Unskilled labor doesn't make much more than minimum wage anywhere.
Posted By: Me again. on 2006-01-06
In Reply to: The problem is this.... - MT fighting super Wal-Mart
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.
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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
If a state has a minimum wage, how can a company (not MT) pay
that companies have to at least pay minimum wage?
Minimum wage requirements when there's no work, perhaps?
Looks like the Q is having to pony up minimum wage to a lot of MTs when there is NJA and this, I believe, is the highest in CA. Interestingly, CA-based employees of the Q seem to get NJA less frequently than other regions.
CorTmedical - never heard of em, but they need to hear about the minimum wage ... - nm
minimum wage laws cover employees only - nm
x
Minimum Wage, as I read this tears began to well in my eyes ...
You, like some of the other posters, reflect a clear understanding of the downward trend this industry has taken over the last few years and the mindset of those who caused it. You mention so many experiences that resonate with my own. Most notably, I like you, put all of my eggs into this one basket, foolishly believing that this wonderland profession that I had found would last forever. It was a perfect fit for my skills, abilities, and work preference. I was able to make an excellent living and felt that somehow I was making a meaningful contribution to the care of each patient whose chart came to life under my fingers.
It is amazing to me how each year the profession requires more and more knowledge from us, more skill, more ability, more dedication, more resources ... and in direct correlation to what is demanded from us our pay is cut more and more and without apology. I mentioned in another post that I remember when I first got into MT'g some 20+ years ago hearing the Powers That Be constantly resentfully complaining that we made too much money and were no more than glorified typists. Who could have known that one day they would finally all band together and make an industry-wide collective effort to correct what they felt was an unacceptable dynamic?
It seems that everyone directly and indirectly involved in the process of transcription is valued and compensated well for their contribution to the process -- everybody except us -- the ones who actually make the final work product a reality.
Thank you for your contribution to this thread.
Longevity as an MT doesn't mean a higher wage. Lots of us out here still earning less
s
That's the only way to make a decent wage --
Their pay is way low and you work like a dog to make minimum lines.
x
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 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.
You spending 3K in gasoline to make 4K plus all that time on the road?That doesn't make sense Pat
Doesn't matter, IF you are not paid an hourly wage, i.e. a set amount no matter - sm
how much or how little you type, say $12.00/hour, you do not get OT. As someone mentioned here, certain jobs are exempt, and as most of us are paid a flat rate of .08 cpl or .09 or .10, whatever it is, that is all we get regardless of how many hours under or over 40 hours we go. If you want OT then go get an in-house job or get a job doing something else.
Transcriptions, you are saying, are unskilled workers?
I spent over a year training for this job. It took my total attention, I spent so much time in books be it the regular dictionary or medical books. I thought I could go right into transcribing because after all, I had worked in hospitals, medical offices and the like and if I were not a trained professional then, I do not know what it was. Very, very hard for me to understand the ESL physicians and most of the hospital dictators just that, training hospital. I was glad I kept it up but I in no way demean the profession I choose for myself but putting a slant on it like you have. I feel sorry for anyone thinking in this day and time they will be able to make a liveable salary because it would take more than 1 job to do that, a full and a part I would think. Our jobs started being outsourced and that is why the really lousy salaries now, I do not think has to do with being unskilled.
Labor Stats from Dept of Labor for MT inside
This is quite interesting...it is too long to post here but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the statistics. Thanks!
tp://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:eGxrU1X5lOEJ:www.bls.gov/oco/ocos271.htm+how+much+to+become+certified+Medical+Transcription&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
This is ridiculous. Get an education and become more than an unskilled laborer.
The price of everything will go up if you unionize everyone.
BTW, those "filthy rich" ranch owners had to work hard to position themselves where they are. It's kind of a natural selection thing. People who are smarter eventually succeed and work less hard, while people who aren't so smart break their backs and are poor working harder and harder.
It's life.
Of course you second this. That's what MQ managers do. Doesn't make it right
or relevant. Keep putting out those fires of MQ discontent, or at least until the big guns with the lawsuits put out MQ for good.
What a crummy job you have to defend big business against the little guys who are just trying to make a living. Kinda have to sell your soul doncha? 
doesn't this make the fed gov even more liable?
Think about it: If they knew how volatile this area was, shouldn't they have responded IMMEDIATELY to help the local gov? I imagine some people might have been afraid to go into some of those areas where murder and rape are an everyday occurrence...?
they knew how bad it was and how order was needed probably more than anyone did...
This doesn't even make sense - sm
Why are you getting these reports? Were you told or asked to do this? I don't get this at all, especially since you aren't QA.
What doesn't make sense? ..sm
From what the OP said, she wouldn’t have even known about the call if her husband hadn’t shared the information. Why would he create suspicion where there is none?
The only thing the OP’s husband did was answer his phone and tell his wife about the conversation. How many times a day do you answer a phone? How many times do you mention a call in conversation? He may have only mentioned it because he was amused by his friend’s childish ways. If the OP’s husband doesn’t want his friend using him as an answering service, then he needs to discuss that with his friend. It is between the two men.
What did the woman who called do wrong? She was given a number to reach someone at, and she called the number. If someone gives you a number to call, you assume it is okay to call that number. She may have even had a legitimate reason to get in touch with the guy.
Calling the friend’s wife would only humiliate and embarrass her. If her husband is a cheat, and there is no proof that he is, she knows. When she is ready to accept that information and handle it in her own way, she’ll do that. It is also possible that her husband isn’t cheating or that she doesn’t care if he’s cheating.
This situation has obviously caused tension for the OP. Maybe this is bothering her so much because she already has suspicions, if so, she needs to figure out if her suspicions are valid or if it is how own insecurities. She should then discuss her feelings with her husband calmly and rationally; freaking out or getting loud doesn’t make anyone hear you any better, in fact, the opposite is true. Just because someone else’s husband is a skank doesn’t mean her husband is a skank. It isn’t fair to convict this man of anything other than answering his phone and having a friend with poor judgement.
What? That doesn't make sense. sm
How would the house be worth less than she paid in legal fees to keep it in the divorce? Even if she paid $20,000 in attorney fees, she still came out the winner. These houses look beautiful, and it sounds as though she enjoys hers very much. Did you actually look at the photos, and read her description? You said you didn't think she's be able to give it away much less sell it, and that statement is just crazy.
I make mistakes too (who doesn't?) but (sm)
some of the more obvious errors, like the difference in "their, they're, there", definitely spelled definately, accomodate, things like that are what I mean; they are not typos, but errors. If someone told me I was spelling "definitely" wrong, you'd better believe I would put it in my Expander or SOMETHING. I still say a lot of people just don't care and don't like being told anything.
That may be true, but it doesn't make it RIGHT. - sm
I think honesty and quality in the workplace should be more important than the Almighty Dollar. Especially when the people making MOST of the Almighty Dollars already have far more of them than they probably really need, and the MTs don't have enough of them to survive.
That doesn't make any sense then
I can't believe the trees would make any difference beaming to a satellite especially if you are able to get Dish Network.
Just because she said it doesn't make it true! LOL
"Boredom comes from within." Well, what does that mean exactly? Yes, I'm sure boredeom does come from within because deep down inside I want to be challenged. I want to use my brain and find a career where I forget that I'm even working because I'm so engrossed in the task at hand. I don't think that job exists. Do you? Or maybe it does, but I just haven't found it yet. MT certainly isn't challenging any more. The only challenge for me is keeping a decent paying account that doesn't go to VR or offshore.
At job interviews, I always tell the interviewer that I like to be kept busy. Otherwise, I start clock watching and thinking about all the stuff that needs to be done around my house. Sometimes I wonder if I'm ADD because I was the same way in school. If the topic interested me, I was there. If it was boring, like government or history, I would totally zone out and not be able to concentrate. I guess we're all like that to an extent, right? It's just difficult to concentrate on MT lately because I know it's just another report with the same old physical exam section, the same diagnoses, the same plan. It's never going to end as long as I do this job. Every day, there's more work, more of the same old, same old. Yeah, I think I need to get out of MT. I don't even know if editing or QA would be challenging enough for me.
doesn't make any sense--sm
explain "in the year you reach full retirement.." and "until the month you reach full retirement." very confusing.
it doesn't make sense (sm)
Do you really think Stedman's is going to make everything available for free?
This person has posted this link at least twice - who knows what it might be putting on your computer.
I haven't clicked the link and don't intend to. It can't be a legit link.
Just cuz the BOS says so, doesn't make it correct.
x
That doesn't even make sense. You don't
think newbies do MT? What? Well then what do you call all the newbies out of MT school who get jobs?
It doesn't make any difference...
whether you are an IC or not, the work still needs to be done... and it needs to be done 24/7. There are plenty of companies who pay a decent shift differential, but that isn't the point either. You should not always expect to get more in order to do what your job requires. And you come here and post a rant about how you cannot find a good job... I think it is quite obvious why. You are not willing to be flexible.
I'm not sure which is right, but either way, seems like it doesn't make sense to rebuild
nm
are you the same Laura E who did not even make 12k last year? That doesn't
sound like plenty of work. It sounds like PT and that does not mean that there is enough for FT.
No, that doesn't make you a horrible person.
Doesn't it make you just about "loose" your mind? (nm)
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