at-home MT position that is employee-based, not independent contractor, paying hourly instead of per line or per page, where I could work Tuesday through Friday, 32 hours a week, no weekends, no nights or holidays.
I was told this was a "TALL ORDER," and that I would never be able to find it. I don't think that I am asking for too much, and that there has to be an MT company out there that is willing to pay highly skilled and experienced MTs what they are worth. I know there are plenty of MTs out there who say, "Oh, if you work hard enough, you can make just as much per line as by hour,"  but it's been my experience, having worked three MT jobs from home, that that would entail cranking out btetween 1,500-2,000 lines per day...provided there is work available and provided you are getting paid more than 0.12 per line I've been working 12 YEARS as an MT, but most companies still want to pay me between 0.05-0.12 cents per line. FIVE CENTS A LINE FOR AN MT WITH 12 YEARS IN THE BUSINESS. What is wrong with this picture???????? 
If there is a company willing to pay an experienced MT at least $16+ per hour to work at home, please e-mail me!
Re: Working At Home/Getting Paid Hourly
Perhaps. Don't get me wrong, I like where I work and how much I'm making, and this company acdtually has two MTs working at home; however, they are not offering this option to any other MTs at this time, if ever. The at-home MTs from this company are getting paid per hour and have full benefits, but that's only because they've been working in-house at the company for many years. *Sigh*....
Working at Home/Getting Paid Hourly
Sounds like nice work if ya can get it. :) I wouldn't mind picking up tapes, provided that the pick up/drop-off site wasn't too far.
Working at Home/Getting Paid Hourly
THAT SUCKS. You should be making FAR more than 9 cents a line. UGH. And there are still companies offering experienced MTs 5 cents a line.
then you should be paid hourly somewhere and leave the lines to those
who take it more seriously. I used to do it in 6 hours...six straight. you can call that two 2 hour breaks daily - I called it done for the day early. and I did not do it sitting in diapers with a straw from my mouth to the frig, I stretched the legs as often as necessary.
Guess what? Every day I pushed myself, when I relaxed back to my normal 'comfortable pace' again, I found my line counts had increased! That much more just got easy and I just gave myself a raise.
normals? of course. shortcuts? a ton.
What to you think mass production is? Keeps the QA soores high, too. If you knew your stuff outside of terminology, you would know it is a waxing/waning speed the whole time, and you would know how to utilize the software and platforms to max. Those little games pay off to your advantage come payday. Sit and type? Not by your standards or definition. They really need to cover this in the schools.
If you do not want to work on yourself, then you need to be hourly somewhere because you won't be able to handle it. In production, it is your type of woe-is-me I'm just the messenger stance that tends to get get in our way when turnaround slips.
And that, my friend, is why overhiring was created. The same ones that would or could not pull their weight - would or could not pitch in extra to keep the darn account in contract.
I wouldn't knock those to think of it as more than a second income but a living, and regard themselves as more than a secretary but a professional. Oh, and what makes you think we DON'T have lives? We manage quite well - ALL OF IT.
I get paid hourly and I work at home
They expect me to work 7-1/2 hours a day and I do, but they do let me spread it out over the course of the day. I work four hours in the morning, two in the afternoon and the other one and a half in the evening. I can leave and go to an appointment and make that time up in the evenings also. But then again, when I don't have any work I still get paid.
How did you count lines before the PC, or were you paid hourly then? nm
Exactly what happens when paid by production. Complain to all the companies sm
thay pay on production. The bottom line is the dollar.
Switching Around Accounts While Getting Paid for Production
Appalled, I understand what you're saying, but there's another side to your point that I think you didn't verbalize quite well enough for MT30+ to understand.
When the employer, who is paying you for production, or even the employer who might be paying you hourly, asks you to switch accounts frequently, the employer is also going to suffer. When you're not typing up to your potential, she's not profiting as much from your typing either.
Let's say the MTSO just got in over her head with backlog and needs more staff. It does take time to find and hire new staff. But if the MTSO doesn't do that AND QUICKLY, then the MTSO is going to be suffering from the learning curve of the MTs she's asking to pick up the slack in the meantime.
Everybody suffers when the MTSO doesn't staff adequately in advance for new accounts, not just the MT.
On the other hand, if the MTSO anticipates a new account and hires in advance, then everybody suffers again because they start seeing the No Jobs Available message from overhiring until the new account kicks in.
It's a very tricky business when you're taking on a new account, hiring new people to staff it, and trying to coordinate it all so that everybody stays happy.
Hospital job is "work-at-home" paid hourly
Thank you for well wishes.
Yup, it's fact of life when people are paid on production..SM
I hate cherrypickers too, but part of me wonders from a devil's advocate point of view, what if everyone just refused to do the crappy dictators? Maybe they'd be forced to clean up their act. Because when you get right down to it, CRAPPY DICTATORS are the main problem causing cherrypicking, NOT the MT.
I loved being paid for production/quality as opposed to being with the co. since
the beginning of time. And those long timers that I worked with tended to produce the least work and dish out the most criticism. I felt like a work horse and was paid half of what the 10 plus years on the job MTs in-house were. This created hostility, needless to say.
Production-paid employees have different laws and regulations. nm
nm
well, we ARE on production. And paid according to what the account pays. Have rates gone up? sm
You (supposedly) get a percetage of what the account pays.
QA, $3000/mo hourly so get some overtime too, bennies paid, no complaints. nm
x
When paid hourly, we still had a minimum daily line count
;lkj
Paid hourly, req'd 1000 lines, anything over 1101 was 0.04 cents a line
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Well - just depends on what the top paid MTs
make where you are working. Your "top" pay may be less than that paid elsewhere. I feel that compared to what I have read as to the average of 5-8 cents a line, I'm paid well over the average - and I don't have CMT after my name :o) :o) My pay is based on my knowledge & expertise - not initials !
I believe it depends on how you are paid. sm
If you are paid by the line, you can clock into as many jobs as you wish.
If you are paid hourly, then you are not giving either company your honest time, which they are paying for. I know there have been people doing this for a long time. I believe it has been especially prevalant among hourly QA, since most of the MTs are paid per line, which should not make it a problem.
If you worked in an office and did another company's work on your paid time, would that be ethical? I know it is done, my manager did it in our hospital department, but she certainly lost our respect, and did not get a reference from me either time she asked for it.
So I guess it depends on your work ethic. Many companies would consider it grounds for termination. I believe most would certainly consider it unethical, if they were aware of it. JMO
I have been paid both ways. Depends on the account. nm
n
Depends on where you work and how you're paid
kj
Doesn't matter, IF you are not paid an hourly wage, i.e. a set amount no matter - sm
how much or how little you type, say $12.00/hour, you do not get OT. As someone mentioned here, certain jobs are exempt, and as most of us are paid a flat rate of .08 cpl or .09 or .10, whatever it is, that is all we get regardless of how many hours under or over 40 hours we go. If you want OT then go get an in-house job or get a job doing something else.
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.
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