Self-employed even worse getting paycheck

• Why is it that the more desperately you need your paycheck, - Murphy's Law of MTing
  • Self-employed even worse getting paycheck - ms
    • This worked for me - Wondering
  • My thoughts - Happy MQer
    • DD only works - Wolfee
  • Time to sign up for direct deposit. - MTing 2

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1.  Are you living paycheck-to-paycheck?  Defined:  Missing one paycheck would seriously harm your basic living (housing, food, utilities or necessary meds/medical care).

2.  If you lost your job today, without warning, do you think you could be employed again within 1 payperiod?

3.  Do you have an emergency fund in case a loss of job happens?

My answers:

1.  Missing 1 paycheck would hurt but not devastate me.  Mising 2 or more, yes - it could be dire.

2.  Yes, most definitely.

3.  Started one and slowly building it up.

I started with a company about three weeks ago, and here is the situation.  This is my first transcription job, so I think I was a little too eager to jump at the job offer when it was given to me.  They charge a "set up fee" of 100.00 that is taken out of the first paycheck.  I am only getting paid 5 cents/line, so I did not make that much more than the 100.00 (I think about 40.00).  The pay period ends on the last day of the month and checks are issued on the first of every month.  They do not offer direct deposit, so I have been waiting for the last nine days for my measly 40.00 check.  I really just want it to have documentation that I have paid the stupid set up fee (which I am embarrassed that I even agreed to).  I have emailed them 5 or 6 times with no response whatsoever.  They continue to send me work, and will (usually) answer questions regarding work, but NOTHING about my requests to see where my check is. 

I have since found a much better and higher paying position with another (wonderful) company, but I do not really want to put in my 2 weeks' notice until I have that check.  Any ideas??

Losing even 1 would devastate me.

I am the only wage earner, and it is paycheck to paycheck.

There is nothing set aside to help, just in case.  But I definitely feel I could get another job almost immediately with my skills and experience.

It's a hard knocklife.

There are variables.  Is the person working 10-12 hours days and pretending they are working 8?  I know many who are.  If so, income should be considerably higher.  People with their own accounts can usually make 50-60K or more. 

For a 6-8 hour days, 5-day weeks, as an employee with experience, I don't think this job should ever pay less than $30,000.  It takes too much concentration, medical knowledge and complete isolation to pay any less.  Hospitals pay at least that and you are expected to take breaks, lunch, talk with other staff and physicians, get sick sometimes, have bad days and get bad authors sometimes, take vacations and generally be a human being.  Working from home, most of us hunker down and feel guilty if we have anything else we need to do, then making it up at all hours of the night or our supposed days off.   

Obviously, you work as an employee.  Sure hope you got a raise to change from what you were hired at.  Again, not all of us can be that flexible to just change.  We do have a life.  Furthermore, anyone can dial in and listen to a dictation on the weekend if they need it that bad.  Just call the floor get the identifying numbers, call the number, plug in the identifying patient info and badda bing, you've got the dictation.  It used to happen all of the time at the hospital I worked at because they didn't want to wait on the outside MTSO that was soooooooooooo slow.  TAT was never met or hardly ever.

This is my first check and it seems like they did not hold out taxes, does anyone know if you get a copy of a paycheck to see?????

For example, I start out on a roll, going along at a really good pace.. get half my production in a few hours, then all h - - -  breaks loose. Here comes the bad stuff...All of a sudden, its not about skill... its about detective work...hunting foreign referral doctors names and addresses, etc, many times I can't even understand what the name starts with. I have to search and search for what seems like hours just to get what might or might not be the right name!  OOPS...there goes that production. I'm at the mercy of my "pool". I have no control over that or the paycheck from that point on. Any suggestions?

you set your own line rate.  However, we all know that NONE of the MTSOs hiring IC MTs allow us to set our own rate.  They "offer" a rate, and we accept if it's OK.

I worked for a real cheapo doctor when I first started out.  He paid hourly and kept riding my backside to type faster because he only wanted to pay for the actual time dictated instead of the time it took to transcribe.  More than once I told him that it takes an average of 3:1 typing to talking ratio to get it done.  It worked out to be $.03 per line.  I dropped him like a bad habit.  He bounced through a few other transcriptionists who all quit on him before he wound up having to pay to outsource to a service.

There is a new type of retirement fund for self employed business people where you can put money in as both an employee ($15,000) and as a percentage of your profits as the business owner.  It is called an Ind 401K.  Here is a link...

http://www.troweprice.com/common/index3/0,3011,lnp%253D10264%2526cg%253D960%2526pgid%253D10057,00.html?scn=Low-cost_plans_with_&rfpgid=7622

I wanted to go with T. Rowe Price but they do not allow loans, so i decided to go with Oppenheimer.

I am a self-employed MT, trained by the office I have been contracted with for 9 yrs.  When I started, it was myself and an in-house Transcriptionist working for 4 physicians.  I gave a 24 hr TAT.  I had one 18-month-old child when I started, and was able to work around 6 hours a day.  I drove about 40 min to work and back, picked up tapes, working sometimes 6-7 days/week.  Since then, they have hired 2 more drs. and 3 NP's.  The in-house MT retired, but they did hire another MT who works at home.  I had another daughter, and a set of twins in those 9 yrs.  They have always known I try to work around my children's schedules.  As I am sure many of you do, I was getting up in the middle of the night working, working on and off throughout the day and at night.  The new MT and I are backed up now and we can't possibly get it all done.  It is more like 48-72 hr TAT.  They call all through the day asking me to stop what I am doing right then and search the tape, type the note and fax it ASAP.  I picked this profession to work around my children's schedules, not have to push them aside at every moment to cater to the office.  I do not have a certificate in MT, was just trained by this office.  I checked in to other places, but the pay is much less as I get paid 65 char/line including spaces at $.125/line.  The reason they pay so well is because they know I probably can't get on somewhere else with no certificate and no experience in any other field.  They want to make sure I stay there.  Also, the driving is ridiculous.  They refuse to get technology for telecommuting.  They refuse to hire someone else.  On top of that, I was just diagnosed with IST, and am on Toprol and not capable of working the hours I once did.  Is there anyone else out there who understands or has any advice?

Hi all. I am new to this board. I have a home based secretarial service and do both medical and legal. I have never worked for a big company, just attorneys and docs as well as sales profesionals with no secretary. I have always charged by the page, but I have a possible new client that wants me to bill her by the line. Is .12 per line reasonable or too little for medical? Are there any other home based self employed individuals who can offer advice on per line charges?

Thanks!