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US State Department interpreter rates
Thread poster: Izabela Milanov

Izabela Milanov  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:12
Member (2015)
Serbian to English
+ ...
Jul 9, 2015

Hi,
Does anyone know what rates the US State Department pays contract interpreters? I have been invited to take the test in Washington, but they refuse to disclose their rates until after I pass the test. I was wondering if anyone here has worked for them and has some inside info?
Thanks a lot.
Izabela

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Joshua Li
China
Local time: 21:12
English to Chinese
Good payment Jul 9, 2015

Hi, Izabela

I am sure you will be surprised of the generosity from US State Department. All translators have signed NDA with them, so you will not know the answer from ProZ.

Good luck!

Joshua

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Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 18:42
English to Hindi
+ ...
Should be reasonably good Jul 9, 2015

Government rates can't go below the minimum wages in the country, and in developed countries like the US it should be much above sustenance levels.

I had read somewhere (can't recollect the exact source), that the Canadian government (or some official agency there), pays an uniform rate of 30 Canadian cents a word for all translations it commissions, irrespective of subject area (it could be literature, reports, documents, websites, whatever) or language pair, which when compared to the rates on offer in some quarters of this site, is munificent.

The interpreter rates are likely to be hourly rates, and should be around 35 USD (I am of course purely guessing here).

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Attila Piróth  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:12
Member
English to Hungarian
+ ...
US federal rates for translation companies Jul 9, 2015

While this does not answer your question, it may nonetheless be quite useful to know how much federal agencies pay for translation companies for translation and interpreting services.

See http://tinyurl.com/GSA-res

Best
Attila

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MK2010  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 07:12
Member (2017)
French to English
+ ...
WOW Jul 9, 2015

Attila Piróth wrote:

While this does not answer your question, it may nonetheless be quite useful to know how much federal agencies pay for translation companies for translation and interpreting services.

See http://tinyurl.com/GSA-res

Best
Attila


Some of the agencies charge 200 USD / hour for simultaneous interpreting. Good gig!

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orienzk
United States
Chinese to English
+ ...
Please share what you find out. Sep 4, 2015

Would really appreciate it if you could share what you find out after taking the test. Thank you!

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Paweł Hamerski
Poland
Local time: 15:12
English to Polish
+ ...
Prior to or after signing NDA? Sep 5, 2015

Interesting.

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Jenae Spry  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:12
French to English
Rates covered by NDA? Sep 18, 2015

I doubt that's the case because if the state department has a fixed rate instead of allowing the translator to set the rate, they are dangerously close to ending up with employees instead of contractors.

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