Poll: What is the current trend for your rates? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 11:11
Spanish to English
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My rates have been more or less steady since 2008, when I should have put them up. However, due to the financial crisis, I left my rates more or less as they were at the turn of the century. In this election year, the government keeps telling us that the crisis is over, there is light at the end of the tunnel, etc etc, and whether this is true or not, I have only started to raise my rates 25% this year, and have managed to do so without any kerfuffle with three long-standing clients.
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I have been replacing my agency clients with direct clients. My projects are more interesting, too.
| | | | | Steady/unchanged | Apr 2, 2015 |
As I said before (another very similar poll) I raised my rates for my "regulars" 3 years ago and I intend to continue to serve my existing client base at current rates and apply higher rates to new clients only, depending on the subject-matter and other circumstances.
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For about four years I was seeing an upward trend, but in the last six months I've noticed that even my oldest and dearest clients are starting to put on pressure to lower them. Three other colleagues in my languages and specialties have said the same thing.
With one of my clients I have had a contract for x cents a word for the last 3 years. They recently approached me and asked me to take a cut to x minus 3 cents a word on a very large job. It was a violation of my contract. Thi... See more For about four years I was seeing an upward trend, but in the last six months I've noticed that even my oldest and dearest clients are starting to put on pressure to lower them. Three other colleagues in my languages and specialties have said the same thing.
With one of my clients I have had a contract for x cents a word for the last 3 years. They recently approached me and asked me to take a cut to x minus 3 cents a word on a very large job. It was a violation of my contract. This is a massive project. I told them they could "sweeten the pot" by sending me a lot of jobs at the regular rate and then I might consider taking a smallish chunk (~10K words) of the work at the reduced rate if I'm available. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tim Drayton 
Cyprus
Local time: 12:11
Turkish to English
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| Unchanged in euro ... | Apr 2, 2015 |
... which means lower in terms of such major currencies as the USD and GBP.
| | | | DianeGM
Local time: 12:11
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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So far the same as last year for existing clients and slightly higher for new clients.
I don't take on that many new clients.
| | | | Anthony Baldwin
United States
Local time: 05:11
Portuguese to English
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| same here, more or less... | Apr 2, 2015 |
neilmac wrote:
My rates have been more or less steady since 2008, when I should have put them up. However, due to the financial crisis, I left my rates more or less as they were at the turn of the century. In this election year, the government keeps telling us that the crisis is over, there is light at the end of the tunnel, etc etc, and whether this is true or not, I have only started to raise my rates 25% this year, and have managed to do so without any kerfuffle with three long-standing clients.
This is about my story...no change since 2008.
And now, when I really DO NEED to increase rates, because everything keeps getting more expensive, there is still incessant pressure to drop rates, which I absolutely refuse to do.
It would be infeasible.
With some private clients I have been able to implement small increases, like 10%, though, not 25%.
With law firms and insurance companies, I have no mercy (they don't), but I do work for a lot of schools and academic institutions who are in as much a bind for funds as I am, which I understand well.
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Anthony Baldwin
United States
Local time: 05:11
Portuguese to English
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Triston Goodwin wrote:
I have been replacing my agency clients with direct clients. My projects are more interesting, too.
I used to have a lot more direct clients.
But now agencies are offering translation, review by a second party, DTP, etc., etc. all for the same I rate I was charging for only translation+proofreading by a single party (me).
Then the agencies try to hire me to do it for half to two thirds of my former rate (which I flatly refuse).
It's like Walmart coming in and putting the local hardware store out of business, and the former proprietor going to work for them at half his former income. I'm not doing that.
I do still have some private clients with whom I've worked for a decade (mostly academic institutions), but far fewer of the occasional jobs from law firms, insurance agencies, and other companies that I used to get quite regularly.
Luckily, I also do web design, development, and hosting on the side, but even there, a lot of big corporations have taken away a lot of business, with "free website" services (that aren't really free), like weebly or whatever, or I have to compete with developers in places where the cost of living is a lot lower, who are willing to work for a third of what I need to make. I do have some long-term, loyal clients in that field, though, which is good.
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 05:11
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
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| Today I got a job offer from a company with a very good | Apr 2, 2015 |
BlueBoard rating offering me 0.06 USD a word. I couldn't resist telling them that I earned almost twice that in 1993 when I was a complete beginner! My net rates have not changed very much in 22 years! At a 0.01 increase per year, I should be charging 0.34 USD a word by now.
[Edited at 2015-04-02 23:44 GMT]
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