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You don't get paid an hourly rate you get paid by line - sm

Posted By: XXX on 2006-08-22
In Reply to: Confused - babe

so because of how you are paid (not an hourly rate) you don't get OT, especially if you are an IC.


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When paid hourly, we still had a minimum daily line count
;lkj
Paid hourly, req'd 1000 lines, anything over 1101 was 0.04 cents a line

//


You're expected quota depends on whether you are paid hourly or per line. SM

I'm paid hourly and I was told the requirement was 50 or more reports per day.  I've never worked QA per line, but I'm sure their line quota is pretty high, at least 2000 or better per day, as you get credit for every line in every report you QA.


Hope this was the answer you were looking for.


I would much rather do ME, (that is, if it paid the same line rate) sm
Which it does not, so I guess I will be sticking with MT, at least until I don't have a choice.
That still is not a paid line rate. If your base is $0.10 per line, it will be $0.08 cpl.
Considering other companies pay 4 or 5 cents per line for VR - you are still making out.

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.
If you could get paid hourly...sm
If you could get paid hourly, no incentive, just straight pay, what would you want to get paid?  We are in transition right now where I work and we are trying to come up with a new pay scale and one of the possibilities is no incentive, just straight hourly pay.  What do you think would be a reasonable hourly rate to suggest?  Thanks!
If you are paid hourly, you obviously are not an IC. sm
As a regular employee, you may have to keep strict hours. This is just part of the package. Sometimes you can find a company that will allow you to flex your schedule as an employee, but most will not.

Only working as an independent contractor can you have true flexibility. In my experience, an employer can ask you to set the hours you will be working, but if you have to work other hours instead, the company has no control over this. All they can do is not give you any more work. That is the limit of their control. There are companies that try to enforce hours on their ICs, but this is not legal.

You should look for a job as an IC, if you want true flexibility. However, be aware that there will usually be no benefits such as insurance, vacation, etc.

If someone else has a different experience as an IC, hopefully they will let us know. Good luck to you.
I think most QA are paid hourly. nm
.
Anyone paid hourly?
I've been doing transcription for about a year and a half.  I do radiology work and love it.  The company I work for will only pay hourly for radiology.  The only way to get paid production is to do clinic work (not my favorite).  My pay is terribly low - only $8.50!  I was wondering what others are paid when paid hourly.  Also, if you can suggest any good companies to do radiology work for I would appreciate that.
Since you are paid hourly,

I'm not so sure a raise would be in order.  If you are working OT, you should be getting OT wages and fairly compensated.


Setting up templates and such is a good skill, but lots of regular secretaries can do that who can't do transcription, so maybe you are actually being overpaid if you are getting a transcriptionist's hourly wage for secretarial work. 


It is good that you are willing to be flexible and take on a different project, but I'm not sure if you should get a raise for that.  Maybe a bonus, but not a raise. 


paid hourly isn't much better
I've been at my current editing job for 3 years and I've always been paid hourly, but I only get paid for the hours spent actually editing. I don't get paid to download any of the voice files that I must have in order to do my job. If my boss needs me to look up an old file and send it to her, I don't get paid for that. If she wants me to give feedback on how a Transcriptionist is doing - that's on my own time as well.

On my invoices, I have to break each day's time down by how much was spent on which doctor's editing -- I can't include anything else.
Paid production/hourly

To those of you who are paid production (other than MQ) - are you limited to working 39 hours a week? I don't understand being paid by the line, yet being treated as an hourly worker. Just curious as to whether this is the norm at other places. 


are you paid by production or hourly?
nm
Are there any hourly paid jobs as an MT?
I was wondering if anyone knew of a company that paid hourly pay.  I am kind of getting tired of grinding my fingers to the bone to make a living .  Thanks for your help. sm
Are you paid hourly? If so, I'm surprised they allow you to work with such little ones.
 r
I get paid hourly $18.00. The hospital I work at don't believe sm
in production because of the error rate, blanks, etc. just to make money. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo happy.
That's harsh. Hardly anybody is paid hourly in this field
It's all production pay. It's not theft to get your line quota in and knock off for the day. Why should the fast ones be penalized for being good? Why should they have to do more work than the others? You can't fire somebody for meeting their contracted production in a timely manner.
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.
then you should be paid hourly somewhere and leave the lines to those
who take it more seriously. I used to do it in 6 hours...six straight. you can call that two 2 hour breaks daily - I called it done for the day early. and I did not do it sitting in diapers with a straw from my mouth to the frig, I stretched the legs as often as necessary.

Guess what? Every day I pushed myself, when I relaxed back to my normal 'comfortable pace' again, I found my line counts had increased! That much more just got easy and I just gave myself a raise.

normals? of course. shortcuts? a ton.
What to you think mass production is? Keeps the QA soores high, too. If you knew your stuff outside of terminology, you would know it is a waxing/waning speed the whole time, and you would know how to utilize the software and platforms to max. Those little games pay off to your advantage come payday. Sit and type? Not by your standards or definition. They really need to cover this in the schools.

If you do not want to work on yourself, then you need to be hourly somewhere because you won't be able to handle it. In production, it is your type of woe-is-me I'm just the messenger stance that tends to get get in our way when turnaround slips.

And that, my friend, is why overhiring was created. The same ones that would or could not pull their weight - would or could not pitch in extra to keep the darn account in contract.

I wouldn't knock those to think of it as more than a second income but a living, and regard themselves as more than a secretary but a professional. Oh, and what makes you think we DON'T have lives? We manage quite well - ALL OF IT.





Depends on whether you are paid hourly or on production.

If you are paid on production, then I wouldn't even spend five minutes researching a physicians name because it's the MTSOs responsibility to make sure have up to date physician lists available to you.  Nothing irks me more than starting a new job with an MTSO who expects you to hit the ground running, but gives you very little to start with!


If you are paid hourly, then I would spend up to 10 minutes trying to figure something out.


I get paid hourly and I work at home
They expect me to work 7-1/2 hours a day and I do, but they do let me spread it out over the course of the day. I work four hours in the morning, two in the afternoon and the other one and a half in the evening. I can leave and go to an appointment and make that time up in the evenings also. But then again, when I don't have any work I still get paid.
How did you count lines before the PC, or were you paid hourly then? nm


Hospital job is "work-at-home" paid hourly
Thank you for well wishes.
Nope. We get paid production too. Unfortunately, hourly QA is out the door.
They are fewer and farther between than you could imagine. AND, for those of us who have been fortunate enough to be paid production (I'm one of the unfortunate CBay editors who was fired just before Christmas.)
QA, $3000/mo hourly so get some overtime too, bennies paid, no complaints. nm
x
We paid hourly with incentive for high production. So she's making money when she's just
sitting there.  I don't know if it is a habit or not because this is the first time I've really had to work with her for any length of time.  I usually only work a couple of hours a day with her when our shifts overlap.  I think I'm definitely going to ask the girl I'm filling in for what she thinks about her.
Nothing. Never take line rate for editing. Take hourly only.
You will never make any money by the line editing if you are doing true editing.
If you are being paid per report for MRI's and CT's, what is a good rate? nm
:O)
Thanks, Mardi. My base rate is .085, so the most I am paid . . .
is .095 a line, whether it be 16,000 or 20,000 lines per pay period. I try to get 1800-2000 lines a day, or 9000-10,000 lines a week. This is for employee status, 1st shift, acute care, with 15+ years' experience.

I have seen so many job listings only requiring 5000-6000 lines a week and a line rate of .07-.09, and figured my .095/line was about average. If I can do better than this, please let me know!!!

I just assumed the low line requirements were due to the fact that anything more than that was impossible, whether it be due to ESL dictators, complicated platform, or just the lack of work. I would love to know of any MTSOs that can provide enough work for my production level with a better line rate. Thanks again!!
VR reports get paid VR rate whether I straight type or not.
I have just gotten to the point where on certain docs I know their VR sucks, so I straight type because it ends up being faster. It sucks, but that is the way the business is now a days, so I don't have much of a choice. I need a job, and I like where I am at, so don't like to speak up too much because the are really pushing the VR.
2 hr 30 min stat psych eval -- MD paid double rate :) NM
x
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


Question about what is PAID for a line and what is BILLED for a line
Does the MTSO actually bill for headers, footers, and other things the transcriptionists are not paid for?  I worked for a company a while back and their copy of what each Transcriptionist typed the day before and our copy was a lot different, about 30% different.  Their copy was the billing copy. So, double their enhanced amount and subtract our 9 cents a line, it comes to a bigger profit than what I thought.   
Getting paid by the line
You would get more being paid by the line.
Where can you get paid .13/line?
I have worked for Medquist for 6 years and don't get paid anywhere near .13/line.
I get paid 0.15/line
.
I get paid by the line sm
You want to be careful if you accept a job paid by the page. The going rate by the page is around $1.25. This is fine if all you're typing is plain films, but $1.25 to type long reports is a rip off.
WHAT? I get paid by the line for VR.....sm

you don't necessarily know what you're talking about - I get cpl for VR and I'm 10 times faster doing VR than straight transcription!


Where are you getting your info from? 


If QA is paid by the line then I would
yes she is getting credit for the whole report.  But she is probably getting 3 cpl so not really that much.  You should get feedback from QA and company should contact doctor re dates but whose to say they have not and have been ignored?  Been there and see both sides.  Sorry!
QA IS PAID BY THE LINE ALSO
It's not just the MTs getting lousy pay and trying to make line counts for the day... as QA editor, I struggle for my lines and when someone doesn't care to proofread or take pride in their work, I pay the price. QA is difficult!
I am QA and paid by line also and...
I have an MT one in particular who always takes feedback as a personal attack. Why is that? I am just doing my job. She actually is a good MT. The bad ones just ignore it all.
Hello! Please SM, ? about how this line is paid. Thanks!

65 character B&W line + ICP


What does ICP stand for and can you explain "black and white line" to me?


THANKS!


But how much are the US EDs gonna be paid? Typically this work is paid at 2-3 cpl. nm
:+
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.


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.
Paid Gross Line
Paid 0.09 a gross line with Courier 10 and 1" margins. How do you figure this?