IC pay rates - romiha Posted: May 7th, 2018 - 5:32 pm In Reply to: IC pay rates - Mamp98
I'll bite.
I started in this business as an IC back in 1994. Of course back then, I didn't know the term "IC" and was simply a self-employed medical transcriptionist. Oh, and I had no medical transcription experience - I knew how to type fast but that was it. I called around several doctors offices to get a feel for the going rate and offered 1¢ per line (65 characters, VBC didn't exist back then). So, I started at 12¢ per line. I had expenses then - printer, paper, auto, etc. I drove to each doctor's office in the morning to pick up cassette tapes, typed all day (WordPerfect 5.1 DOS) went back the next morning. Over the years, I increased the rate slowly up to 14¢.
In 1998, I entered a different line of work, hired other MTs so in essence I was my own MTSO. I paid them 7¢ per line. In 1999, I "sold" my clients to the best MTs since my other job was getting more involved. In 2003, one of those gals nearly lost 4 of my best clients so I snatched them back, and then the new career I was in went bankrupt in 2003 - I kept my clients and worked other jobs.
In 2006, I went to work for an MTSO who paid 8.125¢ per line, 65 characters. I still had those 4 clients of my own and successfully switched them to internet based transcription and dropped my rate to 13¢ per line. I'm down to 2 clients now - 2 clients retired on me in the past few years.
Over time, I met the MTSO's quotas and increased to 8.5¢ per line. When VBC took over, I was told my rate would be 9¢ per line and I yelled over that and got to 10¢ per line. That MTSO sold in 2015 but my rate stayed the same with the new MTSO and most of the same clients - HOWEVER, it was not 65 VBC characters but rather 47 to 50 VBC. So in essence a bit of a pay raise. Last November, however, most of the clients were switched to Voice Wreck and I'm paid 3.5¢ for 65 characters for that. I'm able to earn about half or just slightly less than half what I was earning before. In fact, the MTSO recently took me off one of the clients because they claimed they can't afford to pay me 3.5¢ to edit Voice Wreck. Seriously. I asked if there were any other straight typing accounts available and so now I've got 2 straight typing accounts with the MTSO. And still have 2 of my own clients. In fact, one of my 2 is the first client I started with all those years ago.
It's so sad that MT pay is so screwed up unless you have your own clients. I average $35 an hour with my clients - but only 30 minutes a day maximum. lol. That doesn't feed my cat.
I don't dare ask for a raise with current MTSO - heck they couldn't afford the 3.5¢ for the one client I'd been with since 2006. grrr.
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- IC pay rates - Mamp98 (Views: 648, 2018-05-05, 7:12 pm)
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