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Working for 9 cpl, not paid for spaces

Posted By: hillbillymt on 2006-08-30
In Reply to:

Does anybody else think this is not good?  Working same account I used to do paid for spaces and working harder for same pay.  Thinking of moving on.


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They used to not pay for spaces, but a poster here said they are getting spaces paid. Are there 2
s
I would move on. I think it is so unfair not to be paid for spaces! I think we should get paid

per keystroke, but that'll never happen.  I just think that these national companies are going to keep finding ways to cheat us.  I found a job working for a hospital as an employee, paid hourly plus incentive, and they let us expand everything!  Somebody's gonna have to kill me to make me give up this job.  I will never go back to the national's again.


I feel for you though.  I know that for us MTs those good jobs are few and far between and some have little choice but to work for the nationals.  I just happened to luck into the job I have now.  I just applied at the right time. 


Good luck to you whatever you decide.


Paid for spaces
Was told years ago that the account I was on did not pay for spaces even though the contract I signed as SE said I would be.  Was told that we were compensated by being given the headers and footers in our line count (yeah, right).  Was then told they didn't want to lose me so if I was totally unhappy to ask my manager for another account which did pay for spaces.  I, of course, was told there was no other account available at that time.  On some unscientific studying and counting, figured out was losing 13% to 17% of my counts by not getting spaces.  This is one of the reasons MQ is being sued by the employees in the lawsuit.  Don't believe anything management tells you.  Just count them for yourself. 
At 9.5 cpl what are you really getting paid without spaces.
:
Why spaces are not paid for... sm
I once worked with a Transcriptionist who would pad his reports with huge lines and lines of spaces that would go undetected. He (yes he) would be paid for these elaborate line counts (we had an incentive program). If you adjust the pay rate for characters only with no spaces according to an appropriate line rate, you are assuring yourself of not being cheated by some MT who thinks they can get away with padding spaces into their documents. True story.. now lets see the end of this endless discussion.
Are you sure she gets paid for spaces?
So it would not equal to 7.5 cpl.
paid for spaces

 


I do get paid for spaces.  We take the character count INCLUDING spaces and divide by 5 to get our word count.


I think spaces are paid for. However, there
may only be 1 space in between sentences, which is set in Word. From what I have read, the eScription platform does not pay for selection of demographics, headers, or footers. Many commands are not allowed, such as specific symbols, bold, underline, tabs, and indents, to name a few.

This is how eScription is saving hospitals millions of dollars. Yes, VR is very profitable for hospitals. Of course, that would need to compare the savings to their operating costs. However, They only seem interested in saving TRANSCRIPTION costs! So, the bottom line is, MTs are working harder and harder each year to make a decent wage, while management is working harder each year to trim our lines. This is not the MTSO but the hospital administrators.

I had a physician recently tell me, "Transcription has sunk to the lowest of the lows." I told him, "You only get what you pay for." Pay nothing, get not much in return!



Curious..MQ and spaces...paid or not?

I have read many post from fellow MQers.  Some say they get paid for spaces.  Some swear they do not.  I know I get paid for spaces and have been with them since January, Denver office.  For those of you who say they do not get paid for spaces, is this a new phenomenon? What office do you work out of and for how long?  Have you copied reports in Word and counted characters and spaces? (I only have 'Works', which only counts characters, but have manually counted spaces and added that to the total characters and have come up with the same count as MQ is paying me.  Now, all I have to do is take my character count and add about 22%, which is the percentage of characters that I have found out are spaces.  MQ's count is always right on.  So, just curious if some are not getting paid for spaces and if they know that FOR SURE!  Not getting paid for spaces makes a 22% pay cut!  That is a LOT!  Now, I am not looking into starting any kind of battle here.  But just really am curious if this is the 'wave' of the future with MQ, just certain offices, new hires, or what.  Thanks! 


Need feedback on getting paid for spaces vs not....

have an offer from AccuScribe in South Carolina, 9 cpl, but no spaces.  Would like to hear opinions please, whether good or bad!  TIA!


Want to get paid for headers, footers and spaces?

Just in a silly mood.... 


To the "not paid for spaces" question
Why is not being paid for spaces the norm?  Don't you have to tap the space bar just as you have to tap a letter key?  I don't get this.  This is just another way to reduce our income.  DON'T ALLOW IT!
i do NOT get paid for spaces, my best friend does.. both out of the same office -- go figure
x
We're paying 9 cpl and everything transcribed plus spaces is paid for.
/
What the heck does getting paid by a 55 black character line?? Does this mean without spaces and doe
You just never know if this is a trick to somehow rip you off of lines. I am just very skeptic of it since I have never heard of anyone using this formula before.
Working at Home/Getting Paid Hourly

I sent in this info to an MT head hunter:


I am looking for a work-at-home MT position that is employee-based, not independent contractor, paying hourly instead of per line or per page, where I could work Tuesday through Friday, 32 hours a week, no weekends, no nights or holidays.


I was told this was a "TALL ORDER," and that I would never be able to find it.  I don't think that I am asking for too much, and that there has to be an MT company out there that is willing to pay highly skilled and experienced MTs what they are worth.  I know there are plenty of MTs out there who say, "Oh, if you work hard enough, you can make just as much per line as by hour,"   but it's been my experience, having worked three MT jobs from home, that that would entail cranking out btetween 1,500-2,000 lines per day...provided there is work available and provided you are getting paid more than 0.12 per line  I've been working 12 YEARS as an MT, but most companies still want to pay me between 0.05-0.12 cents per line.  FIVE CENTS A LINE FOR AN MT WITH 12 YEARS IN THE BUSINESS.  What is wrong with this picture???????? 


If there is a company willing to pay an experienced MT at least $16+ per hour to work at home, please e-mail me!


Re: Working At Home/Getting Paid Hourly
Perhaps. Don't get me wrong, I like where I work and how much I'm making, and this company acdtually has two MTs working at home; however, they are not offering this option to any other MTs at this time, if ever. The at-home MTs from this company are getting paid per hour and have full benefits, but that's only because they've been working in-house at the company for many years. *Sigh*....
Working at Home/Getting Paid Hourly
Sounds like nice work if ya can get it. :) I wouldn't mind picking up tapes, provided that the pick up/drop-off site wasn't too far.
Working at Home/Getting Paid Hourly
THAT SUCKS. You should be making FAR more than 9 cents a line. UGH. And there are still companies offering experienced MTs 5 cents a line.
Rates for working, paid more for stat?
Maybe others but I think mine are probably the average, 8 cents per line for straight and 4 cents per line for VR. My standard 4 are considered history and physicals, operative notes, discharge summaries and consults. A transfer, I think, would be a discharge summary. No extra pay for experience or lack thereof.
My DH paid every dime of his bachelor's degree working....
36 hours a week and going to school.  How did he do it?  He didn't get involved in serious relationships because knee he would get sidetracked and wouldn't have the time to devote to school.  It also helped that he lived in California where state college tuition is reasonable.  For his master's degree, he borrowed the money from  his father (only about 4,000) and paid every cent back right away (this was after we were married and had 2 kids). 
Not a good deal! I get paid 20/hr employee for working with new MTs
x
Yes. Three months paid training? That's just ridiculous unless you're working
in the office.  What service can afford to pay an MT for three months of training?
Made 60K last year working 50 hours a week being paid on gross line
nm
My line including spaces is 65 characters. I've heard that not counting spaces
takes away over 35% of your line count. I believe it too because you have at least 15 or so spaces on each line that you type. Use your first sentence up top as an example; you had 77 char and 21 spaces - in that line that would be a little less than 30% of your characters that you didn't get paid for. I don't think it's worth it and wouldn't want to work without getting credit for my spaces.
For QA consulting I'm paid per hour; QA instructing (college) paid salary, QA editing paid per li
I am an IC and work for two different MTSOs as well as instruct at a business college.
Pay No Spaces, Type No Spaces nm
nm
without spaces compared to with spaces
10 cpl without spaces equals to how many cpl with spaces? 
Spaces versus no spaces....

Can someone tell me how big of a difference it makes if a company pays for spaces versus no spaces.  I have only every been paid without spaces.  I have been offered a position that pays for spaces, but the cpl is less than I am making now.  I am not sure if getting paid for spaces will make up for the pay cut.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!


if mt paid 9, editor paid 4 or 5...how can company charge 14 and make it..sm

I know the going rate in our area is 14 cents per line.  As MTs most companies here pay us 8 or 9 cents a line.  Now add in the Editor rate at 4 or 5 per line..you are paying OUT more than you can charge a line.  How would companies stay in biz?


Unless all work is sent by the company overseas at pennies per line, this would not pay for a company.


just curious how this works out


But how much are the US EDs gonna be paid? Typically this work is paid at 2-3 cpl. nm
:+
You don't get paid an hourly rate you get paid by line - sm
so because of how you are paid (not an hourly rate) you don't get OT, especially if you are an IC.
If those companies paid a fair wage, and paid more
all came out equal, people wouldn't feel the need to try to make up the deficit by going for the good stuff. I actually prefer the harder, juicier reports. But I can't make a living doing only that, because the pay is not commensurate with the difficulty. So even though I prefer not to, sometimes I have to pick up some of the easier, more boring 'line-o-matic' reports just to make ends meet. Tell your MTSO to make it work their while, and MTs will stop taking all the easy work away that you obviously would prefer to keep for yourself.
You wont show UE being paid because it is employer paid -
the employee will never have to pay this.
What you "should" be paid and what you "are" paid

sadly are two very different things.  Good luck on demanding more..because someone else will just come along and take it for what they offer and they know it. 


You get more working the evening or night shifts and working w/o benefits. And producing like a mad
,
10$ late if invoice is not paid within 10 days. At day 15 work stops until invoice is paid. Hardly
xx
Ditto....granted I am not working much these days, but am currently trying out a new way of working
when I do work which seems to be helping.  I am timing myself and keeping a log of how long it takes to to type however many minutes.  I am averaging anywhere from 13-18 minutes of dictation an hour now doing this.  Granted the time fluctuates between who I am typing, and if I have to look up names, addresses, etc., just depends on the division I am doing at the time.  But work that used to take me 3 hours to do is now taking me under 2 hours, I am also trying to put in more macros as I go along, which slows me down initially but pays off in the long run of course.  I was working "all the time" before but took forever to get done since I was not applying myself. This new "attitude" has helped me a lot.  My goal, in the Fall, is to do 90 minutes a day consistently at 6 hours, and then maybe get up to 120 minutes a day at 8 hours, still while having at least half of the day free (do 60 minutes at night, and the other 60 by Noon).  Thereby doing 1200-1400 lines a day.  I have never really buckled down and done more than 8000 lines per pay period, so it will be a nice change.  Maybe you can do something like that and have a specific knock off time as was suggested below. 
Working holidays? Out shopping in stores where someone IS working

that holiday you refuse to work?  Grocery stores, food joints & seems any store is open on holidays and you expect them to be fully staffed, so why shouldn't we?


Yes, I took off for the first time on Christmas day, in 18 years and it was great, but I worked Christmas eve and this whole past weekend.


Someone has to do it!


working IN A HOSPITAL is different than working at home.
Someone can steal you identity from the internet if they want to. Why would you go to the time and trouble to jeopardize a job that requires some level of skill to steal someone's identity or medical records? You could get a job as a retail clerk and get info easier than going through the testing required to become an MT.
Somehow working at home translates into not really working
My in-laws are the worst. Whenever they plan something last minute and my husband says that I had to work, they say, "but she works at home!". When I one time mentioned I had a "schedule" and basically punch a clock and work full time, I don't think they believed me. They will sometimes call mid-day during the week if they are in the area to see if I want to go for lunch, etc! The best is, my husband doesn't make all that much money, so where is it coming from, the money fairy? I am ready to strangle someone! So I know how you feel and I'm sorry it upset you. You are not alone.
DQS no spaces? Are you sure?
Are you sure DQS does not count spaces? When I first started, I took a report and manually counted each and every character, space, return, etc, and found that the lines count I was given for the report matched (rounded up) my manual count. Even now, I copy and past every single report to Word Perfect (which does not count spaces on my version), and DQS always exceeds my Word Perfect character count by a bunch, so I figure I am not being cheated. Take a medium size report, print it, and try counting manually and see what you think.
I know they don't pay for spaces
So tell me why when one day I did 800 lines and then 3 days later it shows I did 670 lines when I actually did 800 lines.  The 800 lines is without spaces, headers, footers.  So did those lines magically disappear?  This happens to me weekly.
spaces
LOL.  I think we need to transcribe a few reports without spaces..heck, let those being paid hourly fill the spaces in.
spaces
LOL. You just made my whole day.

iwoudn'tmindtypingaletterwithnospacestoday.

BTW that is really hard to do.
spaces
anycompanypettyenoughtonotcountspacesisacompanytostayawayfrom.  Who'spocketdoyouthinkthe$forthespacesislining?  Quite frankly, I've been a med trans for nearly 30 years and I'm so damned tired of watching big business cut into our means of living.  How did all this start anyways? Used to be in the old days that we were all just ICers looking to make a living, and we did in fact make a decent living.  Then came the introduction of nationals and everyone ran to them thinking they'd be making BIG money.......Now the nationals are in place and their CEOs are making the bucks we thought we'd get a piece of. Wish there were a way of reversing this.
Spaces
She's lying. MQ does NOT PAY FOR SPACES. They treat their transcriptionists like crap. I found this out and left them. I found it out for a fact.... They do NOT PAY FOR SPACES. They have started this "trend" and other companies have begun to follow suit. They make me physically ill.
Spaces

Been there 2-1/2 months.  Love it.  Plenty of work.


Issue:  Spaces.  Recruiter said no spaces.  Trainer said no spaces. 


On the line count screen, clicked on one of my reports, then had an option to look at payroll stuff on it, so I did.  It added up not only every single character I typed but spaces AND carriage returns (I had 719 spaces and 56 carriage returns) and used that number divided by 65 for my line count.  NO KIDDING.  I am surprised.


Who knew?!  I'm excited! 


spaces

Was this on DQS?  And could you give more detail on how you did this (i.e., what exactly did you click on to get this info?).  Thanks! 


spaces

I was told years ago that I was not paid for spaces on the account that I was on, but some accounts were.  It depended upon how it was set up when they won the account.  I think that's why there are some who are and some who are not, thus the confusion.  The only way to know is to manually count your lines and compare them to what the system counts. 


10 cpl with spaces. nm
x