proofreading paid at 10 USD an hour? Thread poster: Federica Masante
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Dear all,
I have just received the most ridiculous job offer from a client and thought I'd share it with you to see what you think about it.
Agency xxx e-mailed me this morning to ask whether I was available for a large and really urgent(aren't they all??) proofreading assignment amounting to 33,000 words. I got back to them by saying that I was available and stated my usual rates. They then got back to me asking whether I could lower my rate as the assignment was supposedly j... See more Dear all,
I have just received the most ridiculous job offer from a client and thought I'd share it with you to see what you think about it.
Agency xxx e-mailed me this morning to ask whether I was available for a large and really urgent(aren't they all??) proofreading assignment amounting to 33,000 words. I got back to them by saying that I was available and stated my usual rates. They then got back to me asking whether I could lower my rate as the assignment was supposedly just a quick "check" that wouldn't involve any terminology research. I was away from the computer for an hour or so as I had to pop out to run some errands and, upon my return, the agency had already sent me a couple of messages saying that they usually charged for this type of assignment by the hour and that, on the basis of their calculations (no idea how they managed to work this out), it shouldn't take any longer than 14,3 hours (!!??) to go over the entire file (143 pages) and therefore they were offering me a rate of 10 USD per hour for a total of 143 USD!
So, if they already knew how much they wanted to pay the proofer, why even bother asking for a quote in the first place? The mind boggles.
Needless to say, I turned down the job.
Half an hour later, I received another message saying that the job had been cancelled because the rate offered by the client was indeed too low. I tend to think that the job was offered to another proofer willing to work for 10 USD an hour. I mean, if that isn't slave-driving, then what is?
Best,
Federica ▲ Collapse
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Ralf Lemster 
Germany
Local time: 06:39
English to German
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Hi Federica,
I mean, if that isn't slave-driving, then what is?
It isn't - you turned it down (and rightly so).
Best regards,
Ralf
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Charlesp
Sweden
Local time: 06:39
English
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| it doens't sound that bad | Jan 26, 2005 |
A quick and efficient proofreader can do more than 10pages an nour, so it doesn't sound all that unreasonable. It's not editing, only proofing. I'd take it. And even if it was a bit on the lower end, that's simply how agencies work.
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Irene N
United States
Local time: 23:39
English to Russian
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| Faster does not mean cheaper | Jan 26, 2005 |
It's a quick walkthrough? OK, fine. So there will be less hours for the same decent price (the one you quoted).
You bring your car to the shop and they charge you 35/hour for mechanic's time. The job takes say anywhere from 1 to 10 hours, so you pay from 35 to 350, but not 10 because your job only took half an hour and it turned out to be a loose contact. You'll pay at least $17.50, right?:-)
You did right!
[Edited at 2005-01-26 17:27]
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A few weeks back I got a ridiculously low offer as well. They wanted to pay me .003 (USD) for 32,000 on an editing project that was from Spanish to British English. I told them that they were at least one decimal place off and that there was no way I could accept such a low rate.
Of course they thought that they could lure me into taking this pproject because there is promise of future work from them? Future work at these ridiculously low rates? No thank you!
You di... See more A few weeks back I got a ridiculously low offer as well. They wanted to pay me .003 (USD) for 32,000 on an editing project that was from Spanish to British English. I told them that they were at least one decimal place off and that there was no way I could accept such a low rate.
Of course they thought that they could lure me into taking this pproject because there is promise of future work from them? Future work at these ridiculously low rates? No thank you!
You did right!
Federica Masante wrote:
Dear all,
I have just received the most ridiculous job offer from a client and thought I'd share it with you to see what you think about it.
Agency xxx e-mailed me this morning to ask whether I was available for a large and really urgent(aren't they all??) proofreading assignment amounting to 33,000 words. I got back to them by saying that I was available and stated my usual rates. They then got back to me asking whether I could lower my rate as the assignment was supposedly just a quick "check" that wouldn't involve any terminology research. I was away from the computer for an hour or so as I had to pop out to run some errands and, upon my return, the agency had already sent me a couple of messages saying that they usually charged for this type of assignment by the hour and that, on the basis of their calculations (no idea how they managed to work this out), it shouldn't take any longer than 14,3 hours (!!??) to go over the entire file (143 pages) and therefore they were offering me a rate of 10 USD per hour for a total of 143 USD!
So, if they already knew how much they wanted to pay the proofer, why even bother asking for a quote in the first place? The mind boggles.
Needless to say, I turned down the job.
Half an hour later, I received another message saying that the job had been cancelled because the rate offered by the client was indeed too low. I tend to think that the job was offered to another proofer willing to work for 10 USD an hour. I mean, if that isn't slave-driving, then what is?
Best,
Federica ▲ Collapse
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sylvie malich (X)
Germany
Local time: 06:39
German to English
| 10 US an hour a good wage? | Jan 27, 2005 |
Charles Phillips wrote:
A quick and efficient proofreader can do more than 10pages an nour, so it doesn't sound all that unreasonable. It's not editing, only proofing. I'd take it. And even if it was a bit on the lower end, that's simply how agencies work.
Charles,
An hour is an hour no matter how quick and efficient you are. You obviously don't have a mortage and family. The last time I worked for $10.00 US/hour it was 1984. That's when it was a good wage.
But I guess it's where you're located.
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| Really proofreading? | Jan 27, 2005 |
Another thing to consider is that translation proofreading jobs rarely actually involve just "proofreading", even if the customer says so. In my experience, they usually end up being editing/text comparison/patch-up jobs.
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Charlesp
Sweden
Local time: 06:39
English
+ ...
[quote]sylvie malich wrote:
Charles Phillips wrote:
A quick and efficient proofreader can do more than 10pages an hour, ...
Charles,
An hour is an hour no matter how quick and efficient you are. You obviously don't have a mortage and family. The last time I worked for $10.00 US/hour it was 1984. That's when it was a good wage.
But I guess it's where you're located.
Yep. That is one of the advantages of the Internet - you can choose to live and work whereever you want, and as we all know, the cost of living varies from place to place - and the cost of living isn't necessarily coorespondent with the guality of life. In fact, the less expensive places are often more rewarding places to live.
Ben and Jerry's (before they were bought out by the french comglomerate) advertised for a marketing/advertising manager. The salary was a fraction of what the job would command in New York City, yet they got hundreds of qualified applicants, willing to work at half or a quarter of their present salary. But then, it wasn't only the lower cost of living - free ice cream came along with it!
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