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

My expenses go up and the mega-rich companies go down with sweat-shop labor - anon

Posted: Sep 26, 2012

I had a thought with the recent decision to not take a non-medical transcription job. I told the owner of the transcription company that I needed to be paid 8 cpl for this job and she was only paying 6-1/2 cpl. I told her that my expenses for everything are rising, food, shelter, gas etc. and she told me that the account that I would be doing this work for demands low cost for their transcription because of the work being sent to India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. This is a huge construction company with offices all over this country, not like some small doctor's office. My thought was hey, everything is going up for me but yet these mega-rich companies can get their work from sweat-shop labor. This makes me sick. I stood up for myself and turned this work down for such low pay and the frustration of typing every other word as a blank because I could not understand their very poor audio on a cell phone or speaker phone which also cuts down on my lines. I had a 2-hour audio recording of just this. Give me a break!!!

I think you made the right choice. My response to her would have been - You have one of three choices.

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You can either type it all yourself, or you can pay me what I need to do it for you and take a lot less in terms of profit for yourself on my work, or you can turn the work down and not get paid anything at all.

The owner pays editors 3 cpl in addition to paying me. - anon

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The owner claimed to me that this company required editing too so she had to pay the editors 3 cpl for all their transcriptions. Imagine that? I ask her if that means I was just doing a rough draft and that the editors would catch everything that I didn't and she said no I was still responsible for an accurate file. Does it make sense that she is only being paid 10 cpl from that company and she still has to pay editors to go over everything? That would mean she is getting a half cent profit. I'm not sure about this. It's not something I would put up with.

I'm skeptical, but if you can live with it - maker her this offer

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Tell her you will type for 6 cents a line but all you're going to do is create the best rough draft for the editors that you can create as fast as you can create it. You're not going to spend time researching stuff, and if you can't understand the dictator you're going to just blank it and go. You do not expect to be subject to any QA as the reports are all going to be gone over in editing anyway, so the editors should be the ones taking care of finalizing the product for the client. Then tell her she can keep the other half cent for herself and bump her profit margin to 1 cent or she can give it to the editors and keep the profit margin she is already settling for.

I don't know how fast you type, but you ought to be able to make a decent wage if all you do is just type as fast as you can as accurately as you can and not be worrying about blanks, research, QA, or anything else. The stress-free work environment that would create for you ought to be worth a couple bucks an hour by itself. She probably won't take you up on it, but it does make the point either way.

Yeap, this is real life now.... - just me

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Add to it that we have to pay dictation system and phone line costs as well as administration, hiring/training, etc., and there you have it--why I am no longer taking on new clients, just what I can transcribe myself plus help for overflow if necessary. She is speaking the truth. Clients are paying less and demanding more.

I do too and good luck. What I don't understand is why there are NEWBIES - on the newbie forum. Are they nuts? NM

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x

why wouldn't newbies be on the newbie forum? - nm

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nm

I think OP is probably shocked that new people are still - considering MT as a career. NM

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xx

Umhm. Exceptionally long learning curve before making even today's - LOW income, excellent chance of finding yourself

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out of work at various times, unable to get another position while your skills are still fresh, and ESPECIALLY--drum roll--having such a narrow range of skills for this job that you are not qualified for anything else.

Not to mention that all providers dream of being able to get rid of our function altogether and will always keep trying. Severe job insecurity.

Not to mention that there will always be others willing to do our work for less.

I have nothing against MT, except that it's become a very hazardous and low-paying choice. Entering this field is just very foolish for anyone except an agoraphobic who's also the sole caregiver for his or her demented grandparents. And then I'd recommend something else that can be done at home.

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