Now, we get to talk about something fun: money.
In this lesson, we’re going to go over how transcriptionists are paid, what an ideal hourly rate is, why transcribing for peanuts is a bad idea and ways to increase your earnings.
Most general transcription companies pay by the audio hour. We’ll show you an example.
Let’s say that your company pays £50 per audio hour, which, as you gain experience, is on the lower side. This means that you’ll be paid £50 for transcribing an audio file that is 60 minutes long. You should know that for most transcriptionists, one hour of audio will take three to four hours to transcribe and proof to audio.
Proofing to audio simply means that after you’ve typed out the file, you listen to it again at a higher speed to check for mistakes. If you’re just beginning as a transcriptionist, it may take you six hours or more to complete one hour of audio.
But don’t worry, with practice, you should be able to get down to the industry standard in a few months. Going back to our example: if it takes you four hours to transcribe an hour of audio, and the rate is £50 an audio hour, your hourly working rate is £12.50 before taxes.
So, we just took £50 divided by four hours to complete the work. If you get paid £60 an audio hour, your pre-tax hourly working rate is £15. Let’s get into the ideal hourly rate.
It is recommended that you stay away from work that’s less than £40 an audio hour, and aim for contracts that pay, on average, £60 an audio hour. The only caveat for this would be if you’re just starting out, and you need a little bit of experience to put on your resume.
In that case, we recommend accepting one or two files that are lower-paying but try to go for higher-paying contracts as soon as you’ve had experience on your resume.
It’s important as you work out hourly rates to factor in self-employment costs since a subcontractor is technically self-employed. For now, realize that you’ll need to pay both the employee and employer side of payroll taxes. You also won’t receive any paid time off or benefits, like health insurance. You do get to deduct business expenses.
Some transcriptionists gain experience by using very low-paying companies or by going to freelance sites and doing work for £10 per audio hour. If we go back to our example, £10 an audio hour at four hours turnaround time is £2.50 for an hourly rate.
I recommend against working for these companies at all since their pay is so low. But, if you feel it’s the only place you can gain experience, try to land better contracts as soon as you can.
You will get discouraged with how little you’re making at these companies for the time you’re putting in, especially at the beginning. If you get too discouraged, you will quit and give up before you even had a chance of making more money and gaining better contracts. There is definitely money to be made in transcription.
But not if you’re only earning £10 to £20 an audio hour, or £2.50 to £5 a working hour. Some people also argue that when more transcriptionists work for lower pay, it can bring down the value of transcription and make it harder to find well-paying contracts.
After you have some experience, it’s easier to find work that averages £60 an audio hour. So, let’s talk about how to earn more money.
When you start out, you may only be earning £10 to £15 per working hour, especially if you are with a lower-paying contract. But, if you work hard, you can increase your earnings and eventually make £15 to £25 per working hour as a subcontractor.
One of the easiest ways to earn more money is to increase your productivity. Make sure you use a foot pedal to control your audio so that your hands are free for typing. Another huge productivity booster is working with text expanders and shortcuts, which we’ll get into later in the course.
The Answer? Transcribe more difficult audio files.
Companies charge more and will pay you more for files with accents, multiple speakers, timestamping verbatim files, or poor audio. You can also earn more money by working on same-day files or rush files that are due in one to two days.
Even with some of the higher-paying beginning contracts, it can be difficult to earn £60 an audio hour if you’re always doing easy, one to two speaker files due in three to five days.
So, start asking for harder files as you gain experience so that you can earn more money. Finally, you should apply to higher-paying contracts as you gain experience and confidence. It’s common to start with one or two companies and then apply to more as you get experience.
When you gain the higher-paying contract, let your lower-paying contracts know, in a professional way, that you will be moving on, unless, for other reasons, such as flexibility or ease of audio, you wish to stay on.
Lower paying companies are used to higher turnover. As you gain experience, you can start exploring other types of transcription. You can branch out into earnings calls, legal transcription, or finding your own clients
