Making less per hour in 2009 than in 2003

I have a part time job of 30 hours/week and a doctor account part time. 

On my doctor account, I am paid per report and get to use a lot of templates.  It is common to get 9 second dictation jobs, just fill in patient name and dates, save and close.  I still make $30/hr for this.

On my other job, I am on a very user friendly platform, produce clinic work at 8 cpl, everything over the internet, and make $20/hr.

Just a few years ago, I was on a platform just a couple hours a day making about $25/hr and the rest of my time was working in a DOS environment.  I never, ever worked more than 6 hours a day (sometimes less) and my 2-week check was over $1400, averaging over $26/hr.

I'm older now and have to work an extra two hours a day 5 days a week to earn the same money.  It is no wonder people are leaving this industry in droves.  I still have another 6 years before my youngest doesn't need daycare so I can get a job outside the home, so I need to make MT work for me, but wow am I getting tired of hitting the keyboard.  I've been in front of a computer for 30 years now.  Now that I have passed all my other bottom lines, I wonder how much longer I can last before I really will leave.  I have always said that if I can't make $20/hr Txing then it is time to find something else to do. I know a lot of people would love to earn what I do, a lot of fresher, younger people would, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful.  Just hope my body and mind last a few more years. 

• Making less per hour in 2009 than in 2003 - real difference in a few short years
  • Last time I was paid this little was during the Reagan administration. - CrankyBeach
  • I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979! - ( adjusted for inflation). - Topaz
    • 1979 vs 2009 - me
      • IBM Selectives before, but In 1979 where I worked we had computers - Bryn
      • 1979 and 2009 - Tired MT
    • No more benefits, either - real difference in a few short years
    • I am making less now than in 1979 - My thoughts

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Is this possible?  Compensation for higher production adds a penny more or so.

I have almost 20 years experience and the best I can do on a good day where I have few interruptions and have been chained to my PC for 8 straight hours I can make $20 per hour, MAYBE $25 but that is pushing it.  And I have my own accounts and have used my Expander to death.

Is this Sally Struthers?

and with a really good incentive plan.  I live in the Kansas City area.  $10 seems like a low starting point even with only two years experience which is the usual benchmark for hospital MT jobs. 

It's been my experience that the low end of the pay scale for hospital employed MTs was around $12 an hour.  Also, it's been my experience that the pay offered is usually based on years of experience and how well you perform on the transcription test.

I would say if their pay is that low, they should at least be making it up with incentive and it doesn't sound like they are.

JMO

First, don't get me wrong, I definitely think we should be paid more.

However, in 1979, you were likely using a typewriter, no such thing as computer and delete/backspace, no such thing as Google, no such thing as sending in reports with the push of a button, which makes things much, much quicker and efficient, which makes more typed.  We should have better insurance, though.

I imagine it took at least three times longer to type a report then than it does now with computers, Google, better references, et.

While working late at night, I had something pop up that I thought was a MS product called Antivirus 2009, and thinking it was an update on their security, without checking it out, I clicked ok, then at the end, it states it costs $59...and I realized that it was not MS, so I backed out of it.  I currently have AVG 8.0 and it has always done a good job for me...but now after several days and asking several different places, plus the Internet, I cannot get rid of this.  It seems to be tied into my Google site, the one I use so much. 

Does anyone know how you get rid of it?  I removed the software (or so I thought) from my program) but it is blocking Google, and just keeps popping up constantly...driving me absolutely nuts.

Does anyone know of a solution to get rid of this?  I hate to pay a techie to come out to my house to get rid of this, but I will if I have to...just thought I would ask here first.

Thank you for your help.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=quick+look+drug+book+2009

This would probably be what you are looking for, but if you want 2008, the above link also has used ones that are much cheaper.  I am not keen on electronic references other than Google and my spell check.  I have Book of Style 2 on electronic and it's not that user friendly.  I'd rather flip through a book.

For the time being, use google.  Put your drug name and then the word drug after it.  This is what I do.

Hope this helps...

Hello !

I have a large amount of addresses listed on an Excel 2003 spreadsheet.  I need these addresses for Word 2003 letters.  I end up copying the address from Excel and pasting it into Word, but as you can imagine, the pasted address is in a straight line and I end up having to type the address so it displays correctly for a letter.  Does anyone know if there is a simple way to change the Excel address format to a Word letter address format?  Thank you for your help.

Does anyone on the board here know how to subtype in Word?

I am finding that my Word 97is bogging down and two accounts that I work use 2003 and I believe there might be interference between the two programs.  I would like to know if anyone has transitioned their documents to 2003 and if there have been any complications.

Thanks

 HELP! I've used Word 2003 for years. I bought a new computer with XP, NOT Vista, loaded the program back on and it seems to work fine EXCEPT I always worked in normal view, just like it better. However, now in normal view will NOT display the entire status bar words as before; i.e., Ln does NOT show up. For example, if I wanted to skip to Line 6.75 or whatever, I have no clue where it is. Print view, I know, displays all of this. In normal view, it  never shows page breaks either which it did before. My problem is, I really like to work in normal view and have done so for years with the above items showing up on the status bar. The status bar is there at the bottom but won't display Ln at all. I have two reference books and cannot for the life of me figure thisout. Any ideas? Perhaps reinstalling it again???

Hi all! 

I accidently bumped something -- I have no clue what!  But now I have two tools bars on my Word 2003 screen and I cannot seem to get rid of the duplicate.  Any ideas?  Thanks!