A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Low pay for MTs these days - Laurie

Posted: Apr 21, 2011

I am in quite a quandy right now. I have been out of work as an MT now for 3 months due to a layoff. I started off in this field 15 years ago earning 11 cents a line for a transcription company. My last job paid me 9 cents a line. Now I am looking to find a part-time job and I can't find anything over 8 cents a line. Doesn't experience matter anymore or is the transcription field pay rate getting lower and lower all the time? I am shocked, because for me when I convert that pay rate to how I much I can produce in an hour with a word expander it is barely over the minimum wage.

Also, I tried being a speech recognition editor and I can't even make minimum wage when being paid 3 cents a line for that when a lot of corrections are needed.

I just have a question that maybe someone can help me with. Is everyone out there just satisfied with 7-1/2 to 8 cents per line these days to earn a living?

Low pay for MTs these days - LMJ

[ In Reply To ..]
Sorry you're out of work.

The average rate being offered right now is 7-9 cpl for straight typing. (There are some higher, some lower.)

Experience really is meaningless after year 3 or so. Every MT worth her salt should be able to produce an identical document. Services shouldn't pay more for the identical product, IMO. I have decades of experience but I've never felt that made me better than someone with 3-5 years of experience, just maybe smarter in how to get it done.

And I'm sorry but at 8 cpl, if you do 200 lph, you're making $16.00 for a part time position. Most hospitals are paying $14-$19 for MTs in-house, so you're solidly in the middle. Not sure where you live, but minimum wage where I live is no where near $16.00. I would think if you have 15 years in the field, you'd have ways of accomplishing greater than 200 lph.

On the speech rec, I would encourage you to not even consider 3 cpl for editing. There are companies that pay more, so keep looking for them.

Good luck as your search continues. I hope you find something soon!

Thanks for input - Laurie

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for your input. I was just shocked as I have been solidly employed for many years so haven't really been looking for work until now. I guess your calculations are correct about the hourly rate and all. It's just hard to take a decline in salary, that's all. Thanks again.

Agree with LMJ's points, both - Pragmatist

[ In Reply To ..]
on experience and that many SR jobs are paying way too low.

Broken record for point #3, though: 15 years ago, we didn't use expanders and computer platforms didn't simplify the work for us as they do now most places. Laurie, you should be significantly faster now than you were: Today's lower transcription line rates reflect the fact that most of us are.

Remember the period when technology boosts made court reporters so productive they hired assistants to transcribe for them and still cleared extremely good money? Same sort of thing, just exaggerated in their case, which also adjusted, of course. The period when people hoped to get rich by going to trade school and becoming a court reporter came and went, as did the brief period when an already-fast friend of mine was making well over $100K as an MT employee.

BTW, though, another big issue: Today's big price inflations. I had to take on faith (the math's beyond me, or at least my aspirations, these days) an older industry report that said transcription rates had kept pace with inflation in the past, but no one's getting raises that I know of, so we're all getting poorer by the day right now. A not-so-small mercy for many of us is that we aren't paying $4-5/gallon of gas to get to and from work.

Pragmatist - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
I really liked your post. You are able to explain things as they are in a way that I can understand. You sound like an economist for the rest of us--those of us who never took Econ 101 and therefore cannot understand the talking heads on TV. There are lots of factors at play here and I think you hit the nail on the head with inflation. One small favor I am grateful for is not having to wear a suit every day like I did in the corporate world. When I think of my dry cleaning visits every week and the bills, I am glad not to have to do that again. And not having to commute, as you say. In some parts of LA, gas is now over 5 bucks a gallon (!) and one economist on TV this morning said she expects it to be 6 bucks a gallon by summer. (I guess we won't be traveling much.) And I look at how expensive things are at the grocery store. What a world!

Laurie - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
I empathize and am so sorry for your job loss. I hope you find something good soon. Just to see where this whole field has gone, in the 90s I made $60/hour; now I make $30/hour, which I realize is nothing to sneeze at, but the reality is that it is HALF what I made and I have to work twice as hard, what with all of the ESLs who can barely speak English. Fortunately, I have reached the age where I can retire soon, may just do a little MTing on the side for pin money, but I am truly glad to be getting out of the field. If I were younger (pushing 70) I would probably retrain in a totally unrelated field like engineering or computer tech or something. Please don't think it's you--it isn't. The whole field is in decline. Thank you, AHDI, for opening the door to offshoring.....It's all been downhill ever since.

Lower pay than the 1990s - midwestmt

[ In Reply To ..]
In the mid to late 1990s made 52K working part-time (small local transcription service). Took some time off for family for several years. Then went back to work after several years away. Wow. What a difference. Made 36K 1st year back (MTSO) almost full-time, then 2nd year it went to VR, cut pay by half. Recently moved from one big city to another and was able to find a job at local University-associated teaching hospital. I work full-time directly for this hospital (no MTSO) making about 40K a year (but I do have great benefits) a far cry from part-time 52K in the 90s.

Pay - Laurie

[ In Reply To ..]
That is what I am talking about and why I have sticker shock. In the early to mid-90s I was making what you were, and I have seen pay steadily decline. It's a tough nut to swallow, but I guess it's better than the alternative of no job. Right now I am trying to find a job with just straight typing part time, as I can no longer type full time due to the toll the job has taken on my body during the last 19 years. I had to have both ulnar nerves operated on due to compression, and thus I can only work part time. That seems difficult to find, but thanks to the post explaining about what the pay is these days at least I can resign myself to the low pay without feeling too badly. I appreciate all who posted to my original message. Thank you so much.

Technology - s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
Now if a doctor came up with new equipment to diagnosis something quicker -- he/she would charge us more for a visit -- why with VR do we get a reduction in pay???? Just saying

Here's why - - LK

[ In Reply To ..]
Because we're letting ourselves be taken advantage of. Just say no. That's what I did, and it's worked for me. I just won't work for that kind of pay (or lack thereof).

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