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

OK, need some comfort here....please someone tell me you make more - shortcake

Posted: Sep 21, 2011

than minimum wage working at the Q!!! The last thing I need in my life right now is to add 5 more hours to my weekly work schedule (minimum PT) and make 60% less. Of course we've been told nothing is changing "for a while" but it's scary not knowing how much this is going to affect ya financially. Time to take a vigorous bike ride and get my thoughts together about this. If anyone has anything positive to say about MQ, I'm listening...........

Paychecks are on time, that's about it. nm - Adios

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//////

I make more than minimum wage... - I average 10.00

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Not very nice when I used to average 28!

I paid my teenage babysitter $10 an hour 10 years ago!! I just don't know - shortcake

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how they can get away with this. If years ago this was the pay, I surely would not have pursued this career, no way, no how. I'm sorry for your loss!

Hate this for you... - seriously.

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My pay (had appx 10 yrs in before I was bought by them) dropped that much if not more. No, I am not self-limiting; I was willing to do anything they gave me, and my quality has always been 99% or better, so don't flame on that one, please. I'm training at a diff company this week, and I made more in my first 2 days than I did in a week @ Q simply because I had no more jobs @ Q. Wish you luck!

Could you email me? I'm interested in where you went. Thanks. nm - shortcake

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,,

Minimum wage - BH

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This is actually my 2nd day where I made my quota. Minimum wage is $7.40 an hour and my lines times 0.048 equaled $7.40 an hour. Other days, I don't make minimum required lines, and so I get make-up pay.

I make more than minimum wage, I would - Just passing through

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not be able to stay here if I got close to minimum wage and don't know how anybody could survive these days on that. I really feel for those with accounts that would cause them to not to be able to make over minimum wage. I do about 90% ASR and have learned all the shortcuts and do not lose any money with it, but still prefer straight typing. I have been on the same accounts for the last 5 years (with many years as MT) and I think that helps to be familiar with the accounts/dictators.

I certainly hope you are not one of those who cannot make more than minimum wage and good luck.

I also make more than minimum wage, average - Another MQ MT

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about $12 an hour, sometimes a little more, working full time teir 3. Used to make considerably more than that at MQ back in the day, but those days are gone no matter what MTSO you work for. My ex-part-time job in-house at a hospital I made $22 an hour, but they have recently merged with a big hospital who outsources their work to guess who?..MQ, so lost that job which was the last in-house hospital MT job in my area.

I am looking to get out of MT and find another career that has opportunities for wage to go up instead of down without having to work 2 jobs or 24/7 to keep up with falling wages in MT.

Best wishes for you at MQ

I make about $10-11 working harder than I - ever dreamed I would

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have to work. Made $20/hr when I started 7 years ago (200 lines per hour at 10 cpl). Now I struggle to keep up the 150 lph minimum with ASR at 6 cpl. So depressing. Once in a while I get a straight typing job and I can STILL FLY on those!! I don't think it is me. Plus I never had to worry about audits with typing; now with ASR I have to listen and relisten because it is so hard to catch each and every error, punctuation, and paragraph and stay 99%.

Discouraging.....I know many people in many industries are - shortcake

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being forced to take paycuts but going from what I am making now to min wage is just unacceptable.

There's hope - CA-MT

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With 20/20 hindsight, I feel I'm overpaid for what I do now in a pharmaceutical company. If any of you live in Southern California and don't mind commuting to work, contact me for info on the company I now work for. Also, if you live in the Chicago area, that's the hub of my company. I'm a product performance analyst. I used to be an RN and had 20 years of transcription of experience, and they love me for what I know and how accurate I am. I review complaints about medical devices and interface with the FDA in my Monday-Friday office job. I got the job through Manpower. I've been here for almost 2 months now, am still learning tons but finally I feel I'm appreciated and all of my skills are being tapped which is very fulfilling. I take home three times what I did at MQ and feel like that horrible band has been taken from across my chest, a great weight has been lifted from my life and I can now afford my bills. The resources of transcriptionists are grossly under-estimated. You deserve to find something better, too.

I am in So Cal - bentfingers

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Curious to know if you had to be an RN to get hired at your pharm. co? I am not, but a transcriptionist since 1997. And, in what area of So Cal, where everyone commutes, except me since 1997.

Looked up old pay stub from 2003 - It was 2100 for two weeks.

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Sometimes I look just to assure myself that it was NOT a dream.

make more too - North MT

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I agree with the other posters that I work harder now than I ever have for less money. It is a constant struggle every day to stay focused and not get sidetracked by surfing the internet or answering the phone. I also have been punching out every time I get up from the computer to make sure I have more accurate time.

The one thing that really helped me is to give up training ASR. I turned off the ASR markers awhile back when there was a glitch and I never turned them back on even though there might have been an email to turn them back on. Must have lost that email. I have been on the same account for quite a few years and the errors never got fixed so I gave up. I just highlight and delete and move on. If the system puts in a skip marker when I hit backspace I don't see it and I don't have to remember one space or two after a skip marker or how many words exactly before I hit Ctrl-S. I was able to almost double my line count which put me well above minimum wage. Finally it came down to my paycheck or training ASR and I chose my paycheck.

great ideas north MT - Ang

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Thanks for mentioning this (about not seeing the skip marker)- am going to try it - wish I had thought of that a long time ago!!

P.S. - Ang

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I had been doing all of that that you mentioned except turning off the skip marker - AMAZING what not seeing that and being compulsive about putting the space after it can save in time.

SHOORRRRTCAAAAKE! - Maverick

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I am still here at MQ. I remember when you left MQ, I think during the time or just before CBAY came into the picture. I knew either MQ would buy up all the companies or whatever MQ got away with, other companies would follow the tactics of MQ.

I thought about leaving MQ, but figured I would be acquired sooner or later just like MQ has done in the past. I have had enough. I am working harder than ever and making around $11.00 an hour. The last demotion in pay did me in when we received an email. In that email, I HATED WHEN MQ CALLED US "THE GRAND-FATHERED" MTs. It still bugs me to this day. So, basically I am getting paid the same as a newbie. It is appalling to be degraded to a level after 20 years of service with MQ, yet the bigwigs income goes up and up, anywhere around 250,000 to 500,000 a year each of the 12 some board members along with bonuses and stock options.

I am getting out of the field. I "RAN" back to college. I am done with this field only because of the pay is not worth it. I am basically paying the MQ to have a job. Makes me sick.

FEEL LIKE WE ARE PAYING MQ! - FRUSTRATED

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Maybe we should do like the college students and protest that everyone only buy American made to save US jobs. Also, for all hospitals and doctors to use only US MTs to save US jobs!!! Isn't that what we are all for in this country right now! What is the difference?

There is no incentive to work for MQ. - Yep.

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My husband keeps saying I am paying MQ for a job. There is NO incentive whatsoever to keep working for MQ. No matter how much you hear "You do a great job", "Keep up the great work", this is not enough. Hate to say it, but it is about the money. After all, MQ bigwigs is all about the money, so why not say that about the MTs pay?

My hubby wonders when are MTs going to wake up and look at reality of MQ.

keep jobs in USA - donna

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I agree, saw that on news about colleges giving students cataloges to buy sheets, etc., where everything was made outside the US. Student tweeted ABC news and things are changing! Maybe if news got wind of all the outsourcing of MT jobs, and Americans and doctors alike knew what was going on, we would finally get a break!

yeah. right. - young gun

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Please. They don't care they just want cheap insurance and health care.

Wow, I remember you as well. I was always crying on here - shortcake

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back then. Never worked so hard for so little. The day I left was a happy day and I never looked back. I've been very productive, happy, and actually had a few extra bucks for the past few years and now it's coming to an end. They say things won't change for a while but a while is not very long. I am sticking it out for as long as I have to as I do need this 2nd income. How many cents per line has your pay dropped since being with MQ??? You are so lucky you are back in school and have a plan.

minimum wage vs pay cuts... - Former MT

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I was making more than minium wage when I left the Q after Spheris was bought out; however, after 2 pay cuts in less than a year, I too found myself being distracted a lot of the time. Guess somewhere in the back of my mind I figured "why bother." If I make "too much" they will cut my pay - again. That, and I knew the day was coming when I would soon leave. A week or so after the 1st pay cut we received an Email from Cooperate saying what a great year the Q was having Yada, yada, yada.... talk about rubbing salt in a wound. I mean, I can be a good guy and make less to help a company out in hard times, but that was just too much! Finally left the Q in August. Bittersweet as I loved being an MT, but not what the profession is becoming. For now I am not in a medical field, though perhaps some day I will return to some medical-related field to use the skills I have, but for now my bills are getting paid, and I might actually have a bit left over this month for ME!

I am on target to make $31K this year - used to be so much more

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I do make more than minimum at about $31-32K, but this is down from my all-time high of $54K. I am a tier 3, CMT,maxed out on the pay scale now, work every weekend so as to avoid NJA and that is all I have possibly been able to squeeze out over the past couple of years typing my fingers to the bone as fast as I possibly can. I know its not much, but its better than nothing, ya know?

how much do you expect to make from a job that doesn't require a 4 year degree? - young gun

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I think 31K is an EXCELLENT amount of $$ to be making considering the education involved!!! I went to a brick and mortar and did an internship 10 years ago but let's face it people can do online training and do our jobs. It's not that hard. The times, they are a changin--you almost need an associates to work @ McDonalds

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