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Pay by audio minute versus per line. - wondering

Posted: Apr 13, 2013

Good morning. I am wondering if I should take a job that pays per audio minute or would I make more money doing cpl? The audio job pays .70 cents per audio minute and the cpl pays .07 cpl. The audio job will be very part time and I am not sure about the cpl gig. Thanks so much for your input.

depends on the audio quality - OHMT

[ In Reply To ..]
A report generally takes 2 to 3 times the length of the audio to transcribe. For example, a 10-minute audio will take you 20 to 30 minutes to transcribe. So, if it takes 30 minutes, then you will make $7.00 for typing that report. That works out to $14.00 per hour. If you have easy dictators and can set up templates, then you can go faster.

To make the same amount in the per-line rate job, you would need to type 200 lines per hour.

What it really comes down to in either scenario is the quality of the audio. I'm actually working for 5 cents per line (something I thought I'd NEVER do), but I have templates for everything. I had over 32,000 lines on my last pay (bi-monthly). I'm actually making more there than my other job that pays 8.5 cpl.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

Breakdown - see message

[ In Reply To ..]
You need to figure out how many lines you type per hour and how long it takes you to type 1 minute of audio. This is just a general breakdown.

1 hour audio at .70 = $42
4 hours to type(some may take longer, some less)

4 hours at 150 lph = 600 lines x 0.07 = $42

Thanks for the info. - OP

[ In Reply To ..]
I still don't know what I will do. It depends on what shifts the jobs will be as well. I know the audio job will be early first shift. Not sure about the cpl. I just got contacted to test for the cpl job.

CPL vs pay by minute - Bilboa

[ In Reply To ..]
I think the usual rule of thumb is about 11 lines per audio minute. If that rule holds true, then the pay-per-minute job would work out to less than 6.5 cents per line.

HOWEVER, there are a ton of other variables. To start with, how are the lines being counted? 65 characters, or something else? Are spaces, headings, and demographics counted? The answers to those questions may make the 11 lines/audio minute rule of thumb completely wrong!

Also, the quality of the dictation and quality of the audio are huge factors. If you are able to, you would probably do best to take both jobs and work them both for a while. Then if you actually have enough work on both to keep you busy, you can quit the one that pays less. Or the one that you find the greater headache for other reasons, for that matter.

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