Target per hour and per word Thread poster: Fernando Toledo
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I have seen many rates in Proz that I do not understand.
If a translator requests, for example, 0,04 or 0,05 € per word, how he can also request 30 € per hour? If I received 0.04 € per word I would never reach 30 € per hour (nor in two either).
Am I so slow?
| | | | Irene N
United States
Local time: 22:56
English to Russian
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| Not so literally | Jan 13, 2004 |
Likely none of us charge per hour when translating plain text at home. Yet we
1. accept in-house assignments - days or weeks on-site, and sometimes an hourly rate is better, for example, when the client agrees to pay overtime or you have a flexible schedule.
2. translate PowerPoint slides where word count quite often has very little to do with actual time spent.
The list can go on, and hourly rates are for those sorts of things.
| | | | Parrot 
Spain
Local time: 05:56
Spanish to English
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| I'm not discussing prices per se | Jan 13, 2004 |
but I do find the ratio and service type aspects raised here inconsistent.
Toledo wrote:
If a translator requests, for example, 0,04 or 0,05 € per word, how he can also request 30 € per hour? If I received 0.04 € per word I would never reach 30 € per hour (nor in two either).
Am I so slow?
By the industry standards of average productivity, 30 €/hr. corresponds to a rate of 0,06. (It's also the price of a monolingual language class in these parts, so figure...)
I understand the principle of charging per hour (at whatever rate) to cover files having difficult formats or other types of problems, but I agree there should be some consistency in marketing.
| | | | OlafK
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:56
English to German
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| I asked a similar question a while ago... | Jan 14, 2004 |
and nobody replied. I'm sure you know the answer to your question anyway...
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| Are we not forgetting something? | Jan 14, 2004 |
Hourly rate is meant for work at the client's premises, where he can monitor the actual time spent on the job. What is more, he has a translator exclusively at his disposal during this period. It is really not very convenient for the translator to come all the way to the client's place.
If a doctor visits the patient at the latter's home the patient has to pay more than if he were to go to the patient's surgery. Similarly the translator has to be paid more. In my case the client has... See more Hourly rate is meant for work at the client's premises, where he can monitor the actual time spent on the job. What is more, he has a translator exclusively at his disposal during this period. It is really not very convenient for the translator to come all the way to the client's place.
If a doctor visits the patient at the latter's home the patient has to pay more than if he were to go to the patient's surgery. Similarly the translator has to be paid more. In my case the client has also to pay me my taxi fare both ways.
Regards,
N.Raghavan ▲ Collapse
| | | | DGK T-I
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:56
Georgian to English
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| Another factor | Jan 14, 2004 |
which can affect word rates is the "density" of words in a language - consider the source or target word counts for translating a text from a language which tends to use more words, to a language which tends to use less words - and the opposite process - if both are to pay for the time, labour and skill needed.
| | | | mbc
Spain
Local time: 05:56
Spanish to English
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| By the hour for short texts | Jan 14, 2004 |
I live in Barcelona and some publishers pay me by the hour for small volume, time-consuming texts. I do the work at home and they trust me to bill them by the hour. They know that some texts of only 1000 words might take 8 hours or even 10 or 12 when I need to search for specific vocabulary or think up catchy slogans. Usually they pay me that way up to 3000 words and then pay by the word. (Otherwise, I would be rich!!)
It´s interesting post and I think different publishers/agencies... See more I live in Barcelona and some publishers pay me by the hour for small volume, time-consuming texts. I do the work at home and they trust me to bill them by the hour. They know that some texts of only 1000 words might take 8 hours or even 10 or 12 when I need to search for specific vocabulary or think up catchy slogans. Usually they pay me that way up to 3000 words and then pay by the word. (Otherwise, I would be rich!!)
It´s interesting post and I think different publishers/agencies/companies vary in how they are willing to be charged. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Parrot
Spain
Local time: 05:56
Spanish to English
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| Hourly rates may apply to proofreading or DTP | Jan 14, 2004 |
in your own office as well. If you apply an industry average standard of 1,200 words/hr. proofread, there should be no problem. (In case of text difficulty, YELL.)
Narasimhan Raghavan wrote:
Hourly rate is meant for work at the client's premises, where he can monitor the actual time spent on the job. What is more, he has a translator exclusively at his disposal during this period. It is really not very convenient for the translator to come all the way to the client's place.
If a doctor visits the patient at the latter's home the patient has to pay more than if he were to go to the patient's surgery. Similarly the translator has to be paid more. In my case the client has also to pay me my taxi fare both ways.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
Right. But the taxi and ancilliary services are not my own and figure on the driver's bill, not mine (in tax terms, to be perfectly legal about this. If I flew, I'd have to turn in the airline voucher, which is what I do on such assignments, and perhaps bill travel/briefing time at a minimum admissible rate. I'm not selling airline tickets or taxi fare).
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