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

2013 income - wondering

Posted: Jan 02, 2014

So how did everyone do this year working as an MT? I earned about $36,000. Wished it was more :(

2013 - MT

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Between 2 jobs and a lot of hours, I managed a little over $50,000 this year. I remember not too long ago when it was higher. :(

2 full time jobs and graduate school - MT

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24K

Income - Retired, but still working

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On SS and work part time, figuring around 24K as well; maybe a bit more, but not much. I am happy that I can still work as an MT and do straight transcription and American docs, so I just have to life on that much money and enjoy my life and enjoy my free time and stay active! I have good health and that is worth a million bucks right there, but it would be nice to make more money. Maybe in 2014, now that I have learned to enjoy my retirement, perhaps I can work a bit more, see how it goes, but I count on 24K as my income.

Wonderful that you can even earn that much as an at-home MT - Kitty

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anymore. No, I expect this once wonderful profession to be downgraded even more that we will all throw in the towel in the next year or two.

While 24K might seem a lot to us home MTs (I do live in a large metro area/city), that amount would be more or less an insult if it were offered for a comparable job on the outside.

$24000 is going rate in the corporate world - Long Time MT-NY

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Sorry to burst your bubble but I decided 2 years ago that I would go back to school, brush up my skills and get a "real" job...well $20000 later I have a "real" job which I hate and gross about $28000 (for 32 hours.) No way to go to full time in this job-I work for a large teaching university-if I go work somewhere else in the hospital the amount I have to pay for parking would be outrageous, I have to pay a lot for my health insurance and put up with the pathetic bull*** that goes on in the "real" word. I really wish I had stayed home and am trying to come back home and work. Be careful what you wish for...there are so many pluses to working at home.

good year - SM

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Main job $59k

IC position $8k

I appreciate 2013 for what it was :)

I thought.... - Surprised

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From reading the boards I thought everyone was earning less than minimum wage.. and was so pleased with my job where I earned $37,000 this year.. way down from what I use to earn but I know I don't work as hard. I am glad to see others doing okay too. $37,000 is not enough... but its way better then minimum wage.

"everyone earning less than minimum wage" I agree - almost all posters - SM

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complain about making minimum wage and how badly pay has dropped, but accoring to these posts, these people have made between $25 to just over $30 an hour. Those posting that they made $57,000 and $59,000 a year - That means that they averaged over $30 dollars an hour.

And those who made $37,000 or more averaged around $20 an hour. Folks, that is not minium wage. Exactly how many lines an hour are you all averaging? And what are your line rates? Just an honest curious question. If you can provide that info, then who do you work for? Thanks.

Meant to say averaging between $20 and $30 an hour. - curious what your line rates are and

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how many lines per hour you average or where do you work?

stats - SM

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I made $59k on my employee position working 5 days a week (8 hours) and 4 hours on Saturday. I make 8 cpl.

Some days I can do 700 lph and others ADD kicks in and I do 200, so thankfully it averages out somewhere around 500 lph.

My company gets its a$$ kicked here so I'm not willing to share their name but they are not a big company, east-coast based.

This is the first year in many, many that MT has evened out enough for me to make a nice paycheck. I was looking at Social Security stats over the weekend and it's been 10 years since I made this much. I know it's not like that for everyone and don't fool myself into thinking it will last long-term. Just need a few years.

They are likely being less than truthful - SM

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Given the prevailing MTSO MT/VSR rates of 3 to 4 for VR and 7 to 8 for straight typing, for someone to be making $25-30 an hour would be physically impossible.

Furthermore, any MT making $25-30/hour would NOT be wasting any of that "expensive" time posting on this board... their time would be too valuable, wouldn't you think?
I also get 200 miles per gallon of gas (LOL).

I just love this - not

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8 cpl and you do 300- ($24) or 400 - ($32) lph. If you're an experienced MT and can't transcribe that, then you've missed out I guess. If we could put pictures on here, I'd scan you my last paystub. Just shy of $59k. But of course as is par with MT Stars, if you do well, have a positive experience, etc, the naysayers call ya a suit or a liar. That's okay, it must make ya feel good so keep it up.

Right - and you do 400 lph at 8 cpl - Not a naysayer, but

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300 - 400 lph, straight typing at 8 cpl.

Of course, we assume you're passing all those 99% quality audits, too.

It would be possible.... Sm - Old Woman

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if there were tons of templates and normals available for use.

The thing that we seem to be forgetting here is that the MT industry is in no way a cookie cutter industry in that each MT has a different experience. Some work for mega MTSOs who undercut with their pay and offer little availability of work, consequently putting them (usually) on the lower end of the scale. On the other end of the scale are MTs who work for private physicians, clinics, and even hospitals (yes, there are still some out there which employ MTs directly rather than through a service) who have ample work, many samples and normals and templates available to them, easy dictators, and may even be paid on an hourly basis rather than by the line. All these conditions need to be taken into account when talking about salaries/paychecks. Unfortunately, we don't know on this board who works for whom or what their situation is. I also realize there are MTs out there who are struggling for various reasons as well as MTs who are making a decent, even lucrative living. Let's not be too quick to judge a person's answer to this ticklish question without taking into consideration all the possible scenarios. Just sayin'.....

You can scan you paycheck, copy or photo - it and post. Please do.

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IME... - PepperPotts

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When I started out I hired as an IC for a small locally-owned transcription biz. I see how fortunate I was in that because my intro rate was .07 cpl. AfternI was off proofing she raised me to .08. I stayed with this small biz for ten years till EMR forced us to downsize.. (the most MTs she ever had was 22) but it was a very nice environment and we were assigned however many providers we could handle. She gave us .01 cpl raises every two years... I capped at .11 cpl on a Hem-Onc ESL acct and .10 for the rest.

Overall, my earnings were about $2500 / mo.

I had a rude awakening when I went to work for an MTSO. In comparison with what I was used to... it was slave labor. I never made more than $400 / week and my reports were nitpicked to the point that I was losing confidence in my skills... but when you're forced to type hundreds of different providers in any given week, and never allowed to become familiar with any of them, yet expected to not oaks questions or leave blanks, as this would be overly dependent upon your QC editor... whilst maintaining a 98% accuracy rate and a minimum production quota.... its a recipe for depression and fury.

I miss my old company... she's still in biz, but now has only 10 MTs. I only left because I had to move state, and even then she allowed me to type for her until she ran out of work.

MTSO's, generally speaking IMHO are robbing all of you for your hard work and time. You have to be darn good at what you do and every one of you is worth no less than .08 cpl EVER!!!

oh yeah - PepperPotts

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I forgot to add... that monthly was earned typing about 3 - 4 hours of dictation per day. So your avghourly obviously would depend on your speed, but she sent files in the early a.m. via FTP, iI worked how and when I wanted, and as long as they were back by 6:00 a.m. the next morning... all was Fab.

truthful - 36K

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at MModal, because I am paid 10/6. I know it won't last but that's what I'm making right now.

ever heard of a break !! try not to be so jelly - pbj

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nm

They are likely being less than truthful - SM

STATS - Surprised

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I make 10 cents a line at a local small hospital, monday through friday, 8 hours (or a little more someetimes) per day. Been here 8 years, was 27 years at a large local hospital chain that sold out to India but I saw it coming and switched the year before they laid everyone off. I consider myself very lucky, missed out on the severance pay but hey, I have a job. Use to earn up in the $50,000 range but just can't work that hard anymore...

Never Had Enough Work Unless - Outofmymindyo

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I was drowning in three companies trying to get enough work. Anytime I'm with more than one company there is too much work, but anytime I am with one company I don't have enough...I've decided to just stick with one until I get the he** out of this line of work, hopefully soon. I think I probably made about $13,000 this year and that'll be if I'm lucky.

Wow! - anon

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Where in the world do y'all work? I'm nowhere near that!!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to email me if you don't want to post the name for fear of having everyone flood the company with resumes. :)

Wow - You can say that again

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I agree; those salaries sounded pretty darn good to me. I am thinking to make that kind of money, you either have your own accounts or work a lot and by that, I mean a lot. I cannot be tied to this computer and wait on work or work 2 or 3 jobs; been there, thank you very much. I work as an IC so have to contend with my own taxes, which I do, and so I have to allow for that when I turn in my lines. I can work as much as I want or not and I try to keep it at part time, but right now, believe or not, we have a lot of work, so I may plunk myself down and transcribe and stay off MTStars and Amazon.com! :o)

no just one regular MT job - mtr

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nm

$8,037 - Addison

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That's the thanks I get for babysitting my computer for 60 hours per week. However, back in November, I just started working (at home) for a local doctor making $16/hour.

$11,300 - One part-time IC job and going to school full-time - nm

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nm

Less than $5,000, working part-time - sm

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Before my original contracting company was acquired by Accentus, which was then acquired by Nuance, I was making over $10k, working the same number of hours, same line rate. You figure it out.

A little over 16K - Raye

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That is full time... running out of work all the time. 2014 is the year I get out!

how much does the tax man get? - office girl

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just wondering, I always had to pay the IRS. Maybe those of you who have PTO also get taxes taken out of your check. I never could find those jobs myself. Now that I've gone back to work, I plan on paying off the IRS and having a little retirement to boot. I suppose those folks that budget have their own nest egg though.

taxes - Surprised

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Taxes are taken out, get full benefits. I owe the IRS though cause of taking out my retirement when I switched jobs.. don't really understand HOW I owe the IRS but they say I do... sigh. So every year what I should get as a refund goes to the IRS.

$18K grossed for 2013... - SAD

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Working 1 FT MTSO job, no OT, not including PTO, just regular FT hours making minimum line count at 1 tier below my prior CPL (QA score brought me down so I was forced to slow down), I grossed $18,000 for the year. I've lost approximately $1000 a year each year since being an MT.

NJA New Years Day. Signed in 1 hour. Did 2 reports. Made $7.29 for that hour, less than minimum wage! I made no resolutions this year other than getting out of MT!

I'd gladly take anyone's $36K.

Probably 16-18K range - anon

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That is what it was last time I looked, not too long ago. I work 35 hours a week and some of that was helped by having the "incentive pay" when switching platforms, etc. as we switched to Nuance from Transcend. I was also forced off my familiar account around August/September so that had an impact.

30k - nm

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I made 30K doing VR, can't complain!

2013 Income - Fedup2

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$33,000 for 2013. It's insanity to me that once upon a time I made a good bit more than that yet worked ("babysitting"/unpaid time) fewer hours to get it!

Just under 30K, down from over 60K a year ago - On my way out

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Unbelievable and all through no fault of my own, but due to NJA. I recently finished school and will be out of MT for good as soon as possible.

Where do you work?!?!?!?!? - Depressed

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$12,000 gross for the year full-time :(

No kidding! Where are these 30K and up - jobs?

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Not for me. I'll be lucky to break 18K. No work half the time. Sold to the big N and now make even less.

One said she works at a hospital making 10 cpl - and averaging 500 to 700 lines an hr.

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Another said she makes 8cpl at a hospital but didn't say how many lines. No one else commented on pay and lines.

Seems a little far fetched; however, it is a lor easier to make money in the hospital because ASR is better trained and lines add up a lot quicker than they do working for the MTSOs. Even straight typing you can easily and consistently hit 250 lines per hr.

Average pay for 2013 - uniquemonique

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IF you are an experienced MT, and IF you have the same accounts and can make templates for all of them and shortcuts galore, yes, It is possible to make 500, even 700 lines an hour. But IMHO this is the big exception to the general MT work now. Same scenario applies to VR - in the ideal situation it would work but not the way most MTSOs are using it.

where I work - Surprised

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I work at a small hospital in a big city dominated by chain hospitals. I get 10 cents a line. No VR, straight typing...I don't know how long this will last, we have new owners from out of state, but I just keep chugging along...

$23,150 MT and $8200 my outside part-time job- sm - XXX

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My MT# is 3 MT jobs added together....$17K at my main MT job, one was a job where the accounts were lost, the other is now my 2nd MT part-time "backup" job. Did very well at my outside part-time job (not MT), don't uusally make more than $3K there, so $8K was very good, work a lot more hours obviously. Just glad to clear over $30K in all.

$38K, small MTSO, straight typing, plenty of work - SAM

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Properly staffed, rarely run out of work, very decent CPL plus bonus pay offered if work gets close to being out of TAT. (I just work the one full-time job).

How did I do? - Just a girl

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I'm a long-time MT, work 36 hours a week, made 33K.

Accentus, I'm broke. - Horrible

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Before Accentus bought On-Time, I averaged around $40k a year working whatever hours I wanted. Through Accentus, lack of work, I made a whopping $11,320 for the year. Needless to say, I quit. Sitting in front of the computer and begging for work after 17 years of being an MT, that's crazy.

Calculating your hourly wage... - sm

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Someone once told me that to figure out your yearly gross income, you take your hourly wage x 2 and add the zeros. Example: $12/hour x 2 = 24,000 per year.

So, since I grossed a whopping 18,000 for 2013, I did the opposite and dropped the zeros, divided by 2, and came up with $9/hour. Yep, 9 bucks an hour to do MT. I calculated that I have lost approximately 1 dollar an hour each year since starting VR. I was happy to be making $12, then even $11, but now $9??? BOOO

It's pretty sad that I'm looking to get out of MT to do any job (FT with benefits would be nice) or at least a PT supplemental job that pays $10 an hour because sadly that is now a step UP for me. So glad I wasted 2 years and thousands of dollars in my tech school program to become an MT...NOT!

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