Over the years, especially in recent times, I have observed the payout rates for transcription work going below what can even be considered as bargain basement wages.
As an instance, I find a lot of contractors regularly putting in bids on freelance sites where they are willing to work on say an hour of audio at JUST $10, $20 or maybe even $30.
These are simply abysmal rates in my opinion.
After all, the whole notion that transcribing an hour of audio translates to an hour of effort is just SO WRONG...transcribing an hour's worth of audio takes way more than just an hour of effort.
In my personal and honest opinion, even when the audio is crystal clear and the accent is clearly comprehensible, it still takes 3 to 4 hours to actually do a thorough job on any transcription assignment. When there are challenges such as:
x poor quality of audio,
x incomprehensible accents,
x multiple speakers,
x time stamps to be put in at regular, specific/non-specific intervals
(example of specific = every minute ; example of non-specific = each time a particular person speaks),
the overall effort and time involved in doing a thorough job on such a transcription assignment increases significantly, sometimes going up to as much as 5 to 6 hours or even more for an hour of audio.
To be charging as little as $10 to say $30 for an hour of audio - as has become the norm on common freelance sites, is simply appalling and abysmal. And to see American freelancers working at such rates is well....I can only shake my head in disbelief!
I had gathered these thoughts of mine together and expressed them in a video which I posted to my freelance YouTube channel, which can be seen below:
As you will see in the video, my idea of what can possibly be considered as ideal payout for transcription work would be in the range of $50 for every effort hour. So if transcribing an hour of audio takes you 4 hours, you should ideally be paid at least $200, assuming that the audio is clear and there are no other issues.
Where there are issues in the audio, akin to the ones I mentioned in bullet points above, the payout should go up incrementally in the range of at least $250 to $300.
Some may say that these are very high wages, but I disagree; at the end of the day, $200 or $300 is NOT a lot of money; even here in India, that is in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 Rupees at current exchange rates, which I am honestly telling you, is NOT a lot of money in India. Therefore, under no circumstances should $200 or $300 be construed as a lot of money.
The reason payouts for transcription work have gone down so much is because the freelancers themselves have brought the rates down by willingly (and foolishly) working at sub-par wages. If contractors / freelancers would be willing to work at such trashy rates, obviously clients would be more than happy to exploit them!
The reason payouts for transcription work have gone down so much is because the freelancers themselves have brought the rates down by willingly (and foolishly) working at sub-par wages. If contractors / freelancers would be willing to work at such trashy rates, obviously clients would be more than happy to exploit them!
To all freelancers out there, I fervently appeal - life is NOT about working relentlessly. Rather, it is about "working" as less as possible, deriving maximum value out of it (which can only happen with quality wages) and then utilizing the time that is available for all the beautiful things that life has given around us - our family, nature, traveling, cooking, going to the movies, eating out, going on long drives, etc. etc.
If you spend all your time typing away, typing away...frantically and obstinately, when will you actually get to LIVE LIFE?
Think about these things, the next time your fingers move towards those $10 / $20 / $30 figures, when quoting for an hour's worth of audio which needs to be transcribed...
