A few days ago, I saw a company outsourcing transcription jobs (medical, legal and business) advertising at the rate above.
To the company's credit it may increase the rate to $15 per audio hour if your final transcript is perfect - without any grammar and punctuation errors or typos!
I readily commented it was too low for anyone to work at that rate on top of their very high quality expectations.
However, there were a few transcribers willing to take the job.
This led me to asking the following questions:
- Are transcribers that cheap?
- Don't we have enough respect and regard to our profession?
- Don't transcribers have enough respect for our time?
The interesting thing is, a group member who I later sent a private message told me he pays anything between $60 to $120 per audio hour to his transcribers. This level is acceptable to me.
And, there are more than one factor affecting transcription rates.
I believe sometimes we transcribers are selling ourselves short. We have to value our time (away from family or kids), our skills and our profession in general. My advice is: do not work for such low pay, it reflects too badly on ourselves.
What do you think?
Do you think everyone is simply entitled to their opinion and pay? Will YOU work for that rate? Chime in with your thoughts, I need to hear them!!
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Hallelujah! Carey, I could not agree with you more. We as professional transcribers spend a lot of time perfecting a transcript. Not only are there intense listening skills needed, but proofreading and excellent grammar skills are a must. It can be extremely time consuming specifically when a speaker is all over the place, and then WE need to make clear sense out of the mumbo jumbo and create proper sentence structure. I absolutely consider this a profession that not everyone can do, and compensation should reflect that.
ReplyDeleteWell said Patty.
ReplyDeleteWe, transcribers, should first take our profession seriously only then others will take us seriously and pay us our due.
I agree, in fact it's one reason why I stepped away from the likes of Odesk and Elance - too many people expect a great job for peanuts.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day I wouldn't expect a bricklayer to build me a wall for $10 an hour so why would anyone expect a transcriber to use their skills for the same amount?
@Bridie
ReplyDeleteYes, Odesk and Elance are notorious for having such low pay rates.
I too got fed up and left my a/cs idle for long now.
IMO, the only way to get what you want (great pay) is to promote your services via your own blog/website at your own terms.
Transcribers must learn to value their time and skills and not be fooled into such scams!
To those expecting very low rates from transcribers - I hope you get what you pay for!
I saw a great tagline shared on a forum this week:
ReplyDeleteIf you think a professional is expensive, try an amateur
Sums it up pretty well I think!
Bull's eye! That's what I'm talking about!
ReplyDelete