QA Pay Preference -- hourly versus per line? SM

I've been offered two QA jobs; one that pays $15 per hour and one that pays 4 cpl.  I'm told that I can make more than $15 per hour on production because you get credit for all lines in a report, even if you make only one correction.  So I figured that to make the equivalent of $15 per hour, I would have to QA 3000 lines a day.  So here's my question, is 3000 lines of QA in an 8 hour day feasible and is it possible to do more lines than that in an 8 hour day?

Both offer employee status, benefits, etc.  Benefit plans are pretty much exactly the same down to the same health insurance company. 

• QA Pay Preference -- hourly versus per line? SM - anon
  • Depends on if doing 100% edit or not. - lp
    • And the platform matters - tnmt
      • I can tell you this - sa

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I am checking into other options for transcription.  Can anyone tell me how to compare all of these types of lines & also payment per word?  I know companies use different scales, so I wondered how they compare.  I have been paid on a 65 character line with spaces, but I may be making a change in the future - don't want to get burned.

Thank you in advance!

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!

I disagree with the hourly rate.  I like to know that I get paid for the amount that I produce.  It would really be hard to regulate an hourly scale.  If you feel bad now how would you feel knowing that someone is goofing off or typing slower or whatever and getting the same rate of pay that you get?   I have a couple of subs and I know about how long it takes to do one of the psych reports but how could I know what that person is doing.   I really think that the hospitals/accounts would have a problem with this especially with us working at home.    Also how could we clock in and out at an hourly rate.  I am a pretty trusting person and trustworthy but there are times I stop and take a break and go to this board, etc.  That is why they went to the per line charge. 

And yes, I can do 2500 lines per day. For one account last month I had them keep track of the errors that they found and it was 5 out of 10,.973 lines for that month.  So I feel I do a good job but if I were to go to hourly I would lose money as with this account it takes me about 30 to 35 hours a month with delivery, printing, etc. to make $1100  to 1200 a month.   They would not pay me $35 to 40 an hour. 

I have never been paid by the line before, and I was wondering before I go any further, what would be the minimum requirement of lines per day for most services?  I want to be full time and have benefits.

Thanks

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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.

Does anyone know how to compare byte count versus gross line pay?

Thank you

I recently had a call for family practice dictation and I offered 12 cents per line.  Have always charged by the gross line and was charging 14 cents, which I thought was too high, so lowered it to 12 cents.  However, the more I am reading I see that 65 character seems to be the way everything is getting billed.  I also realize at 12 cents per line I lose a lot going to 65 character lines. 

I also realize with family practice that they might have a lot of times where there is one or two words on a line and probably wouldn't be too happy about paying for gross lines. 

I guess I'm looking for advice on charging.  Is charging for gross lines unheard of anymore? I have already quoted the 12 cents, so that will have to be my charge.  But as far as gross or 65 character, I haven't been asked that yet but would need to have that absolutely straight with them before starting.  Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.  I know I'm a little behind the times and am trying to catch up and stay competitive also. 

Thanks!

but it's been so long ago I can't remember...I think it had something to do about the playback speed. You should mess around with it.

To change Operation Preferences

Choosing "Preferences" from the File menu brings up the Preferences Dialog Box.  Click on the Operation tab to access Operation Preferences.

Pause

Use this option to add a delay (in milliseconds; 1000 msec = 1 second) after a specified number of keystrokes.  This option is useful if you find that ShortHand is playing back text too fast for the target application to handle.

Verify Target Window Receives Keystroke

When this option is checked, Shorthand waits for a keystroke to be properly received by the target window before playing back the next keystroke; this prevents Shorthand from accidentally overrwriting text in another window.  The disadvantage is that, on some systems, this could result in very poor playback performance.  Unchecking this box causes Shorthand to playback Keystrokes at maximum speed without verifying if the keystrokes reach their intended target.  If you experience lost or transposed keystrokes, use the Pause option above to slow down Shorthand.

I have always charged or been paid by 65 or 60 character lines or per letter or space typed, but have never been paid or charged per gross line.

What is the advantage of this?  If I were to charge 11 cents per 65-character line including spaces, what does this figure out to for an average line rate and how do you do this calculation? 

I'm wondering if it is financially beneficial for me to bill by gross line or to keep it the way I have it.  I do know some accounts will only pay per 65-character line, as this was the deal my first own account I recently acquired.  They were adamant on a 65-character line, but didn't specify with or without spaces and I personally would never not charge for spaces.

Thanks for explaining this.  I appreciate it and hope everyone has a speedy day.

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.

A hospital where I worked long ago (in a galaxy not far away) had a hybrid pay system- a basic hourly rate plus incentive bonus for production over a certain amount.  I think this is the fairest way, because sometimes I'm fast and sometimes I'm slow, but I'm always accurate.  My first transcription supervisor back in the dark ages said "No one who reads that report will know or care how many lines you type per hour.  They only know what that report looks like".  I still believe that.