| Страниц в теме: < [1 2 3] > | Seeking resources/info: current salaries in translation Автор темы: Léa Gaillard
|
|---|
Christine Andersen 
Дания
Local time: 15:37
Член ProZ.com c 2003
датский => английский
+ ...
| Wow! I charged GBP 70 per thousand words 20 years ago | Mar 10 |
Twenty years ago, some clients offered GBP 65 per thousand words, but I usually persuaded them to pay me GBP 70 for 1000 Danish source words. I was a Member of the IoL, and have been a Chartered Linguist since 2016, but most work came through this site or networking with colleagues I had met at powwows or other activities connected with the site.
Over the years the exchange rate for the pound has fluctuated, and I have charged considerably higher rates, especially for medical and le... See more Twenty years ago, some clients offered GBP 65 per thousand words, but I usually persuaded them to pay me GBP 70 for 1000 Danish source words. I was a Member of the IoL, and have been a Chartered Linguist since 2016, but most work came through this site or networking with colleagues I had met at powwows or other activities connected with the site.
Over the years the exchange rate for the pound has fluctuated, and I have charged considerably higher rates, especially for medical and legal translations. (It is easier to get good rates from Scandinavian agencies, but the best in the UK pay decent rates ...) However, there has not been much work recently - clients are trying ChatGPT, and I have my pension to cover the basics.
I refuse to drop my rates, because they are not high for the work involved, and I do not want to undercut colleagues who really need to earn a living. But it is difficult for many of them, unless they are diversifying into other areas, taking on PEMT and so on. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Босния и Герцеговина
Local time: 15:37
Член ProZ.com c 2009
английский => хорватский
+ ...
I charged $0.16 for medical when I first came here. Nowadays medical translation pays $0.03 for my language pair, if you’re lucky. It’s not agencies who did this, it’s translators, or so-called translators.
| | | | | The situation has changed, but... | Mar 11 |
Baran Keki wrote:
Bloody hell.. wow.. yes, you can be sure things have changed.
The situation has certainly changed, but I do doubt if the translators on the database have increased their rates. Of course, this is just what I think. Maybe the most emboldened went up to 0.06.
I've only ever managed to increase my rate with an agency once in nearly 20 years... but it is one of my most long-standing clients. Perhaps I should increase again!
///
Once again, we have a question about rates and I'm the only one stating rates. Oh well...
| | | |
IrinaN wrote:
...then with 0.05 translator rates 19 years ago you must be living on your own private tropical island. Or did the agency stiff you too? 
No tropical island for me, unfortunately. I left the agency within a year as I wanted to study again.
| | |
|
|
|
Lieven Malaise
Бельгия
Local time: 15:37
Член ProZ.com c 2020
французский => голландский
+ ...
ADIE Translations wrote:
Once again, we have a question about rates and I'm the only one stating rates. Oh well...
I make no secret of my rates (I've mentioned them several times over the years, the last time even very recently), but I understand why few people do it: either you're criticized because they are supposedly too low, or you're looked at with envy because they are higher than other people's rates. There doesn't seem to be an in-between.
| | | |
Baran Keki wrote:
I wasn't here 19 years ago, but it's my impression based on the discussions on Proz forums that the translators translating from and into major European languages during the 'golden age of freelance translation' (between the years 2000 and 2010 (even up to 2015), before the introduction of AI and CAT tool pricing) would charge no less than 0.10 per word or would charge even higher into English.
The rates mentioned here from 19 years ago sound ridiculous and make no sense. I wonder if that translation agency still exists. They must have made millions with those rates (paid to the translators).
They may sound ridiculous and make no sense to you, but that's what they were. The agency is still going very well, offices throughout the UK and abroad, acquiring new businesses.
I also don't know where you've heard of this 0.10 (euros?) per word and charging higher for English between 2000 and 2010.
I think a lot of confusion comes about as freelancers do not like to disclose their rates; the only ones who do are the lawyer-linguists who charge 0.40-0.50 and even then, we don't know if these are real rates.
| | | |
Lieven Malaise wrote:
I make no secret of my rates (I've mentioned them several times over the years, the last time even very recently), but I understand why few people do it: either you're criticized because they are supposedly too low, or you're looked at with envy because they are higher than other people's rates. There doesn't seem to be an in-between.
Couldn't agree with you more. I'm happy with my standard rate of 0.08 EUR for agencies. However, I think that the bulk of agencies pay less.
[Edited at 2025-03-11 20:57 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Турция
Local time: 16:37
Член ProZ.com
английский => турецкий
ADIE Translations wrote:
They may sound ridiculous and make no sense to you, but that's what they were. The agency is still going very well, offices throughout the UK and abroad, acquiring new businesses.
I also don't know where you've heard of this 0.10 (euros?) per word and charging higher for English between 2000 and 2010.
I think a lot of confusion comes about as freelancers do not like to disclose their rates; the only ones who do are the lawyer-linguists who charge 0.40-0.50 and even then, we don't know if these are real rates.
If you followed any discussions about rates here in the last 5 years, you could have a pretty good idea about how much the old timers used to charge during those years.
Of course those people (who usually happen to be the ones dishing out advice to newbies) don't work with the kinds of agencies that the majority of our colleagues have to work with (such as the multinationals, first-come-first-served agencies, London agencies, bidding agencies, those who make you work with stupid online Cat tools etc.) as they established themselves decades ago and they also work with direct clients (a privilege denied to most of us non-EU translators, speaking of which 0.12 EUR pw for a direct client is also a low rate in my opinion).
I see no reason not to disclose my rates. I don't work for anything less than 0.07 EUR per word, and I usually charge 0.08 EUR to 0.10 EUR per word.
I live in a very expensive sh*thole, but unfortunately the people working in my pair charge half of what I charge, so I don't seem to get a lot of work (being a former PM, you should also know that there is very little demand for Turkish language in the European translation market).
Some people recommend that I quit the industry to take up another form of employment, so I'm currently considering my options.. I might go into football management or plumbing. Tough choice, I know... but what you gonna do?
| | |
|
|
|
| The "good old days" | Mar 11 |
ADIE Translations wrote:
[snip]
I also don't know where you've heard of this 0.10 (euros?) per word and charging higher for English between 2000 and 2010.
The last time I charged a single-digit/word rate (USD or the DM equivalent) was the during 1980s. And I was on the lower end, compared to many of my peers.
[Edited at 2025-03-11 14:11 GMT]
| | | | Nadja Balogh
Германия
Local time: 15:37
Член ProZ.com c 2007
японский => немецкий
+ ...
| No rates disclosed | Mar 11 |
I also won’t disclose my rates here because they vary so wildly between customers that it would be meaningless, and moreover, the reason why I choose those rates is different for every customer and sometimes quite whimsical – I might try for a high rate with a customer who doesn’t send too much work just to see how it goes, and – surprise! – they actually agree to it. With others, just like Christine, I am very lenient because they are so hassle-free and it would just stress me to star... See more I also won’t disclose my rates here because they vary so wildly between customers that it would be meaningless, and moreover, the reason why I choose those rates is different for every customer and sometimes quite whimsical – I might try for a high rate with a customer who doesn’t send too much work just to see how it goes, and – surprise! – they actually agree to it. With others, just like Christine, I am very lenient because they are so hassle-free and it would just stress me to start negotiating when I’m actually happy enough with the way things are.
It’s all a matter of balances. It just has to result in a certain sum at the end of the month, and so far this has always been the case. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I'm sorry to have to say this but you've done this twice now, and i feel like I should say something | Mar 11 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
I charged $0.16 for medical when I first came here. Nowadays medical translation pays $0.03 for my language pair, if you’re lucky. It’s not agencies who did this, it’s translators, or so-called translators.
I work in the same pairs or at least our pairs overlap a great deal, and I have never been offered USD 0.03 for any translation, least of all medical. If I have, that email was marked as spam and went straight to the bin.
I am paid EUR 0.08 flat (for every word) for translating clinical studies that you've said recently were paid significantly less. And I work on medical and life sciences translations with my US collaborators for USD 50 an hour. My lowest per word rate for US agencies is USD 0.08 which comes up half a cent EUR short of my EU and UK per word rates, and this is frankly because I was busy and quoted my EUR rate but in USD, forgetting USD is weaker than EUR. The companies I work with would pay USD 0.09, they are the ones who pay me USD 50 an hour and most of my work with them is billed per hour.
I wonder, are you even trying to find decent work as a freelancer, or have you pivoted to a different profession? Are these perhaps Bosnian agencies that offer 0.055 BAM per word? I am genuinely asking, I don't work with regional agencies since they can't pay proper rates.
The lowest offers I get are from agencies facilitating casino and gambling work. They'd like me to work for EUR 0.05 and GBP 0.05 with fuzzy match discounts and I say no, and we all move on with our lives.
I feel like perhaps you've taken a 9 to 5 job, given up on freelancing, but hanging out on proz.com gives you the idea that you are still freelancing, which you aren't since your actual job takes up most of your time. Forgive me if I'm wrong, I just fail to grasp where the discrepancy in what we are offered comes from?
And, Lingua, as I'm sure you know, I can be quite difficult. I've dropped an agency that paid OK rates for easy work, because the owner laid their accountant off and then kept messing up the payments. When asked politely about it, I was treated with contempt. Should I have done that, no, it was easy work, but like I've said, I've zero tolerance for people treating me poorly, even if they pay good rates for easy work. I'm not bragging, I wish I was wiser and kept the easy work for good rates, rather than telling someone they have all the emotional maturity of a 5-year-old.
Edit: Clarification! What I meant to say is, I really do quite all right, even despite not having the best disposition to deal with a certain subtype of translation agency owners who think translators are dancing monkeys for hire. I do that by relying on some wonderful translation agencies that value the collaborator and offer well paid work. All of my work in the past 5 years came from people who've found me, or I've found them through proz.com as well. So, try for yourself. Don't listen to the doom and gloom reports in any pair.
@OP being a freelance translator in 2025 might not be a full-time job. Most of us here have something to fall back on. A pension, a partner with a 'proper job'. You have to have a safety net of some sort because the landscape is ever-changing, and the work can dry up without any previous warning.
The proper measure of how well you are doing as a freelance translator is what are your options? I've trained as an interpreter and teacher of English as a foreign language as well. Both are much more stressful on different levels than doing written translation from my home office, and both are paid so little at present that I command the same rates doing little-to-no-stress written translation. But again, if I had no safety net, a teaching job would be a better option since it would guarantee monthly income.
To be an in-house translator, I don't think is a viable option any more, since most translation agencies need in house PMs and vendor managers but opt to hire remote translators and editors. In-house can still be a very good internship prospect for a newbie.
Perhaps the best way for you to start looking is to talk to your professors. Good luck!
[Edited at 2025-03-11 19:21 GMT]
| | | | Lingua 5B
Босния и Герцеговина
Local time: 15:37
Член ProZ.com c 2009
английский => хорватский
+ ...
I don’t know where the discrepancy come from. These days all offers are post-editing in the range of 1 cent to 3 cents per word.
You make it sound like you are fully booked at $50/hr, 40 hrs a week for medical interpreting, which you most definitely aren’t in our language pair. Yes, I get ocassional $50/hr medical jobs, but they are so ocassional I won’t even count them in.
I never said I take the 3 cent jobs, just saying this is being offered. It is what it is.... See more I don’t know where the discrepancy come from. These days all offers are post-editing in the range of 1 cent to 3 cents per word.
You make it sound like you are fully booked at $50/hr, 40 hrs a week for medical interpreting, which you most definitely aren’t in our language pair. Yes, I get ocassional $50/hr medical jobs, but they are so ocassional I won’t even count them in.
I never said I take the 3 cent jobs, just saying this is being offered. It is what it is.
I can write here whatever I want. I can say a US hospital hires me full time at $100/hr, 40 hrs/week, so easy to lie here and misrepresent things. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| Goodness! I don't appreciate the way you're implying that I'm lying! | Mar 11 |
Lingua 5B wrote:
I don’t know where the discrepancy come from. These days all offers are post-editing in the range of 1 cent to 3 cents per word.
You make it sound like you are fully booked at $50/hr, 40 hrs a week for medical interpreting, which you most definitely aren’t in our language pair. Yes, I get ocassional $50/hr medical jobs, but they are so ocassional I won’t even count them in.
I never said I take the 3 cent jobs, just saying this is being offered. It is what it is.
I can write here whatever I want. I can say a US hospital hires me full time at $100/hr, 40 hrs/week, so easy to lie here and misrepresent things.
That's quite rude and uncalled-for. It makes trying to have a conversation with you quite futile.
You've said: “You make it sound like you are fully booked at $50/hr, 40 hrs a week for medical interpreting, which you most definitely aren’t in our language pair...”
I've never said or implied such a thing. In fact, I've not mentioned interpreting other than to imply that I refrain from taking interpreting jobs since the rates I'm offered (at best) match my translation rates, and interpreting is much more stressful. I've touched on this in my previous post, but let me reiterate: USD 50 an hour isn't an impressive rate for what interpreting entails and relative to my translation rate.
I would like to say that yours is a very personal experience of the state of affairs in the language pairs we share, and I have a different one.
Speaking of misrepresenting things, I also wish people who've long stopped working as freelancers would refrain from professing to know the state of affairs of a profession they are no longer in. Whether this is the case for you, only you know, since, 'you're a liar' isn't much of an argument, but it is a communication stopper. So let me stop here.
| | | |
Baran Keki wrote:
If you followed any discussions about rates here in the last 5 years, you could have a pretty good idea about how much the old timers used to charge during those years.
Of course those people (who usually happen to be the ones dishing out advice to newbies) don't work with the kinds of agencies that the majority of our colleagues have to work with (such as the multinationals, first-come-first-served agencies, London agencies, bidding agencies, those who make you work with stupid online Cat tools etc.) as they established themselves decades ago and they also work with direct clients (a privilege denied to most of us non-EU translators, speaking of which 0.12 EUR pw for a direct client is also a low rate in my opinion).
I've been here since I started translating under a different, now deleted, profile. I don't remember such discussions. Perhaps you could remind me of the threads? How old do you mean by "old timers"?
Certainly between 2006 and 2010, 0.10 EUR was not possible in my language combinations working with agencies. I'm sure there were some exceptions, but the reality was less. Maybe in the US this was different; most of my experience relates to the UK and Spain.
Maybe I just missed the golden years...
| | | |
Kevin Fulton wrote:
The last time I charged a single-digit/word rate (USD or the DM equivalent) was the during 1980s. And I was on the lower end, compared to many of my peers.
[Edited at 2025-03-11 14:11 GMT]
Sounds good - what's your rate now?
| | | | | Страниц в теме: < [1 2 3] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Seeking resources/info: current salaries in translation | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
| | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
