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

It will be interesting to see what happens when - minimum wage goes up

Posted: Jan 28, 2014

Been reading the business perspective of what will happen when (not if - when) minimum wage is increased, and 99% of companies who employ low income workers say that will be the day they lay off most of their employees, or have to close their doors altogether. Not that I expect MModal to ever "close their doors", but that does leave open the other alternative for a huge layoff as the need to "supplement" employees who aren't earning minimum wage, or who don't meet their ridiculous demands increase.

By raising the quality standards to 97.7%, more and more of us will fall under that threshold. When we fall under that threshold, we are put on 100% QA and our wages are decreased by $0.03 cpl. When our wages are decreased by $0.03 cpl, most of us will earn below minimum wage income. When that happens, they will have to supplement us by law to bring us up to minimum wage. If they do that for enough of us, there could be a mass layoff on the horizon to balance the increased expense.

It will be interesting to see how this plays off in the transcription industry ... it could just be the final nail in the coffin.

I wouldnt think there would be layoffs, who is going to do the work - if we are laid off? India??? sm

[ In Reply To ..]
India, doing all the work, and making a minimum quality requirement???

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

India is already doing 99% of the work - there is - no quality requirement for their work

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm an MME who edits Indian work. It would seem even the basic requirement of knowing the English language isn't even a requirement. See, MModal escapes every trap by using India more and more.

But the slop they turn out, the jobs they reject because they simply - can NOT produce quality work. SM

[ In Reply To ..]
Sooner or later the clients are going to notice this garbage quality from India and demand better. Or you MMEs are going to be stuck doing all the editing and typing up the worst dictators that India cant do right.

MMoron is simply destroying themselves slowly but surely. If they botch it up so badly by laying off employees to avoid paying minimum wage, there's nobody to keep accounts in TAT and eventually those client accounts are going to go elsewhere.

I would assume MMoron would like to keep the cash cow producing as long as possible, they had better wake up and realize they are slowly poisoning the well that cow drinks from.

MMoron - Good description

[ In Reply To ..]
This company's higher ups have made so much money, what do they care? They can let this company go down the drain, still make a ton of money and then when it is over, move on and start up another one or just take the money and run. I didn't believe for one minute that Spheris went bankrupt, just a cover and then MM or Medquist (can't remember what name they were using then) bought it. Someone got money and it wasn't the MTs. How can anyone be concerned about the welfare of this company and the owners. We all better just look out for ourselves and jump before we are pushed!

Haven't you realized - by now

[ In Reply To ..]
they don't care if the quality sucks anymore? Nobody cares! If they got rid of all US MTs and sent it all to India, no one would notice. No one would care. We aren't real to anyone else but ourselves.

and that is exactly the crux of it. Nobody cares but us - East MT

[ In Reply To ..]
sad but true. So we have to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and leave this place before it destroys us.

I disagree...someone cares - poorhouse

[ In Reply To ..]
Someone cares whether we provide quality output or not...those directly above us...they have to justify their job to those above them and so on and so on. If we go, no one will need to check our work, so the MMEs will not be needed. If the MMEs go, their sups will have no one to supervise so they will go. What I do agree with is hardly anyone cares about quality anymore until you put a comma in the wrong place and then all hell breaks loose.

no, no one cares. Patients dont read their records. - just the ones making the rules do

[ In Reply To ..]
x

you do know that MMEs transcribe/edit also, right? - sm

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If the MTs leave, the MMEs will just do more transcribing than QA and the MMEs will check each other's work.

If there are no MTs, there will be no MMEs... - poorhouse

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If nothing is being transcribed, nothing needs to be critiqued. No one really cares anymore...the dictation will all be ASR and sent back to the client to fix.

I'm not sure I know what you mean ... - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
What do you mean, "If nothing is being transcribed, nothing needs to be critiqued" and the work will be sent back to the client to fix?

MMEs do BOTH, transcribing AND QA/editing. If there were no MTs, the MMEs would just end up doing both tasks before the client ever sees it.

Not sure what you mean.

ASR doing all the work - poorhouse

[ In Reply To ..]
I think we all agree that the higher-ups just don't care about quality and just want the work done as cheaply as possible. Eventually, they'll come to realize that ASR can spit out something and instead of funneling that through MTs, MMEs, etc ad nauseum, they'll just send it back to the client and let the client pretty it up.

What I meant by MMEs caring whether or not we churn out work is because they have to justify their positions to their superiors. Their superiors have to have justification for their job. Everyone needs a reason why they should not be let go or have their position phased out. That's why I said someone cares about what we do. lol If MT was phased out, would MMEs be able to handle the workload? Would MM hire more MMEs to handle it? Um, no.

I guess what I'm trying to get across is if they do away with the MT, they'll do away with the MME, whoever their manager is, and so on. No one is safe and it's all because the people who make the decisions either don't care or don't understand the business of MTing.

Just my opinion and nothing else. :)

they can have it as far as I'm concerned - sick of it

[ In Reply To ..]
I feel bad for anyone who really needs this job, but I'm so sick of the whole thing I just wish it would go away like you say.

My TSM said once ... - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
In terms of who is first on the ladder to be let go, it would be the TSMs and the QC personnel. She said the reason for this was because the TSMs and QC personnel weren't the "money-makers" ... they were considered clerical, and that if there is ever a big layoff the TSMs have the most to be worried about ... not the MTs or MMEs because we're the ones who "bring home the bacon" for MModal.

MTs=MMEs - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Just say MT/MME. They are one and the same. MMEs are no higher up than an MT; they just do QA on top of the other work. I'm an MME and I actually only see a few reports to QA a day. Otherwise, I'm doing ASR.

I'm an MME, and I do ASR all day. I had 1 report to QA today. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't know if reports are being QA'd in India or all the MTs are just sending their blanks through, but I rarely have anything to QA anymore. Maybe we're just way overstaffed with MMEs.

Haven't you realized - We need to realize

[ In Reply To ..]
You are so right on! I keep reading how so many MTs still take pride in this job (which is good) and try their best (which is good) and so on, but for what? Again, we are chum to the sharks and they are raking it in and leaving us to fend for ourselves in the waters, after they have destroyed us. They could care less, hospitals could care less, doctors could care less; like it was posted, "we are the only ones who care." We need to just move on and get out, there is no other way around it. I wish I would have five years ago and when my job goes, that is it for me. I will clean house if I have to, but never, ever will I transcribe again for one of these companies. They are all horrible and the good ones keep their MTs forever so we can forget about getting on with them and they don't advertise either. My company I have been with for 3-1/2 years has never posted for an MT position; all of her MTs stay with her and gobble up all the work they can. We are never and I mean never out of TAT or have computer issues or down time or NJA.

GAH! You hit the nail on the head! - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
"We aren't real to anyone else but ourselves."

That sums it all up in 8 little words, that is the truest post I've read in forever!

ourselves and the people who pick our work apart - but thats all nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

We're just red ink in the company's books. - They want cheap Indians to do

[ In Reply To ..]
the work, so those at the top can pocket more of the profit. They don't give crap one whether we live or die.

aren't some states minimum wage lower than others - anon

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Possibly they would just keep the MT"s from the states with the lowest minimum wage.

I think that if the minimum wage is raised, all employees should get a cost of living raise. I haven't had a raise here in probably 15 years.

Are you serious with the lower wages in some - states than others

[ In Reply To ..]
I think this is a nationally set wage law, not your local government. Your posting actually is funny, you are trying to be funny are you not?

What a nasty reply to a post - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
For your information, the minimum wage in some states is higher than the federal minimum wage. If your state is one of them then you have to be paid the higher of the two. Don't answer a post with such a snippy answer, it doesn't benefit anyone!

Minimum wage is higher than federal minimum wage in some states. - Californian

[ In Reply To ..]
There are some states with minimum wage laws. A state can mandate a higher minimum wage. There are not many states with their own minimum wage. You can never be paid less than federal minimum wage.

Yes, the original OP was correct, there are states with higher minimums - camt

[ In Reply To ..]
and I agree..that was a snarky comment!

I am in California and they are talking about wanting to raise the minimum here to $15.00 an hour which is much higher than the federal.Thus..employers would be required to pay above the federal minimum wage. The question made perfect sense.

which also means a national company would be less likely to hire you - East MT

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I really hate that, shouldn't matter what your state wages are!!

Yep, already companies don't like Californians because of our labor laws - camt

[ In Reply To ..]
This minimum wage thing would be just another reason to not hire us.

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