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Translation - art & business » Money matters »
Hourly rate - any suggestions?
Thread poster: Vitals
Vitals
Vitals  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 12:07
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
Mar 30, 2009

Hi, colleagues,

I am in front of a decision: what would be a good European hourly rate for editing? (basically comparing the original language file with the target language file to see if they correspond ideally).

I would be very grateful for your feedback, as I do not normallywork on an hourly rate basis.

Thank you for your (speedy) replies!

Best regards,
Vitalijus
 
Kevin Lossner
Kevin Lossner  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 10:07
German to English
+ ...
Time is time, so go for the same money Mar 30, 2009

Think about basing it on your hourly earnings as a translator more or less. For example, if you do an average of 400 words/hour at €0.15 per word, you are making about € 60/hr. It would be a waste of your time - or at least a relative loss - to work for less.
 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 06:07
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
I set it VERY high Mar 30, 2009

I'm a quite versatile guy. If anyone decides to hire me by the hour to do anything I'm capable and ethically willing to do, it's their call. If they only want me around, standing by in case an emergency I can handle comes up, it won't alter the hourly rate.

On the other hand, I think that paying me by the hour for things like DTP or proofreading is unfair to all involved.

For instance, as I've been using successive versions of the same DTP software for some 20 years alr... See more
I'm a quite versatile guy. If anyone decides to hire me by the hour to do anything I'm capable and ethically willing to do, it's their call. If they only want me around, standing by in case an emergency I can handle comes up, it won't alter the hourly rate.

On the other hand, I think that paying me by the hour for things like DTP or proofreading is unfair to all involved.

For instance, as I've been using successive versions of the same DTP software for some 20 years already, I'm dazzling fast. So it's unfair to get underpaid for such accumulated experience. On the other hand, if that whole experience is not enough to quickly solve some specific problem, it's my problem, the client shouldn't be overcharged because it's the first time I face it.

In proofreading, if the translation is bad enough to make me wish to charge more than half of my translation rate, everybody will be better off if I redo it from scratch at full translation rate. This will eliminate any possible traces of patching and mending the text.

Hourly rates are for assignments where the professional will be kept available for a certain period of time. A typical case is interpreting. As a sworn interpreter to a wedding, one of the things I did there was the knot to the groom's necktie, another one was to get an aspirin for the flu-ridden mother-in-law-to-be. It's all in a day's work.

To calculate an hourly rate, simply divide your actual expected monthly income by the number of hours one normally works in a full-time job in your area. adding what would be equivalent to the proportional benefits you'd get as an employee. ▲ Collapse
 
Vitals
Vitals  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 12:07
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you Mar 31, 2009

Thank you, very much, Kevin and Jose, I appreciate your speedy help very much. You gave more more than I expected - not only the approximate rate, but the very principle of how to approach this (my head was too busy with urgent translation and I didn't sit down to figure this simple mathematics out myself).

With best regards,
Vitalijus
 


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Hourly rate - any suggestions?


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