Rates Thread poster: Louise Watkins
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Hi,
I'm just starting out and am wondering what a reasonable rate for a Russian - English translator is, who has a degree in Russian but is not yet accredited by IoL etc. I am also wondering about rates for proofreading Russian - English and French - English. Any hints would be really helpful!
Thanks
Best wishes,
Louise.
| | | | Rob Albon 
United States
Local time: 21:57
Japanese to English
+ ...
| A knotty question | Feb 26, 2010 |
Louise Watkins wrote:
Hi,
I'm just starting out and am wondering what a reasonable rate for a Russian - English translator is, who has a degree in Russian but is not yet accredited by IoL etc. I am also wondering about rates for proofreading Russian - English and French - English. Any hints would be really helpful!
Thanks
Best wishes,
Louise.
Hello,
I am going to give you the same advice which I received when I first started out.
Determine the hourly wage which you would like to earn.
Determine the amount of words you can translate in one hour.
Divide.
This is the rate you should charge.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with work, you can afford to raise your rate.
If you get no work, you should reduce your ideal hourly rate or increase the amount you produce per hour.
(I think once you enter a rate into your profile, you will be able to see what the market average is, and you can also use this to adjust your rate).
One key to keep in mind: It is easy to overestimate your hourly production. Of course you will not sit for 8 hours a day. So it might be best to translate for 2-3 hours and divide. Also, as you gain more experience, your concentration increases, so that you can translate steadily at a good speed for longer and longer periods of time. So you can expect hourly return to rise a little.
Best of luck!
| | | | Abba Storgen (X)
United States
Local time: 20:57
Greek to English
+ ...
No, no, no. That's a certain way to bankruptcy.
Determine the hourly wage which you would like to earn.
Determine the amount of words you can translate in one hour.
Divide.
This means that the more experienced she gets, the less she will be charging!!! (because two years from now her speed will have doubled, and she'll be able to translate double the amount of words per hour, which means that if she follows this advice she will have to lower her pri... See more No, no, no. That's a certain way to bankruptcy.
Determine the hourly wage which you would like to earn.
Determine the amount of words you can translate in one hour.
Divide.
This means that the more experienced she gets, the less she will be charging!!! (because two years from now her speed will have doubled, and she'll be able to translate double the amount of words per hour, which means that if she follows this advice she will have to lower her price per word every year!).
Conider:
a) Your total expenses (including amortization of equipment and software you need to buy every year)
b) Your net profit after you deduct all your business expenses AND business taxes AND insurance.
Now, take your net profit (which is basically your "salary"). How much should it be for running a business and working long hours?
- This salary should be achieved by translating what is considered "average" output per day in the market today (2,000 per day?)
- For proofreading... how many words can you proofread per day?
Source text 5,000 words + target text 5,000 words = 10,000 words per day careful proofreading? (that's a lot, it's already 10 hours work including breaks).
This should yield the same amount to cover all the above.
Treat each case differently until you get more experience... of course, there's no reason t charge the same for all jobs (!). If you walk into a store, each product has its own price, right? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Abba Storgen (X)
United States
Local time: 20:57
Greek to English
+ ...
| Dance instructors | Feb 27, 2010 |
At any rate, I think that dance instructors earn approx. $70 per hour and they have 3-4 appointments per day.
Calculate how much you think the work of a translator is worth... more or less than the work of a dance instructor (the average dance instructor who teaches Jim and Jill how to dance at their wedding...).
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