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

Figuring out ppl instead of hourly - Tammie

Posted: Jan 25, 2011

I've been paid by the hour for the past 11 years, was laid off and am now searching for work. How do I transition to ppl pay to equal the amount of my unemployment so that I'll know I can pay my bills? What questions do I ask potential employers? Work load? Average pay? I'm so confused!

The 'Newbie" Tammie

It is often hard to figure ppl when starting on a new account. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
There is always the learning curve on a new account. Once you get used to it, you can average how many lines you do an hour and then multiply that times what your rate per line is. My goal is normally 200+ lines per hour. At 10 cpl that would be $20 an hour, at 9 cpl that would be $18/hr, 8 cpl $16/hr, and so on.

As to what questions to ask potential employers, it really depends on if it is in-house or at home with an MTSO. If you're going to one of the larger MTSOs for an interview, chances are you wouldn't get an honest answer if their mother's life depended on it.

Average pay with MTSO seems to be between 6 and 10 cpl with a lot of variables, and this is for straight typing. VR editing is even less.

Thanks.. starting a new job and your answer was perfect! - ncMT

[ In Reply To ..]
First real week with a new MTSO and my first time on cpl pay so thank you! 200 lines per hour sounds like a great goal for me too. Now I'm praying that the work will be there.

Tammie, how about working backward from 2 figures - Anon

[ In Reply To ..]
to get 2 initial figures to work from? Your pre-tax unemployment check per week divided by 40 (or a realistic # of hours you expect to work) to get a pay per hour figure. This figure divided by the rate you're offered will give you the lines per hour you need to produce to match that minimum.

Then do the same for your previous pre-tax weekly earnings to find out how many lines you would need to produce to equal those earnings.

The hard part, of course, is deciding if those figures are achievable since that depends on what you don't know yet--how you will do with the new platform, specific accounts and dictators, etc. Don't hesitate to ask for a lines per hour range and/or average for the people on your prospective accounts, although if you're talking with a recruiter for a larger company he or she may not have that figure. Probe some more. :)

I've never been on unemployment in any state, so don't know the rules, but I'm wondering if you couldn't just accept a position and try it out for a couple of days? If you see you won't be able to match unemployment, time to keep looking for either better pay or to use this brief experience to search out a position better matched to current skills.

Good luck in finding a good position quickly.

PPL questions - Tammie

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for the replies, that helped me out a LOT!!!!

It's always nerve wracking starting a new job but even more so when you have to figure out your pay per line instead of per hour. lol :-)

ppl questions - Tammie

[ In Reply To ..]
p.s. I am not new to transcribing but new to the ppl method.

Similar Messages:

Jan 28, 2015

Several times last week, I have been out of work and had to wait the required 15 minutes before clocking out. Let's just say that happens 4 times in a pay week -- that's a whole hour. When taking my converted lines and dividing by the number of hours clocked in, does the OOW time count? ...

Apr 29, 2010

Can someone help me figure this out. I am being paid 0.03 cents per line. Do I multiply my lines x 0.03 or x 0.3? Thanks. ...

Jun 14, 2012

Say I edit 250 lines in1 hour. At 4 cpl, that's $10/hour. Working OT for 25% (which is 1 cent of 4 cpl), 250 lines in 1 hour x 5 cpl = 12.50. That extra $2.50 x 8 hours is $20. Doesn't seem worth my weekend for that. Can't count on straight typing - some days I hardly have any and some days I'll have 10 to 15%. ...

Nov 20, 2012

Does anybody know how to figure out exactly how much PTO you have left? Like is it deducted after it is granted or after the date that you are taking it has passed? I would not think it would be deducted when it is still pending. Thanks ...

Nov 28, 2012

I posted a week or so ago about a job offer working for a court reporting agency. It is transcription that pays 5 cpl on a gross line. The work is actually doing claims for insurance companies. She wanted me to come a week ago before I started just to see how fast and well I could transcribe. I typed 7 pages in 20 minutes, which equaled about 127 lines. So I figured, wow 127 lines in 20 minutes, that's great. I'll do just fine at this job. Well ...

Jan 02, 2015

Did you get the hoops we have to jump through now to figure out your QA score. Can't just put in the pay date range and go by that because they are auditing reports outside the pay range, either before or after. Then you might manage to get 2 reports audited within the pay range, after you jump through hoops and figure it out yourself. So, what you think you are getting, when it shows up in webclock, it is way less than what you figured out in Fiesa. This is TOTAL BS ...

Oct 16, 2011

I've done this before but can't figure it out now. I've totalled my line counts each day for a week including ASR and straight transcription, but now what do I do with that total? Do I divide it by 7 days in the week or however many days I work or is it the hours I work? Thanks for helping me. ...

May 10, 2012

I am new and so far have had no problems with running out of work which is what happened all the time when I was with Medquist (M Modal) but where do you find the breakdown of your lines??? I gave gone into FIESA and generate reports and I see all my lines grouped together but not broken down as to what was VR and the other straight dictation. Or I am looking it and don't even realize it. Thanks ...

Aug 22, 2014

Does anyone know how to figure out what the rate per character would be if pay is 14 cents a line at 70 characters per line? ...

Dec 17, 2014

I can't pass an audit to save my life...I figure any day now I'll receive a call telling me to log out, even though I've not finished the report I'm on, and I'll be fired. I'm so sick of feeling like I'm doing my best, only to find out that this little error, or that little error (spacing or period or comma, among others) causes a 0.25 point drop and those puppies add up. I think 99.5 is an unreasonable level and I'm sick and tired of feeling w ...

Dec 16, 2014

Have a headache just thinking about it. How will we be able to verify accuracy and that we are not getting ripped off even more than we already are? Follow the 12-step instructions "on our own time, of course." Just want to scream! ...

Jan 15, 2015

It just occurred to me. Not only are we getting a 5% deduction for having a "good platform" but the LPH (Lines Per Hour) are also figured AFTER taking off the 5%. So if I actually TYPE 950 lines in 5 hours which is 190 LPH, now I am only getting 902 lines in 5 hours which is 180.5 LPH, which drops me down a tier on the grid which ALSO docks my pay BESIDES the 5% they are docking for the "good platform." You would not think that 5% makes a difference, but it DOES. I checked this with my payst ...

May 18, 2010

I understand that the potential is there to maybe collect unemployment due to low, unavailable work with the Q. I am curious as to how to figure my hourly rate with the Q to see if I am even making minimum rate in my state (which is $7.25/hour) any one interested in explaining the process on how to figure this out? Thanking one and all in advance. ...

Jul 24, 2012

When figuring lines, do most people include spaces? ...

Jul 17, 2012

I just started with MModal a few months ago and I'm searching for the job offer that states the amount of $$$ we receive per hour in PTO. Meanwhile, I thought I would come here and ask. Is it $10 or $12 per hour? I'm thinking it's one of those. I could be getting these numbers mixed up with training pay though. ...

Nov 24, 2014

What is a good hourly rate for a home-based transcriptionist? Having a hard time trying to decide what to ask for! ...

Nov 06, 2009

Can an IC demand hourly pay or does it have to be cpl? ...

Dec 26, 2009

I am thinking of getting into medical transcription but all I read on here is negative posts about how little work is available and how you are all getting paid less than you were last year. Now, please don't flame me, I know this is a cheeky question, but to be quite honest ".08 cpl" doesn't mean much to me. Would anyone mind telling me what they actually earn per hour (when the work is there) and how many hours per day they generally work. It will just give me an id ...

Dec 30, 2010

I am wondering if anyone would share the going hourly rate (being paid by the hour, not by the line) for QA? How many lines an hour are required to get the rate? TIA ...

Jun 08, 2011

One of my providers is going to switch over to EMR. I've looked into the program and it's got a similar document section to MS Word. However, with them going to EMR, I'm assuming I'll lose quite a bit of my bulk work (macros, etc) that I currently have with "straight typing." So my question is this ... is it worth it to transcribe EMR for a CPL rate or is it better to renegotiate my "contract" and go hourly? I'm an IC/MTSO so get no benefits. Would ap ...

Oct 27, 2011

Hey yall get that big hourly raise... ...

Jan 23, 2012

I did a search but didn't find any current chatter about hourly QA positions. Part-time, evenings and weekends. Do they exist and any recommendations where and where not to look? ...

Feb 25, 2012

Do any MT companies ever pay hourly instead of by the line? I am having a hard time with not knowing what my paycheck will be and would rather find an hourly pay (realizing it will be low) so at least I know what I can expect. Thanks. ...

Oct 17, 2012

What minimum LPH do we have to make to keep out of trouble with our team leaders? What is our minimum wage amount at Nuance? I got hired and no one even told me what our pay is (other than .04/.08 line). I have only been at Nuance for 3 weeks; I suppose this information is in the documents they attached to our emails when we trained, but I am too busy to look at it. Thanks in advance for the answers to the above two questions :) ...

Dec 04, 2012

TIA! ...

Dec 23, 2012

Are there any companies that pay hourly for MTs and/or QA? ...

Dec 30, 2012

would it be a more tolerable thing? My current job is currently straight transcription but don't know how long that will last. I know of a job opening with VR at an hourly rate, but have always hated VR in the past. The contemplated position uses the Mmodal/Docuscribe and looks simpler than the systems I used in the past. Do you think I should I hang on to what I have, even with a recent reduction in pay, or go for the hourly VR that also has better benefits? ...

Jun 21, 2013

Does anyone know how much the hourly QA get paid and how much the QC editors make?? Also, if you know anything else about these positions, please share!!! ...

Aug 12, 2014

Are there any companies that pay QA hourly besides Nuance? Does anyone know of any companies hiring QA right now? TIA. ...

May 28, 2015

How often is the hourly rate supposed to be re-calculated. My production has been up but that hourly rate has not changed for some time. ...