The result of MTs' efforts to make a living wage are (sm)
Posted By: ALREADY disappointing. on 2007-04-02
In Reply to: Do you really think people are going to switch - Truly asking here
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?
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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.
I want a decent job at a living wage and less stress in my life.
O
I also want a living wage for MTs. Don't mind hard work and longer hours, just want to be paid
:+
what is the result if you make the same
checking on a free AV?
That's the only way to make a decent wage --
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?
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.
You want to make a living don't you?
Then you listen to idiot dictators. You want to be in the spotlight and be on TV, stay in Aruba. You want to grieve the loss of your daughter privately, stay at home and appoint a spokesperson. You ultimately make choices about what you do based on facts and necessities. It is NOT NECESSARY for Mrs. Twitty to be in Aruba or if she decides she rests more easily in Aruba it is NOT NECESSARY for her to give press conferences acusing people of being criminals or incompetency.
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.
to make it official, not living in sin, tax
nm
Can't say I make a great living, but...
I support myself, my disabled husband, and also have 2 grown children at home, which the one pays his bills, but the other is having problems. We are buying our home, paying for our car, and still have enough to eat out a couple of times a week. I make more at home than if I go back out into the work place.
If you make a living with your PC, it pays to
x
You can't fault someone for wanting to make a living.
Outsourcing simply means that big corporations show bigger profits and the CEOs get bigger bonuses. They claim that it's good for the economy because the companies and CEOs have more money to spend, gag me with their trickle down economics theory, but they refuse to see what it does to the working class people. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in this country down the road as more and more working class people lose their jobs to offshoring. What, are we all going to sign up for unemployment and welfare? Will crime go up as we all start stealing just to put food on the table? I wonder what's going to happen.
You can make more than that per line, but at 125 lph, not a good living. Have to do at least 300 lp
x
Is it possible to make a living off of 4 cents a line?
If there is anyone out there new and still considered a mentoree and able to work full time and make rent please tell me because I need some encouragement. I want to quit the day job to be able to do this fulltime but when I do the math it just doesn't add up to the rent:-)
Any words of encouragement would be helpful.
It is worth it though. I couldn't make a good living without.
x
Really? I make a good living transcribing tapes.
Just because it's not the way you want to receive your work does not mean it is worthy of contempt. As far as I'm concerned, practitioners who are reluctant to give up their familiar dictation methods are less likely to give in to the blandishments of VR or EMR salespeople.
You are free to work your way, and I am free to work as I see fit. If that makes you cringe, well, I guess that's just your problem. It doesn't bother me at all. Cringe away.
Agreed! I couldn't stand to make my living (sm)
facilitating the state of California's biggest growth industry. Not to mention the doctors' callous attitudes towards their patients and the things you would have to transcribe would make you ill. You do know our country has the greatest percentage of our population in jail of any country in the world?
BFA in Jewelry/Metals, did craft shows here and there but did not make a living -sm
goal though for this Fall or soon that is, is to get my work done by noon, then spend 3 hours at least 2 x a week in my studio which I have not touched in about 6 years.....see if maybe I can get the ball rolling again with that via local shops, studios, etc. Used to have reps that sold my jewelry in Philly which was quite nice.
I support your efforts!
I am proud of you for trying to get some local business away from being sent overseas! I don't really have an answer for you because I work for a local doctor and am paid hourly (work at home, though). The doctor likes this because they have a lot of "canned text" that he would not like paying me for over and over.
However, I would say that 8 or 9 cents a line is more than fair. I think you need to point out the ADVANTAGES to him of paying you this, such as keeping the work in this country, great turnaround tme, personalized attention, and whatever else you can think of.
Please let us know how this turns out. In the beginning, I offered to take Friday's work home on a trial basis and do it for free to get started. The doctor was pleased with my work and hired me. We are pulling for you! Hope you don't get a lot of naysayers on here asking you why bother - that is so annoying. We MUST all try to do whatever we can do at this point.
I make a second living off ebay! I have sold maternity clothes, baby clothes, tupperware, and I have
Christmas dresses and boys' outfits that I will be listing in the next month or so that I bought last year at a smocked closeout and paid 8-10 a piece. Price tags read anywhere from 56 to 88.00 dollars and I will get approximately 25 to 40 a piece depending on what brands and size they are. Plus they pay shipping. I sold approx 35 Christmas outfits on ebay last year which paid for my Christmas. It was awesome and I'll do it again this year! Good luck.
Oh, you do have to have a credit card, bank acct. for ebay. It is worth it though. They just have to verify who you are.
You can check out my auctions with momof3boysal
I just saw on MSNBC where relief efforts sm
have finally reached Slidell. From the video, there are boats and jetskis and FEMA is there, too. There is flooding and the homes have been severely damaged. Hope we can hear from her soon.
Right now all of our efforts are to get her better and on the road to recovery. What may lie ahead
in terms of lawsuits, etc., will be addressed at a later date. Her getting better is our #1 priority. I was just amazed at how the process has been handled so far. It really is a shame.
wanted to add it was nice of you to positively reinforce MT efforts on difficult dictations...(nm)
`
I did exactly what you did and had the same sorry result
I came down with repetitive stress injury after typing for hours each day for years. Now after an hour of typing my fingers are sore and stiff. I went to DNS for the same reason, did the Know-brainer, got the excellent mike and trained the a** of the thing - after months, I still could not get any production out of it. I can type circles around the thing-- except I can't type! Furthermore, the thing is so touchy, requires frequent re-boots to get quality production, and I would have to redo my dictationary every three months because of a **known** glitch in the system. Then the thing has to hear the whole sentence and think to make sure it gets context right-- you are dictating the next sentence while it is posting the previous sentence and you're trying to do both at the same time. hated it.
VR done by other companies uses the Dragon platform but then changes the software so that edits are easy - not the bulky, slow, fingers off the keys editing that DNS has. Our hospital had the radiologists go to Dictaphone's Powerscribe and in 30 days they were doing all their own dictation without ANY editing by MTs. So depends on the platform. VR definitely works.
As long as your end result is verbatim, it should be up to you how you get there! nm
..
Actually, the testing is a direct result of...SM
all of the schools and training programs out there that don't begin to teach a person what they need to know to be able to do this work. People come out of the training programs and think they are ready to go to work, but in reality they haven't got a clue. The only way to weed through these people is to require testing to be sure the person being hired can actually do the work. That's the long and the sort of it, in my opinion.
I agree I learned more as a result of the
I never worked on production back in the olden days, though. I was always paid hourly at my in-house positions. I never received production pay until I went home to work. It's a whole new mindset, and I believe wholeheartedly in using whatever tools are at my disposal to increase productivity. However, I'm very glad to have learned the old-fashioned way, too.
And the result is like a Catch-22. Clients/MTSOs
so they turn to alternatives like offshore or VR. But they don't look far enough to see that the root cause of not enough experienced MTs is because the experienced don't want to stay in a sinking ship. I think they feel that using the excuse that lack of experienced MTs validates them turning to cheaper alternatives, which in turn, makes the ship sink even further.
Think it's a result of that darn "vote-for-the-worst" sm
group that is skewing all the results. Wish that site could be abolished.
Sage advice. Consequences would result in being out of the loop
But I can live with that.
Anyone had a positive result of posting a resume through this site?sm
Once again, I am on the lookout for another service because work load is starting to slow down. Quite frankly, I'm a bit scared! We had no work for many days starting about this time last year, and it looks as if that cycle is starting again. I was just wondering if anyone would suggest I post my resume here.
This board's image problem is the result of complaining MTs.
 --should become the new logo.
Once had an ESL cardiologist who dictated every lab result done during hospital stay
and even the normal ranges for each test!!! 45 minutes long and of course it was a PRIORITY/STAT.. yeah right
If you google the phrase "Letterman sign" it is the fifth result listed ... sm
It seems to be the same thing as the Terry-Thomas sign. It was new to me, too.
Offshoring to India is the direct result of declining quality
being produced by American MTs. The declining quality being produced is the direct result of inexperienced, under-educated MTs being churned out by these online MT schools.
How common are server issues and other technical problems that result in downtime? (sm)
Do you get compensated for your downtime? I'm thinking of going to work for a national, but I've heard there are a lot of technical issues at these bigger companies. True?
If Joint Commission audits and finds "patient care" errors it can result in very...
...serious fines and repercussions.
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.
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