That's the only way to make a decent wage --
Posted By: Have you own accounts! on 2008-04-18
In Reply to: I have my own account(s). nm - ES Specialist
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I want a decent job at a living wage and less stress in my life.
O
When we are not making a decent enough wage to buy our kids food and clothes, it is like (inside)
the little kid who wants a toy from another child and runs to his mother and whines "he won't give it to me." Just another way for them to try to force more money out of already tired pockets. I for one will not pay for that until they fight for wages to be increased. Let them go out of business like a lot of us have had to do. Now they want to make us pay for the lack of money they are getting from India because I am sure they aren't buying into it, and believe me I don't hate the Indians for wanting to work, it is not them, it is the American company's greed. When transcription companies can spend millions and millions of dollars to buy each other out, you know it is a lucarative business.
Why are they cramming voice down our throats at half pay? You can't tell me they are taking half pay, plus half pay is not enough when speech is not trained.
Vote for Obama! He says he will close the loop holes for American Corporations to send our jobs overseas.
One year and you make decent money? What is decent money to you?
k
How long to make decent $$$??
This may seem like a stupid question to all of you "veterans" out there, but how long until a "newbie" can expect to make a decent wage in this business? I have only been employed for about 5 mos, so I am trying to cut myself some slack, but minimum wage is hard to swallow. I do reports from a pool of doctors so I can't seem to utilize the full benefits of expanders, and on my best day, I can type about 110-125 lph. Again, I know I just started, but I can't keep making this kind of wage forever. Are there tricks I am missing? Any insight would really be appreciated!! Thanks in advance!!
I am, but not because of pay. I make decent money, more than I would
make in most fields today that don't require a degree or experience. I'm just burned out with the monotony of it. Type, type, type and then type some more because the account is behind and others aren't pulling their weight, so type, type, type, go to bed without spending time with family, exhausted, kitchen not cleaned up, and get up the next day and do the same thing all over again. You have no control over your paycheck because you are paid by production. If you have one of those days where you get the worst dictators or the sound quality is really bad you don't make your lines. If you don't feel well you don't make your lines.
I've done this nearly 20 years, about 19 more than I ever thought I would, but I'm tired, I don't enjoy my job, and I want to do something different. My problem is that I need to be home 5 more years and I don't know what I can do and make the money I need to make.
I make decent money at my
I just feel like a cog in a machine, unappreciated, unnoticed. I work for a hospital. I have also felt this way working for large services. I would like to feel that my time and services are valuable and appreciated, but I just don't seem to feel that way.
I know waiters and waitresses make less than minimum wage
but when you add their tips it should come up to at least minimum. I know they figure it that way anyway. What other jobs don't pay minimum?
The result of MTs' efforts to make a living wage are (sm)
And of COURSE we don't want less - we DO want more. That goes without saying. But you see - the type of verbal attack that you and other "Debbie Downers" like you launch every time an MT says, "Wait a minute... maybe there IS something we can do is so typical of the type of thinking that holds not just MTs, but women in general back. I have already checked and made sure my doc's MTSO doesn't offshore. If that changes, my ins. (which is just your average, run-of-the-mill HMO) STILL allows me to go to other providers. If you "don't have many options", have you ever wondered WHY? Could it be that you keep SETTLING for less and less? And could it be that other MTs, when they read the gloom and doom in your post, will think THEY have to settle, too?
As for pulling other endeavors out of other nations, hey - there are quite a few that I think others would LOVE to see pulled out. Such as tech help for just about everything from your PC to your cellphone being sent to places where they can't understand what you're trying to tell them, and vice versa. I have a friend with a Masters degree in software engineering who is working menial jobs right now in order to pay the rent, while he looks for a job in his field that is a full-time, benefitted position, rather than as a part-time IC with no benefits. He says even the part-time jobs are getting hard to find because so many employers are sending EVERYTHING out, including part time.
The old, "Go ahead and try! Why don't you quit MT? Oh, boy - more work for ME!" song and dance may fly for a while, but why sit back and seemingly enjoy watching your profession go extinct, when eventually it WILL affect you, too? Do you really want to sit there all day as an "editor" and stare at work typed by other entities? How boring is that? Where is any ounce of creatitivity? At least when you transcribe, you are producing something of value, and can take pride in it. And at a lousy 3-to-6 cents a line, where is the pride in speech-rec or editing work?
I work on Escription VR and if you cannot make minimum wage, then
something is really wrong with either you or your system. I make a very good salary on VR. It can be done even at 4 cpl and that is what I am paid. I have occasional straight but 90%+ is all VR. I do not understand people saying minimum wage- that is only 6 or 7 dollars an hour, ridiculous to work for that in this kind of profession.
How long does it take to make decent line count?
I am considering joining an outsourcing company. Can you tell me how long it took you, as an experienced transcriptionist, to get up to snuff that you were making a decent wage? And what is your average rate per hour when paid by the line of 65 cpl?
Other than it really is broken a lot, you cannot make a decent line count on it.
It is a horrible disorganized program that is not user friendly like some of the other ones i have had. Sound quality has to be the worst of any company there is. Tech support is nonexistant for at least 6 hours to 6 days. Pay is horrible, especially if you get stuck on editing an account (about 4 cpl) Happy bankrupcy
RE: Other than it really is broken a lot, you cannot make a decent line count on it.
Your opinion is not shared by many who work at Transcend. I personally get all the lines I need using BeyondTXT and I think it is a great platform for transcribing or editing, and I do both, and believe me I have never gotten close to starving. Editing compensation is 60% of transcribing line rate by the way and my compensation is not 4 cpl as you so erroneously posted.
I have a flexible schedule, I make decent money, better
than I could make working in an office, even though I haven't had a raise in 5 years and not likely to get one anytime soon. I homeschool my children, we don't have a 9 to 5 lifestyle, DH doesn't have a 9 to 5 job and it allows him a 3 day weekend so we like to travel. I am able to work anywhere I can get internet access so we can pickup and go at a moments notice w/o me having to worry about work.
I hate office politics. I don't have to spend $$ on clothes as I work in jeans or sweats, or can stay in my jammies all day. We only have 1 car and that works for us now, but wouldn't if I worked outside the home.
Life is just less stressful not having to get my kids up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready so they can catch the bus by 7:00. My DC would be getting home at 4:00 or later if they were in school and by the time they did homework and we had dinner it would be time to prepare for bed and we wouldn't have much family time. By homeschooling my DC have been able to explore their passions, have really developed a love of learning and we have developed a wonderful family bond. We spend hours every week talking about world events, relationships, etc. My DC are my #1 reason for working at home. When they have left the nest I may consider working outside the home, or at least exploring other work-at-home options.
I will stay in Podunk and make a living wage if you will take it to a blog. sm
Is that concept so hard to understand? I you cannot understand that simple idea, maybe that is why the lot of you don't have the sense to do something about your situation other than just whine. Take it to a blog, where maybe between you will be able to help yourselves. Or better yet, think of it this way,,, take it to a blog and then you won't have to navigate around the other posts to whine to each other.
Unskilled labor doesn't make much more than minimum wage anywhere.
How they can afford to work for minimum wage or purchase health insurance is a whole different issue. I don't want to subsidize unskilled workers benefits by paying higher prices at Walmart or anywhere else. And my dear poster, that's what it comes down to. If you force any company to pay "benefits" (health insurance is not an entitlement) the consumer will absorb the cost or the business will fail. Same with minimum wage going up or taxes. The prices go up to cover the business expenses. I go to Walmart for bargains. If I don't get bargains because the prices are high, I don't shop there. Walmart knows they need to keep prices low and they cannot afford to subsidize unskilled workers health insurance. My company doesn't and I understand the reason.
I've beat my head against the wall trying to make a decent
the ESLs, I can't get much past 1200 lines daily anymore. Anyone else in the same boat?
I don't know about you, but I've got kids to feed, clothe, and house. I need to make a decent
living. I'm not going to be cheated. It sounds as though you've decided to let yourself be used and abused aby the MTSOs all with a big smile on your face. Whatever! It's MTs like you, not I, that have caused the pay rates to decline. MTs like you who will accept whatever abuse they companies hand out, accept being cheated, and accept losing jobs to India.
You'll be back on here next week or next month posting under a different name, crying about your paycheck and looking for sympathy.
I *only* make $40K a year for full time work. Now I find that isn't decent is or fair?
nm
All I want for Christmas is a decent job, a decent job, a decent job.
One that's not 95% ESLs, steady workload, steady accounts, good communication, office staff who aren't rude buckpassers, decent line rate, no offshoring, direct deposit, flexible schedule, not having to do 50+ 30-second reports per day, and a platform conducive to speed. I know it's not possible, but a girl can dream, can't she? This is, after all, my Christmas wish list. I never get what I want for Christmas. Why is that too much to ask for? It doesn't even matter anyways. After Christmas, I QUIT MT!!!! Burger King is just down the street, and they give food discounts.
Low wage
that seems awfully low. For instance if you were making even 9 cpl you would be working for 11.25/hr. Who can exist on this? My current supervisor tells me it takes about 30 or more charts to equal 1000 lines. That would take an entire 8 hours and then some maybe. This is very discouraging. I don't like this platform so far.
WAGE
Of course it is lousy. Illegal aliens in my city make more than that flipping burgers. What an insult to us that someone would offer that amount.
Wage vs Need/Wants
At first glance, yes, $12.00 seems low. However, I live in the northeast and I know I cannot survive on that rate of pay. Maybe in other parts of the country $12.00/hr is very survivable. It all depends on your needs/wants.
At $12/hr you are grossing $480/week, $960 bimonthly. Around here, health insurance coverage for one ROUGHLY averages $50/week. Now you are netting $430/week before taxes. Dental plan? Deduct another $10 or so per week. Down to $420/week before taxes. Figure out your monthly expenses and don't forget that ever present anvil-over-your-head factor for unexpected bills. Also, don't forget you need to save some $$ too - after you buy food and pay the monthly bills! Hmmmm...I am getting this image of a rat on a treadmill.
The question you ask is not simple. You have to figure out if $12/hour is good for YOU. It is just not a survivable wage in this part of the country, especially if you have dependents that eat like horses, go to colleges far away, and you live in a state that taxes you up the wazoopie and only has two seasons: winter and 4th of July.
wage
Oh yeah and the wages being offered are even insulting for a newbie. Can I say how disgraceful this is for "trained professionals" to be offered this. The newbie wages run around 8 cpl...but why at 5, 10 or 15+ years is it fair to still be offered that?? Employers please show us some respect and pay us what we are worth. Remember everything in life is "you get what you pay for." These companies wonder why they have such a HIGH turnover rate, HELLO pay us decent wages!!!! Just think if you broke a typist wage, proofreader wage, English major wage, and everything else we are considered and added it all up it is WAY MORE than we get!
min. wage
Oh yeah it is possible to make minimum wage on some accounts especially when you are a newbie. Start out as a newbie and have one of those hard learning hospitals with a lot of ESLs who you hardly ever type the same one twice and add in many residents. Also add in more than just the basic 4 work types on that account such as psych. discharge summ., echo labs, holter monitor reports, treadmills, etc. that you only do every once in a while and aren't familiar with. With all those factors which I have on one of my accounts it is possible to make min. wage. But I have gotten better it seems. I know some people will say why do an account that is so difficult for you? If I can conquer this I can say I have done something I think. It is just a job and as a newbie I can't pick and choose without much exp. so I put on my big girl pants and do it. Just explaining how you could make min. wage with the right factors.
minimum wage is Fed
I know some cities/counties and I guess states have their minimum wage requirement to allow a business to operate. I know some cities in NJ (where I live now) won't allow a business to operate unless they pay minimum around $9/hour. But minimum wage is a Federal standard and is set at $6.XX an hour - that is for all 52 states.
And it is illegal for anyone to pay less. Actually, I found out that if you are working for someone on a production basis and it comes out to less than Fed. min. wage, you can actually file a complaint and recoup wages.
Minimum wage in NY now $6.75 hr - sm
Working at Burger King is looking better all the time!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/nyregion/01minimum.html
We do get hourly wage
during down-time and the only approved down-time is meetings and computer malfunction. Lack of work was not approved so if there is lots of work available we have no worries, if not then we will be scrounging around for work. I don't have time for that. 
I will have to ask my supe if that is how it is because that is how I understand it. If so, I maybe putting in my 2 weeks notice.
At least minimum wage
I worked inhouse for a company. We did not have to be there at any certain time, but we did clock in and out to show how many hours we were there. This was, as the other poster said, to make sure we made at least minimum wage. Also, they figured this by the pay period, not by the day.
Not around here you can't. Minimum wage. sm
I live in the midwest in a rural community. Wages are lower.
IC and minimum wage
I have read on the forum where an IC should make minimum wage. Is this no matter what her line count pay equals? I am new to being an IC and have just accepted a position with a service. Is this true with every service? Do they have to pay you minimum wage? Also, if the service is not in the state where you live does this make a difference? I just figured you were paid for what you produced.
minimum wage
7.00 an hour would only require you to type about 90 lines an hour. Let's say minimum wage is $10 an hour, that would only be 130 lines an hour - I do that in 15 minutes even with my ESL doctors... I say if you are only making minimum wage, this is probably not the field for you to be in.
Less than minimum wage
AND a bad platform, and you are staying? There are jobs out there for way better pay, but you have to start looking! With your four years experience, definitely do not settle for 7 cpl!
I have months when I clear $1500 and I have months when I clear $2000....the difference is ME. Over the past 8 years I have learned to work smarter, more efficiently, and that it is a necessity to have the tools to work with. What good is it if I become an expert swimmer but I'm stuck in a bathtub? If my company's platform would not let me do better, then I'd be testing for other jobs. You are the only one who can do a thing about your income situation.
minimum wage
Walmart pays minimum wage with infinitesimal increases over time. Work schedules are constantly changed to keep the employees off balance. The work is extremely exhausting and at least in our local area, they have a very hard time attracting employees, so there are some real tough scary characters working there. Across the street at Target, it's a different story. Employees are well-groomed, happy, and eager to help the customers. The stores are always immaculate, and you never have to negotiate around towering stacks of boxed unshelved merchandise like at Walmart, which has turned into a filthy mess most of the time. Considering that Target's pay scale is not much more than minimum wage, we can assume that there are cultural differences in that company that provide a better quality of life for their employees. If you have a choice in your local area, go for Target.
lucky you have not been at min wage
Yes MT, you have been lucky, and I would say you probably are not working for Medquist. Lately, those of us who have been working there for many, many years have found our line rates being cut several times while we are being routed only the worst ESR jobs out there as well as always with a different account where we have to study the client profile (CP) before we can even begin to transcribe. Next job, yet another client, yet another profile with different rules to study. I regularly made $30 an hour before, but with the changes, I have now been relegated to min wage. I'm looking for something else, believe me, but after more than 12 years, it is hard to make a change, especially when you have been so demeaned by your company that has put you in this position in the first place.
Decent MT job
Good luck in finding one any more. I have checked on several and they are all as bad as or even worse than MQ. That's why for the time being, I am staying with them. Everybody wants us to work for peanuts nowadays, thinks we can just jump from one account to another with 100% QA, understanding totally strange doctors who don't speak English, etc. The people in charge don't have a clue just how difficult this job really is. I wish I could retire!
How much is it? answer is less than minimum wage.
You don't wanna go there. Why would you take minimum wage to
work with the public all day at minimum wage or maybe a little more than minimum wage, leave your family for hours and hours at a time, and use basically none of the skills that you obviously have as an MT.
I find it a bit offensive that you would compare working at Burger King as being a better career than being an MT. I, for one, have worked long and hard on becoming an MT and am learning something new every single day.
Sounds like you need to work for a company who appreciates you and will pay you well. They are out there. You just need to look.
Min wage in WA is 7.63 but they are proposing a $1 increase. nm
$$
Minimum wage for down time? sm
Was wondering if anyone has any information about being compensated for downtime - specifically how the department of labor views the complete lack of compensation from these companies? How do they get away with expecting you to work a set schedule, logging in, and then just sitting there? I don't know of any other job - employee status - where this would be tolerated. And, this "flex" thing...how many of us can continually log in throughout the day, on a whim? Many of us work 2 jobs, have kids, other obligations, etc. Wondering what my fellow MTs have to say about fair compensation and what they have found out? I think running out of work weekly, if not daily, and then having to work crazy hours just to get some minimum lines in is not only nuts, it could be in violation of some laws here. I think we are at least owed minimum wage if there is no work. Any opinions? I am going to research this.
That's a great hourly wage!!
s
Not every state's minimum wage is the same.
Ohio's is $7.00 now and some states higher than that. I don't understand why a job that requires reasonable skills would need to be paying no better than "state minimum wage".
making minimum wage
I may just be crazy here, but I do not see how anybody could possibly just make minimum wage on this job. At 8 cents a line, that would be only typing less than 75 lines an hour, and even at 5 cents a line it would be less than 130 lines an hour.
Do people really and truly sit down and type for an hour and only make 5.85 an hour?
Only actual employees get min wage.
I am making more than minimum wage.
NJ is $7.15. I average between $13 and $15 an hour, sometimes more, but each hour I work yields a different line amount depending on the type of account I am on. I switch between 4 different accounts. As long as I can produce the same amount of lines everyday I am happy. Sounds like you are to, so not sure why you are concerned if people are making minimum wage in this field or not. Why do you care?
Can't enforce minimum wage for ICs.
based on my skillset, not the skillset of other MTs. That could actually lower my rate. I have never accepted any low rates and never will. I'll find another line of work before I'll accept 7 cpl rates. If that's what a place offers, they get no more of my time, period. Yes, I'm a very patient person and went through many bum interviews before finding the right fit, but it's worth it not to compromise.
Besides that issue, I agree with you 100% about AHDI being a crock. I don't care what other health care professionals they choose to represent as long as they take MTs off their list entirely.
making minimum wage..
Most of the time the company's minimum requirements for your shift would equal at least minimum wage, so if you don't meet your line count and therefore are making less than minimum wage and they have to pay you the difference, they probably are not going to keep you as an employee -- at least I would not think so.
I don't work for them but I think they can get away with paying less than min wage
becuase you are an IC and not an employee.
If you're an employee then, yes, I'd say you'd have a leg to stand on but if they have min line/production requirements then more than likely those min requirements would equal out to at least min wage so it would still fall back on you. These MTSOs are usually pretty savvy about getting around legal issues.
seriously, do not compare an hourly wage job with
nm
At this point, not much! An hourly wage and
I was responding actually to DECENT MT
...rather than EXCELLENT MT.
:)
Nice attide, though.
I don't know companies that charge 18 to 20 CPL!!! The most I've heard of is 13. Who charges 18-20 CPL, please? And who are they sleeping with??? :)
I lie... I forgot that in mentioning sleeping with..... There was a surgical group whose director's wife started a service and charged her husband and his partners 18 CPL.
They now offshore to India, however.
Where is there a decent company???
I would like to know exactly WHERE to apply to a decent company that is not the same as or worse than MQ? I have checked into several and they all leave a lot to be desired. I have lots of experience, have 99% QA reports, and would like to be paid for it. I have not found anybody who is willing to pay me any more than I am making at MQ, plus they have a lot of rules about strict schedules, etc. that were a lot worse than MQ. I would love to quit MQ, but where is there a better place???? Let's hear some POSITIVE answers for a change----.
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