Transcription Pay

So another question that I get asked a lot is how much money can I make transcribing? Well, this is a great question. Starting out you can typically make $7 an hour. I know that sounds really low, but keep reading, I just want to be realistic with you about this. In transcription you are paid by how fast you are. So if you type 30 wpm, you probably might make less than $7 an hour. And it's also not just a matter of typing fast - you also have to be able to listen and write spoken language into correct sentences with punctuation.

So let me share some bad news and then some good news. The bad news is that if you have aren't too confident with your grammar and sentence structure skills, you might want to really think about going into transcription...or at least train.

The good news though is that you don't have to pay to be trained! That's really what this blog is all about. I'll be providing much of the information you need in the coming weeks for free. So please keep returning to my blog for updates.

Okay, back to the pay. So in general and legal transcription you are paid by the audio hour. That means that you are paid a flat rate for the actual length of the recording. Typically as a beginner it is not good to get paid anything less than $40/audio hour. You will find tons of places on auction sites that post jobs for $15/audio hour and $20/audio hour. Don't do it! You will end up making like $2.00/hour in the end. Why is that? I'm glad you asked.

It typically takes a transcriber who is experienced 3-4 hours to type 60 minutes of audio. So if I was being paid $40/audio hour, I'd just divide that by 3 or 4 hours and I'd get a pay rate of $10-13 an hour.

For beginners, it typically takes 6-8 hours to type 60 minutes of audio. Yup, that long guys. Don't worry, it takes a few weeks to get faster...this is a skill remember? It takes practice, so just be patient with yourselves. So anyway just do the dividing again of $40 into 6 or 8 hours and you'd get paid $6.67 to $5.00 an hour.

Now, some of you might be ready to give up. But wait, there is good news. You can easily move up to better pay with proven effort. So for example, my first contracts were low paying, but I just used those to gain experience and build my resume. Within a few months time I improved my speed (which improved my pay). I was able to build up a resume too that landed me higher paying contracts. For more experienced transcriptionists pay can range from $55-90 or more an audio hour. Some transcriptionists regularly make $20-40 an hour...and if you get your own clients you can make even more than that!

Now keep in mind that you are working. This is not just a sit at home in your pajamas job. You have to put in the work and sometimes that means long hours of work. But if you truly enjoy typing, language, and freedom of working when you want then you'll love this field!

Now that was all about general and legal transcription...here's some information on medical.

Medical transcriptionists typically get paid per line. For a beginner that will mean that you make about $0.07 cents per line. I would not recommend going lower than that for the same reasons as stated before. Your pay is determined by your speed and when you are starting out you just aren't going to be very fast. Experienced medical transcriptionists can make anywhere from $0.08 to 0.12 cents per line. unfortunately, it is getting harder to advance in the medical transcriptionist field because of outsourcing to offshore countries. If you really want to make money in this field, I would suggest that you get your own clients so that you can get paid a higher rate.

Here's an interesting article about medical transcription line pay.