| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | Poll: Are you satisfied with your income as a freelance translator/interpreter? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| Yes, definitely | Apr 26, 2015 |
Triston Goodwin wrote:
Seriously, though, I promised my wife that we would be millionaires by the time we turned 30. My 28th birthday is next week, and we're still about a million dollars short of the goal.
Triston, you can try and visualize this heap of money. Just put all your ready cash (you need to withdraw all balances from your bank account, pension fund, etc.) on the floor in front of you... and then place one million dollars on top of it.
On a slightly more serious note, I am quite happy with my current income, despite the economic crisis and sanctions against Russia. With several direct clients (and multiple agency clients), and with my sole proprietor's tax at 6% of gross earnings, there is still something left at the end of the day to buy some bread, butter... and caviar.
N.B. I am a bit older than you, and I still have a way to go to reach your goal. However, I did not promise my wife anything like that. Instead, my promise was that she would never become bored with me...
[Edited at 2015-04-26 18:52 GMT]
| | | | | Translators are very underpaid | Apr 26, 2015 |
Translation is a high stress business, translation is very skilled work that requires training and a lot of experience and the self employed should always have a much higher net income than a comparable employee. Such is just not the case. We should earn the same as a self employed bookkeeper, minimum - and we should also be paid by the hour too.
You can earn a good income from translation, but you have to work so extremely hard for it,
| | | | | Bare necessities... | Apr 26, 2015 |
I've decided to retire from the 'rat race', some time ago. I'm 72 now and I've been a full-time professional freelance translator for he last 10 years.
I have survived, barely, with some easy months and some very tight ones (financially).
One problem is that the 'auctioning' of ProZ jobs offers are driving rates down and it has been increasingly more difficult to just 'survive'... (my car is year 1998, and I love it too).
I'm an Electronics Engineer, entrepreneur ... See more I've decided to retire from the 'rat race', some time ago. I'm 72 now and I've been a full-time professional freelance translator for he last 10 years.
I have survived, barely, with some easy months and some very tight ones (financially).
One problem is that the 'auctioning' of ProZ jobs offers are driving rates down and it has been increasingly more difficult to just 'survive'... (my car is year 1998, and I love it too).
I'm an Electronics Engineer, entrepreneur and have experience with IT and computers. I consider myself a Professional and, as such, I refuse to work for peanuts. Some LSPs are being automatically directed to the trash-bin in my inbox.
I've suggested that ProZ should NOT send me job offers below my minimum and also tell the 'bidder' what percentage of professionals will receive their offer at their proposed rate. That would save me time and frustration and (possibly) educate clients who care for quality, not just price. ProZ didn't accept my suggestion... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mohamed 
United States
Local time: 14:45
English to Arabic
+ ...
| English>Arabic rates are deteriorating | Apr 26, 2015 |
Unfortunately, too many newbies are entering the translation business even if they are not qualified enough and they offer very low rates which impacted my career and I am now trying to move to another field. I am thinking of project management in the field. Some companies in the US even are proposing too low rates for my language combination. I don't blame them as much as I blame my colleagues who won't be able to sustain a good standard of living soon because inflation is very high and prices ... See more Unfortunately, too many newbies are entering the translation business even if they are not qualified enough and they offer very low rates which impacted my career and I am now trying to move to another field. I am thinking of project management in the field. Some companies in the US even are proposing too low rates for my language combination. I don't blame them as much as I blame my colleagues who won't be able to sustain a good standard of living soon because inflation is very high and prices are rising almost every month.
[Edited at 2015-04-26 19:45 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Ivan Kinsman
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:45
Polish to English
I like the flexibility but proofreading dies not pay as well as translation. Also the ups and downs can be tough ... last weej I had one job from my regular client. Luckily half of my income is from teaching so this is a back up. We'll see if things pick up again but the future can be a big ? ref. income stream.
| | | | JOHN PENNEY (X)
Local time: 17:45
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| Machine Translation forces rates down | Apr 26, 2015 |
I have noticed that since the advent of MT, translation rates have declined substantially. Some clients call it "post-editing": especially in "descriptive" texts, it´s usually a question of trying to mind-read a jumble of incomprehensible and badly-ordered phrases - nothing to do with translation.
| | | | | Yes, without a doubt! | Apr 26, 2015 |
I am amazed to see how many of you are unsatisfied... I earn a very decent income, well enough to put food on the table for a family of 6; we have a nice house, though not luxurious, one family van, and my wife can actually afford to stay at home to take care of the kids and... well... to deal with pretty much everything else in the house!
Though I might be able to charge slightly higher rates than some of you because of my field of expertise (technical), I am still picky about the ... See more I am amazed to see how many of you are unsatisfied... I earn a very decent income, well enough to put food on the table for a family of 6; we have a nice house, though not luxurious, one family van, and my wife can actually afford to stay at home to take care of the kids and... well... to deal with pretty much everything else in the house!
Though I might be able to charge slightly higher rates than some of you because of my field of expertise (technical), I am still picky about the projects I accept: I have standards, and will not fail them. I do not accept jobs I am not comfortable with; I do not accept projects that are not in my field of expertise; I hardly accept proofreading jobs (mostly because they are not profitable enough); I keep saying to my clients that terminology is the key in my field; and, whether you believe in it or not, I serve a big God, and I start ever single day spending time with Him. This is my real "secret". It’s been more than 10 years now since I started working as a freelance translator, and well, apart from the taxes that keep increasing with my income, there is not much I am not satisfied with!
[Edited at 2015-04-27 13:10 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phlebas
Local time: 22:45
Swedish to English
| Making a living...just | Apr 26, 2015 |
It's a good job except for the overzealous deadlines and growing pressure to lower my rates. This all points in one direction: working harder for the same money.
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| skewed results | Apr 27, 2015 |
Sorry to say, but I don't think most people are going to discuss this topic frankly, with some notable exceptions. Proz is a workplace platform, after all, where members feel the pressure to control the public persona they present. In some places, it's considered a rude question to ask, sort of like inquiring about how much money someone has in the bank.
[Edited at 2015-04-27 01:27 GMT]
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 16:45
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| After 22 years... | Apr 27, 2015 |
... I honestly feel that I should be earning at least twice what I do now.
| | | | | I am a slavelancer, but also a fighter! | Apr 27, 2015 |
I live and work in Romania, and here the prices for translations are in freefall due to intermediaries, i.e. translation companies. They call themselves free merchants, they pretend to have the right to negotiate what prices they want on the free competition market, and they "negotiate" lower and lower prices in relation to final customers, and then force us, translators, i.e. the working people, to also accept lower and lower rates, motivating that "we cannot pay more, because we don't get more... See more I live and work in Romania, and here the prices for translations are in freefall due to intermediaries, i.e. translation companies. They call themselves free merchants, they pretend to have the right to negotiate what prices they want on the free competition market, and they "negotiate" lower and lower prices in relation to final customers, and then force us, translators, i.e. the working people, to also accept lower and lower rates, motivating that "we cannot pay more, because we don't get more ourselves from the final customers". So most of the Romanian translators are not freelancers, but slavelancers, including me.
Yet there is an area of translations that are performed illegally by such translation companies, and this fact has been confirmed by the Ministry of Justice: translations of official documents. Such translations are the object of activity of two regulated professions:
1. authorised translators and interpreters and
2. civil law notaries.
Authorised translators and interpreters are holders of an authorisation issued by the Ministry of Justice according to the special Law no. 178/1997 for them to work as translators and interpreters for the Ministry of Justice, law courts, notary's offices, law practices etc. - i.e. only for entities that are part of the Romanian system of justice, according to the mentioned special law. The system of justice is a State system, which is regulated by the State, and all fees are established by the State. When we are used within the system by such State institutions like for example law courts, or by entities representing the State and having authority granted to them by the State, we have to receive our payment rights according to the law, i.e. prices according to fixed rates established by the State, i.e. by the Ministry of Justice together with the Ministry of Finances. There are no freely negotiable prices within the system, and this is good.
According to this special law no. 178/1997, private translation companies are not among the entities that are part of the state system of justice mentioned in art. 1 of the law, and therefore they have no right to use us and to make money by exploiting our work. Such translation companies, who call themselves "authorised translation companies" are in fact not authorised by the Ministry of Justice, because according to the law, the Ministry of Justice grants the translator's authorisation not to legal entities, but to natural persons only, who comply with all requirements of the article 3 of the law.
On the other hand, translating official documents is the object of activity of another regulated profession: civil law notaries, because according to article 12 letter j of the Law no. 36/1995 on Civil Law Notaries and Notarial Practice, republished, with the subsequent amendments and supplements, both translating official documents and certificating/ attesting the authorised translator's signature by a notary are part of the notaries' material competence. So, theoretically, according to this law, translating official documents in Romania should be made by notary's offices only, and all such translations should be notarised, i.e. they are not valid only with the translator's seal and signature, but they also should bear the notary's seal and signature and the wording attesting that the translator's signature really belongs to that authorised translator and that indeed that person who certifies the accuracy of the translation has the quality of a translator authorised by the Ministry of Justice.
According to their Law no. 36/1995 republished, for performing the translation of official documents, notary's offices should use and pay only translators and interpreters authorised by the Ministry of Justice; if they use authorised translators as their employees, translators receive a monthly salary paid by the notary's offices; if they use freelance translators authorised by the Ministry of Justice, such freelance translators should also be paid by notary's offices, namely according to the fixed rates established by the State. According to the law, Romanian civil law notaries also can be authorised as translators and interpreters by the Ministry of Justice and as such, they can perform the translation themselves, and their rates are, of course, also established by the State.
So, if a private customer, no matter whether it is a natural person or a legal entity, has to translate official documents, such as notarial documents, POAs, affidavits, certificates, diplomas, transcripts of records, decrees, legal documents etc., such a customer should not go to a translator, even if it's a authorised one, but to a notary's office, where the customer should request the fulfilment of the notarial procedure according to article 12 lett. j of the Law no. 36/1995, republished; so the customer should let the official documents be translated and notarised by the notary's office, receive the translations and the originals from the notary's office and pay for the notarised translations at the notary's office. So the authorised translator should work for the notary's office and get paid by the notary, not by the final customer.
The problem is that in the everyday practice, there are translation companies that extend their lawful object of activity - translations of different texts - and also make translations of official documents, which is illegal, because this is a regulated activity performed by two regulated professions: authorised translators and civil law notaries. So translation companies doing this are actually violating the two laws in force: the Law 178/1997 on authorised translators and interpreters and the Law no. 36/1995, republished, on civil law notaries and notarial practice. Their owners pretend that the Law 178/1997 that currently regulates our authorisation, payment and use by the entities of the Romanian system of justice does not explicitly prohibit us to be used also by other entities, such as private companies, i.e. translation companies, that is why they exploit us using us illegally and pay us the worst possible, i.e. at rates that are 2-6 times lower than the rates established by the State. Such companies are also boycotting the activity of notary's offices, in the sense that they fool the customers to accept translations of official documents only with the translator's signature and seal, or even worse, with any illegible signature, nobody knows whose, and with the translation company's seal, although such companies are not authorised by the Ministry of Justice. Of course such translations mostly are not accepted, but in certain situations abroad they are accepted, and such owners of translation companies violate the law on purpose, in order that my as many violations as possible, to establish a new norm in the practice, and they hope that this will trigger the change of the law to their advantage.
We have been fighting against this mafia and for our rights for several years, i.e. in 2008 I and other colleagues translators authorised by the Ministry of Justice established an association of authorised translators, a NGO, and under this "umbrella", we have filed lots of petitions with the Ministry of Justice and other official authorities, showing all the illegal practices of such companies, all the problems, troubles etc. of our profession and have continuously been asking for our professional legislation to be changed for the advantage of the professionals, the working people, not of the translation companies exploiting us.
And this year finally our "God", the State, i.e. the Ministry of Justice, has answered our "prayers": they drafted a new Law on judicial translators and interpreters which is good, because it changes the name of our profession from authorised translators and interpreters into judicial translators and interpreters and explicitly prohibits us to be used by other entities than those under the authority of the Ministry of Justice and that are part of the legal system and are mentioned by the provisions of the new law. We shall work autonomously, obeying only the law, but we shall be fully integrated into the legal system, i.e. in our quality as judicial translators and interpreters we shall be used only by the entities provided by the law and be paid only by them, so we will enjoy the fixed rates established by the State and the standard page also established by the State. This is not a restriction of the right to work, because one and the same natural person may have at the same time two or more qualities:
1. judicial translator and interpreter
2. general translator/ interpreter or specialised in a certain field
3. teacher or any other occupation if wanted and / or necessary
Our profession will be a fully regulated profession, and it shall be distinct from that of translator and from that of interpreter in general; and we shall also have specific forms of exercising our distinct profession established by the new law: sole practice judicial translator and interpreter's offices and professional partnerships of judicial translators and interpreters; here they precisely shall also add the two other forms of exercising the profession that are legal according to the notary's law: civil law notaries authorised as judicial translators and interpreters by the Ministry of Justice and judicial translators and interpreters who are employees of notary's offices.
The new draft also stipulates the establishment and organisation of a professional body that shall be called the National Union of Romanian Judicial Translators and Interpreters and that shall include obligatorily all judicial translators and interpreters in Romania, so no one can exercise this new profession without being a member of the sole national professional body established and organised according to the special law. This professional body shall have a similar structure and organisation like the notary's professional body, with which it shall cooperate the closest possible. The professional body shall play only a consultative role, because the profession shall be fully under the control of the State, so it will be the State that shall play the main role: the Ministry of Justice shall authorise us like before, it also establishes our fixed rates per page and the page standard, as well as our rights, our obligations and our liability, also certain fees that we shall have to pay to the State budget, and finally the Ministry of Justice shall control our activity and also the organisation of the exam for admission into the profession, which shall be organised by the professional body under the control of the Ministry of Justice.
At the same time we have also been seeking the support of the notaries' professional body, i.e. the National Union of Romanian Civil Law Notaries in order to fight together for our mutual cause: bringing notarial translations back into notary's offices where they belong, and work hand in hand together and earn together as much as possible, so we, authorised translators, can enjoy not only our lawful right to be paid only according to the rates established by the State pursuant to the law, but also enjoy the notaries' protection against incorrect practices, document forgery and all kind of abuses, troubles etc. We really believe in this mutually advantageous interprofessional cooperation between judicial translators and civil law notaries, and we are ready to do everything to put it into practice. This is an old tradition in Romania: notary's offices have always had this activity of translating official documents as part of their material competence according to the legal provisions since 1950, and no matter of the changes of the notarial legislation over time, this provision has always remained the same and it is still there in art. 12 lett. j of Law 36/1995 republished. And in the practice, there still exist notaries that make such translations using either employed or freelance translators authorised by the Ministry of Justice, and they also have signboards at their offices, so that people know about this notarial activity, like in this example where it is written "Romania, Ministry of Justice, National Union of the Romanian Civil Law Notaries", there is the Romanian flag and the emblem of the National Union of the Romanian Civil Law Notaries, then the mention "Notarial Office" and below, on the red arrow, it is written "Notarized Translations".
So that is what we are fighting for: we want this correct and legal practice extended in the whole country, and in this sense our NGO made the proposal to the notaries' professional body that they should establish a unique design of such a signboard and oblidge all notary's offices in the country to use it, so that people know where to let their official documents be translated: there, where they see the sign, i.e. at notary's offices only, where we shall be the notaries' authorised and qualified labour force and shall get the best prices for our translation work.
So these are the main advantages of the new law drafted by the Ministry of Justice, and we are looking forward for the Parliament to pass the draft and then for the law to be published in the Romanian Official Gazette and become effective. The most important advantage will be that in our quality as judicial translators and interpreters we shall be paid only according to the fixed rates established by the State, which are much better than any prices on the free competitional market, and we hope that this increase of the rates in case of translations of official documents will over time trigger an increase of the prices of other translations, too. I think this could and should be done in all countries of the world.
[Bearbeitet am 2015-04-27 01:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Marc Sejourné
Cambodia
Local time: 03:45
English to French
In memoriam | No raise after 15 years | Apr 27, 2015 |
15 years ago my minimum rate was 0.05 EUR per source word, it is still about the same today. The Internet has globalized the business, there is more work but it is difficult to get a fair income, particularly in Asia. I lowered my fixed costs (mainly taxes) by moving to a developing country. I wonder how can survive my colleagues in "expensive" cities such as NYC, Paris or London.
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Once I shook free of other people's ideas of what was possible and how to do things, once I decided to just believe things my own way and stop complaining about obstacles, my income skyrocketed and my lifestyle followed suit. My accountant makes sure I enjoy as much of it as possible. And that wasn't through manhandling my rates, either. It's a wonderful and lucrative profession if you let it be so!
| | | | ali shurbaji
Jordan
Local time: 23:45
English to Arabic
+ ...
| not satisfied | Apr 27, 2015 |
When rates stay same for over 7 years and prices growing higher it’s hard to be satisfied, I consider myself part-time freelancer the way I support my family through additional technical work. I thought about this situation or turn to full time freelance but because translation work not consistent, it had low and peak time so I will keep it this way. NO, I am not satisfied.
| | | | | It's getting better and better | Apr 27, 2015 |
It's my 8th year as a fulltime freelance translator, and I must say it's getting better and better. I'm quite satisfied - and eager for more. A positive mindset seems to go a long way too in attracting and keeping good clients.
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