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Pay for MTs - Alias
Posted: May 09, 2013
Honestly, the pay now days for MTs is insulting, 5 cents per line for transcribing and even less for Escription or the like! I have been an MT for over 30 years and I used to make a decent wage per line, but now days not so. Just terrible! Does anyone know why this is happening?
There are many reasons - for this,
[ In Reply To ..]but I assume the main reason is that they can still find people to do it at that pay and will probably still find people to do it even at a penny a line. Very sad indeed that this is now all we are worth.
Pay - Alias
[ In Reply To ..]Very sad, but true! Thanks
It's FAR bigger than us. A giant wage/class gap has - opened between regular skilled workers who
[ In Reply To ..]are not considered to be hired for their decision-making capacity and higher-skilled employees who are. Wages are being slashed for the former group and raised for the latter (some of them at least, their votes needed to keep it going).
This is occurring across the nation as we've essentially canceled the New Deal and Fair Deal equitable pay programs, dismantled many employee protection laws, and even enthusiastically passed many laws making it difficult and even in some situations illegal to engage in union activity. The will not improve significantly as the job market improves. We have returned ourselves to the laisse faire era of rampant dog-eat-dog exploitation.
Remember "We have to get off the back sof business?" Well, we did. Such a shame we didn't remember what caused our grandparents and greatgrandparents to fight for a fair deal in the first place.
Reasons... IMO - anon
[ In Reply To ..]Long ago, we were expected and did turn in client-ready work, the clients paid for the dictation systems, etc., and there was virtually no QA let alone no cheap overseas labor. We also kept our jobs (no job hopping). Now, it is just the opposite plus MTSOs are paying several cpl for platforms, and clients want a lot more for a lot less. The flyers that came out when I was just graduating stating no education required and showing us working in pajamas just downplayed any professionalism as well.
I could not even afford to work for 5 cpl. That does not even pay overhead let alone salary.
low pay - workhorse
[ In Reply To ..]So many reasons why this could be happening.
1. India (need I say more?)
2. Greedy corporate mergers/take-overs.
3. Predominantly women workers and corps run predominantly by males who do not value women's work, especially if you work out of your home.
4. Technology. With voice recognition we should be able to earn twice of what we had been making in the good ol' days. But apparently the greedy corporations feel it is their duty to cap what we can make and keep decreasing our pay as technology grows, which allows them to line their own fat pockets with our hard earned money.
5. Most importantly, the newbies who have saturated the work field have been more than willing to accept such low pay to get their foot in the door. They don't realize that there are no raises, and that the greedy CEOs, in an effort to be "competitive" will lower everyone's pay to be equal, and eliminate bonuses and holidays.
low pay - Alias
[ In Reply To ..]Truer words were never spoken! Thanks
Your post is right on the money on all 5 counts. - I can think of one more thing, too:
[ In Reply To ..]Women haven't stood up and said "no" to all of this wage-cutting. For whatever reason, women are more prone to attacking each other, than attacking their crooked employers.
one more thing - workhorse
[ In Reply To ..]IMO, the lack of being able to say "no" to a lower pay has to do with the "buyouts" and "takeovers". We never applied for the job and had no opportunity to decline the job except to quit once we were engulfed in it and the changes took place gradually after a course of time.
It reminds me of that "frog in the boiling - water" story NM
[ In Reply To ..]x
MTs are no longer this "elite" group - MT2long
[ In Reply To ..]You have new MTs getting into the field daily. In the past, they were few and far between and most people didn't even know what we did. I have been an MT for 15 years, but I am one of them that does not feel that MTs should make $30 per hour, like we used to make. Most MTs start in this field with little to no formal training and it is insulting for an MT to make more than a person with a 4-year degree, student loans to pay back, etc.
That's just me though and not a popular opinion. At 5 cpl, an MT should be able to type at least 200 LPH, so that is $10 bucks per hour. Most experienced MTs can type at least 300 LPH, so that would be $15 per hour. I don't think that is insulting at all.
Um - see msg
[ In Reply To ..]Maybe on strictly clinic work one can do 200 lph. Actually, I take that back. Years ago, I did 200 lph and it was acute care, but back then, it wasn't 95% ESL and the rest hurried and harried. It was 70% ESL and the rest decent dictators.
I think that remark about because we're women is why getting paid lower is a silly remark. It doesn't explain why we got paid higher years ago, and there are plenty of corporate women in the MTSOs.
I think most of this is because of docs needing to see more and more patients to barely make what they used to. Insurance stuff (like HMOs)came into play, and docs had to start seeing 3 times the amount of patients to break even.
Healthcare costs in general have risen, because these days, we are forced to take care of those who come here illegally to have their children, Those people and their families get all free everything, whether they are here legally or not.
It goes on and on. Those of you who think Obamacare is going to solve the problem are seriously mistaken. Prices are going to go WAAAAY up.
If a person can't type 300-400 LPH, they should get out of MT - OldMT
[ In Reply To ..]All of the variables of why a person can't type as much should just mean that the person should find a different career. There are still plenty of MTs that are high producers and can live off of smaller cpl, because they produce the difference and make themselves shortcuts, templates, etc. I can type 300 lph no matter if acute care or clinic. If you can't "produce" then a job in production isn't for you.
You need to stop generalizing - anon
[ In Reply To ..]I have 25+ years experience and averaged 350 LPH (acute care) for years. That is, until I eventually ended up at one of the corporate MTSOs that are buying up all the little guys.
I've gone from 8 accounts to 36. Yes, I mean 36 different facilities/hospitals across the country. If you know some trick where I can once again get up to that speed while flipping through 36 different client profiles in 28 states, I'd love more advice than "find a different career" and "leave it to higher producers".
Thank you - see msg
[ In Reply To ..]That poster must have just a couple of accounts, wonderful dictators, no ASR and extremely good audio quality coming through at all times.
Or low quality.
I'd be willing to bet it's LOW QUALITY. - no/msg
[ In Reply To ..]
Templates, shortcuts? Please fill us in how you use these to edit. - Angie
[ In Reply To ..].
Maybe her MTSO only requires 75% accuracy, - instead of the standard 98.5-99.5%.
[ In Reply To ..]
And then the flip side of the coin...... - Mom22dogs
[ In Reply To ..]....how are we supposed to do 300-400 LPH when THE WORK IS NOT THERE? Do we pull it out of thin air? LOL! And before you say the work IS there, let me say that I have read posts from people who have multiple accounts and they STILL run out of work!
I agree, the work is not there. - OldMT
[ In Reply To ..]What cpl you have doesn't mean anything if you don't have work to type. I have to have several jobs at one time and yes, sometimes all jobs get busy at once and they suffer, because I can't be there to help with TAT, but my paycheck does not suffer and in the end, I have to look out for me.
Good luck with that......... - DustinTheWind
[ In Reply To ..]
300+ lines per hour is likely to be chock-full - of errors. Accuracy is better than speed.
[ In Reply To ..]
Old MT - Anonymous
[ In Reply To ..]As an old MT, you ought to know that the platform and the provider doing the dictation make a huge difference in a person's production. Some people who crank out those big numbers produce crap work and get slammed on their QA. I've been an MT for 35 years and now QA the work of other people so I know of what I speak. Also, people who get jerked from account to account have a difficult time getting up to speed. 300 lph is 2400 lines a day. I do not know anyone who does that much work in a day, and I know some great MTs. Producing less does not mean a person should find a different career, it only means that they are a slower typist and perhaps a bit more careful about the quality of their work. Personally, I'd rather see someone who did less work in a day whose reports came back "clean" that someone who only cared about how much they were able to produce.
P.S. - Anonymous
[ In Reply To ..]It should have been "than" and not "that," sorry. I didn't read the other posts but I see that others are in agreement with me.
"slow typist" - LT
[ In Reply To ..]I think years ago it was okay to be a slower typist, but today with the lower wages, it is next to impossible to make a living that way. I read these boards almost daily and see multiple posts from MTs that they can't pay their bills, they are making less than minimum wage, "slave wages", cannot eat, etc. I agree, that platform, dictators and many variables are in play, but with a person's variables, if they see that they are unable to make a living and they cannot find a better paying MTSO, the smart thing to do would be to move on. If you start a job making say 7 cpl and you see that you only can produce 100 LPH, then common sense would say to move on.
Rather than moving on, these MTs come here and rant and rave and try to figure out how to get more money out of MTSO (not going to happen) or talk about a strike (not going to happen either) and they bash those MTs who claim they can still make a living as an MT. Why not just LEAVE the career or if they care enough about what they do, then make peace with the pay cuts and do what they can do?
I don't do nearly as well as an MT anymore either, but my husband has a great job, so I don't have to. If I had to support my family with this income, I would have jumped ship long ago. That is just common sense.
LT - Anonymous
[ In Reply To ..]Maybe the people who think it is okay to sacrifice quality and accuracy to huge line counts and that production is all that matters, are the people who need to move on. MTs are not, and never were, meant to be assembly line workers.
LT - meme
[ In Reply To ..]Maybe people who don't need the job should jump ship and leave the work for the ones that do need a job. Perhaps you could start selling Avon or something for your pocket money as there is a shortage of work available for most MTs who need the work.
you can be a very high producer with great quality - mtr
[ In Reply To ..]there are many of us still out there
I doubt there are "many," but there are super-talented people - in any endeavor.
[ In Reply To ..]Just because there are some outliers who can churn it out and keep up their quality has nothing to do with what the "average" MT can do.
I and my whole team of about 50 people on an old account I had were supplied the metrics, and it was fascinating to see what the *reality* of VR editing was. The high average was a little over 200 lph, and only 5 out of ~50 were regularly in the 300s. The highest producer, who was in the upper 300s/low 400s (never over 420) had the lowest overall quality (sometimes around 95%).
So only about 4 MTs out of 50 were high producers with great quality, i.e., less than 10%, which is my guess what the stats would be in general too.
I'm not one of them and know I don't have the talent or temperament or ability to ever be, but I do my utmost to produce high-quality work at the highest speed I can and never think of myself as a lesser MT because I can't do what probably less than 10% of us can.
More Than Production - BZB
[ In Reply To ..]Kept thinking about that line, "Then a job in 'production' isn't for you" as I worked this evening. What we do is so much more than "production," correcting medications that VR guesses wrong on, Googling frequently to make sure we've got the right brand names, trying to help an ESL doctor produce a readable report. I'm not just turning screws on some assembly line. I've been doing transcription for 40 years now (started back when we used Correct Type, LOL; thought White Out was progress. And I know I'm slow, but I'm way more than just "production."
googling? - mtr
[ In Reply To ..]nm
I guess my whole team on my primary - account should quit NM
[ In Reply To ..]x
Um... - workhorse
[ In Reply To ..]So, if you feel my remark about women is silly, google the CEO of Nuance and look at the list of the VPs, etc. Most all are men with no medical/MT experience whatsoever. As for the women of the MTSOs they are on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. If the majority of MTs were men, this would not have happened. I do agree with your other remarks.
My Point Is - see msg pls
[ In Reply To ..]...we used to make good money in this business and we were females back then. We did not morph from male to female over the years.
no kidding... - workhorse
[ In Reply To ..]We also worked for doctor's who saw value in what we do, not a bunch of corporate ladder climbers who could care less about anything but the net profit.
I Know that - I stand by the female thing
[ In Reply To ..]I get that. I just don't agree with that female comment. We aren't low paid because we're female, or we would have been low paid back when it was good. And the males doing MT aren't getting more than we are.
So, we can eradicate your female being oppressed theory.
Don't know about the female thing, BUT - sm
[ In Reply To ..]I have had recruiters say something to me along the lines of how great it is to be able to work at home and "raise kids" so I do think that the fact that so many MTs have used this career to stay home and raise their kids definitely has something to do with pay as well.
I think a combination actually of needing to stay home to raise kids and those people who have worked from home so long they just refuse to go out into the work field, or feel like they can't. I have read many posts on here saying an MT is making "slave wages" yet going out and getting another job is never an option. The MTSOs know this as well. They know that there is a mother who doesn't want to put her kids in daycare or an MT who has lost all social ability and at the point they feel like they can't leave their home and they prey on those.
Throughout time, our reproductive organs have put - us below men on the totem pole. :(
[ In Reply To ..]
The only raise we got was expansion software increasing productivity. (sm) - Angie
[ In Reply To ..]I started in the 80's where .10 cents per GROSS line was the standard. When we increased to .12 cents per line, we'd already taken a considerable loss by AAMT making the character line the standard, so we lost more than we gained with the line increase. We gave ourselves a raise by using canned text, not a cost of living raise from the powers that be. Now, not only have we been reduced to half of what we made 30 years ago, but with editing we have also pretty much lost the use of our canned text and we have a ton of duties that the MTSOs expect us to do for free like correcting the nonstop dictation errors, inability for dictators to enter the correct demographics, a huge percentage of ESLs and other dictators who couldn't make VR come even close to what they speak.
Would men go 30 years without a raise? How many men would work for what we are paid? Boys just getting out of high school with no college or professional training are making more than we are today as editors.
What? - anon
[ In Reply To ..]Where are HS boys with no college or training get jobs and editors? And editors of what, exactly?
what - workhorse
[ In Reply To ..]Boy, did you completely miss the point of what was stated. She meant that the HS boys make more than editors make these days and they do so with little to no experience. Not in editing, but in general.
Men would never stand for no raises in decades. - Angie
[ In Reply To ..].
Then I guess - All the male MTs are getting raises?-nm
[ In Reply To ..]xxx
nm - workhorse
[ In Reply To ..]MTs are predominantly female by a very large percentage, enough to be considered a female occupation. If a man joins in then he is lumped together with us. If it were predominantly male, then I have no doubt that the pay would be very different and much better. You're just being obstinate.
I disagree. Even back when we made what we - considered to be "good money", (sm)
[ In Reply To ..]if MT had been a male-dominated profession back then, instead of female-dominated, the pay would've likely been a whole LOT better.
Even today women are paid a fraction of what men are (sm) - Angie
[ In Reply To ..]Discrimination against women continues with a new generation too lazy and self-entitled to carry on what we did with women's lib in the 70's. We made major accomplishments, but there is still work to be done. We've made it to much easier for young women today that they don't even recognize the continued discrimination.
Do a little research - jones
[ In Reply To ..]Two thirds of business organizations have found 4-year college degree holders to be completely unprepared for the actual business world. They site problem solving skills, communication skills, hands on skills, etc., as being woefully inadequate for the business climate.
If you find it insulting for skilled people to be making more money than a person with a 4-year college degree today, you are unaware of the woeful deficiencies in in a 4-year college degree programs, and selling skilled MTs very short in the process, including selling yourself short.
No longer elite - Anonymous
[ In Reply To ..]To a point, I agree with your comment about MTs making $30 an hour. My employer felt the same and found some foreigners to do our work, but the quality is so poor that I think they probably regret that choice. I know a lot of people with 4-year degrees who can't do (and never would be able to) do what we do. Having student loans to repay has nothing to do with this discussion, everyone has bills to pay, we're not working for the fun of it. Most people still don't know what we do. I assume that you are talking about straight transcription, which is practically non-existent any more. Regardless of that, I don't know if you realize how difficult it is to produce "at least 300 LPH" day in and day out (8-hour shift) and maintain accuracy. Not only is that killer on a person's body, but when the work flow is not consistent, it is impossible. Who are you to say how much work an experienced MT should be able to do. I've done MT twice as long as you have, and I would never tell anyone how much work I thought they should be doing.
MT wages, etc. - anon
[ In Reply To ..]You MUST be speaking to MTs who finished a 3-month program with no high school education or professionalism or live in such a rural cheap area.... Are you kidding? That rate does not even cover my gas bill, let alone phone bills for which they are calling on, and I live in a very warm area. I have numerous degrees and finished 2 MT programs (top student and named Student of the Year from Biology Dept. at famous college) and finished numerous workshops, etc. I live in an expensive area. Due to HIPAA and working 20-hour days or more, I had to kick out our roommate and pay his portion of rent. I also pay for dictation systems, 6 business lines, dedicated fax, cell (I never talk on the phone but have it strictly for clients), advertising, hiring/training for MTs who rarely show up for work, numerous computers (replaced every 2 years, expensive ones that hold extensive data), etc. My overhead is over $7000 not including computers and IT or ON-THE-JOB INJURIES. My medical bills are in the millions.
My skills are not equated in LPH typing but critical thinking skills. None of my clients are verbatim. I am also required to be available 24/7 and work extremely hard, so you think my skills are only worth $10 per hour? Even the MTs I have seen turn in the worst work possible are worth more than that, and despite all mistakes they make, I pay more than that in advance. Way more.
I gross quite more than the average but type considerably slower. It is the quality and what you know as well as the time taken out for quality that will earn you more pay, and personally I am worth quite more than $10 per hour. It does not matter whatsoever to me or my clients when I have applicants claiming even 100 lph; it is accuracy and the ability to think and correct mistakes (as well as work with templates now in the EMR environment). Thank goodness my clients agree. Where I live, $10 per hour does not even pay for a simple babysitter let alone parking a car.
I hope after reading this post, you realize either you have value on your career or at the very least value on others' careers who have gone all the way. I am glad you are willing to work minumum wage, but I have over a few million dollars in my business and 14 years of my life.
At the rate proposed of $10 per hour, that does not even cover the cost of my electric bill
Well, things being equal, your LPH amounts - make sense. SM
[ In Reply To ..]Things are not equal, however. There are too many variables to make a statement like that. An account that always had work, dictators who speak clearly and intelligently, platforms that are MT friendly, on and on in a perfect world. There are so many roadblocks that get in the way of consistently making 200=300 LPH so I do not agree with you.
Supply and demand - mt57
[ In Reply To ..]Too little work left in the US for too many MTs - supply of MTs exceeds demand, so wages are driven down. The demand for skilled MTs has decreased significantly due to technological factors - ability to send work offshore and use of SR technology.
Those 3 little words said it all. NM - anon
[ In Reply To ..],