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It means you get paid for every character

Posted By: JT on 2008-01-17
In Reply to: Line count - newbiemt

you type, including spaces.

Example - The cat in the hat.
All letters and spaces in the sentence (including the 2 spaces after the period).

Blank lines are not counted as you did not type on them.

Many MTSO have a 65-character line count, so therefore for every 65 characters you type, you get paid for 1 line, whether it takes 1 line or 10 lines, it is the charcters that are counted, not the actual line of typing.


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Not if you are paid by every 65 character
and that is what the poster said: If you are on a line count that just takes characters and divided by 65, then font doesn't matter.
If the file is 10,000 KB and you are being paid by a 65 character line sm
divide 10,000 by 65 for your line count.  This has been done for years. 
You get paid 7.5 cents per 65 character line
I got this calculation by taking 10,000 for the character count including spaces and divided that by 5 and got 2000 (your word count). Then divided that by 1000 (you said you get paid per 1000 words), and got 2. I took 2 and times it by $5.75 and got $11.50. So for every 10,000 characters with spaces you get paid $11.50. To translate this to a 65 character line, I took 10,000 and divided it by 65, and that rounds to 154, divided by $11.50 and got 7.5 cents. This is decent, but I think you should ask for a raise if you have been with them for five years. Anywhere from 8 cpl to 10 cpl is the norm.
70 character line?? Hope you are paid well.
I get a 52 character line!  Yippie.
What the heck does getting paid by a 55 black character line?? Does this mean without spaces and doe
You just never know if this is a trick to somehow rip you off of lines. I am just very skeptic of it since I have never heard of anyone using this formula before.
I do not get extra money for typing and supervising.. I get paid salary which means

I get to type the stuff everyone else has rejected!


Wwwowoooweeeiiieee.. lucky me and my 3 dollars an hour!! 


Means gross line is a good way to get paid, but is rarely offered anymore. nm
s
For QA consulting I'm paid per hour; QA instructing (college) paid salary, QA editing paid per li
I am an IC and work for two different MTSOs as well as instruct at a business college.
Quick question! Is 10 cpl with benefits at 74 character line better than 9 cpl at 65 character line?
Thanks
it's spelled right. Exo means outside and you know what phrenic means. nm
:
if mt paid 9, editor paid 4 or 5...how can company charge 14 and make it..sm

I know the going rate in our area is 14 cents per line.  As MTs most companies here pay us 8 or 9 cents a line.  Now add in the Editor rate at 4 or 5 per line..you are paying OUT more than you can charge a line.  How would companies stay in biz?


Unless all work is sent by the company overseas at pennies per line, this would not pay for a company.


just curious how this works out


But how much are the US EDs gonna be paid? Typically this work is paid at 2-3 cpl. nm
:+
You don't get paid an hourly rate you get paid by line - sm
so because of how you are paid (not an hourly rate) you don't get OT, especially if you are an IC.
I would move on. I think it is so unfair not to be paid for spaces! I think we should get paid

per keystroke, but that'll never happen.  I just think that these national companies are going to keep finding ways to cheat us.  I found a job working for a hospital as an employee, paid hourly plus incentive, and they let us expand everything!  Somebody's gonna have to kill me to make me give up this job.  I will never go back to the national's again.


I feel for you though.  I know that for us MTs those good jobs are few and far between and some have little choice but to work for the nationals.  I just happened to luck into the job I have now.  I just applied at the right time. 


Good luck to you whatever you decide.


If those companies paid a fair wage, and paid more
all came out equal, people wouldn't feel the need to try to make up the deficit by going for the good stuff. I actually prefer the harder, juicier reports. But I can't make a living doing only that, because the pay is not commensurate with the difficulty. So even though I prefer not to, sometimes I have to pick up some of the easier, more boring 'line-o-matic' reports just to make ends meet. Tell your MTSO to make it work their while, and MTs will stop taking all the easy work away that you obviously would prefer to keep for yourself.
You wont show UE being paid because it is employer paid -
the employee will never have to pay this.
What you "should" be paid and what you "are" paid

sadly are two very different things.  Good luck on demanding more..because someone else will just come along and take it for what they offer and they know it. 


Does anyone pay by the character?

Does anyone know of a legit company that pays by the character?


Any help would be greatly appreciated.


68 character
With 68 character line. What is h/f?
Hmm, that comes out to almost 8 cpl 65 character
Plus freebies, of course with gross line. Am I missing something here?
If you went from a 70 to a 65 character

line, then it should be easier to reach incentive.  That was a positive for you, not a negative. Unless of course they changed the total line requirement for incentive to kick in.


 


10$ late if invoice is not paid within 10 days. At day 15 work stops until invoice is paid. Hardly
xx
Character count
I have no tip, but my co is also doing that. UGH!
charging per character
What is the average charge per char??  A dr called me and told me he is currently paying .002 per char.  If I calculated right, that would be .13 cpl.  Is it standard to charge char w/spaces or not? Thanks for any info, I always have charged by the line  
Yes, really. It's a character issue.
When someone is a thief, it is only a matter of time before they start stealing from friends. I could never trust someone I knew to be a thief. I do not care to share any part of my life with someone of poor character.
Hope its Kim. Her character can go in IMO. nm
x
I charge $0.18 cpl (65 character) - so you are
in the ballpark, I suppose.
I am in Northern CA.
Black character......
means any black mark (typed character) seen on the page.  Sneaky way of saying you are not being paid for spaces - which just boggles my mind..........
20-character lines.
it's the only explanation.

javascript:editor_insertHTML('text','');
65-character line
Some of you have asked about what her lines consist of. Her lines are the same as mine--65-character line including spaces. I know she has some templates, but I just really think that she's exaggerating somewhat. Maybe she can hit 500-600, but I just don't see how anything higher than that is possible.

I do like a good challenge, though, so I'm going to get started with my Instant Text and see where my counts are a month or so from now.

Thanks for all of your replies!!
These are 65-character lines,
Now there's an idea. The 30-character line.
Is this a 65-character line?
Are you getting paid extra for bold, underlying, etc? Don't see how they figure 6 cpl with spaces equals 9 cpl unless they use a different character count for their lines.
I don't think so. If it's a 65 character line, they probably
But regardless of how they do it, 9 cpl to the client has just GOT to equal poorly-transcribed, offshored medical records. I sure hope my record isn't one of them.
I don't think so. If it's a 65 character line, they probably
But regardless of how they do it, 9 cpl to the client has just GOT to equal poorly-transcribed, offshored medical records. I sure hope my record isn't one of them.
8 cpl 65 character in 8 hour day

Hello everyone - Question  for anyone who is making 8 cpl at 65 characters in an 8 hour day.  How much do you make per day, or how many lines do you do in a day, on an average?  Please be honest, I am trying to figure out if it is just me and I suck,  or if everyone struggles with this ridiculous line rate.  Remember in an 8 hour time period.  Thanks  


70 character line
Is there anybody out there in the entire universe who uses a 70-character line?   I work at a hospital and we have to type 1100 lines a day on a 70-character line.  Just curious.
Character count tips
The hospital/clinic I work for is changing the counting method from gross lines to character count.  Does anyone have any tips on increasing production using total characters?  Thanks
I think it was based on 65-character line

All these formulas are confusing to me. I guess I need to ask some more questions. But, it's also an IC position, so that makes a difference doesn't it? Low pay for that? But, you are right, might be good experience.


One character or key Stroke is equal
... to one byte (including spaces or anyother character, remember one KEY STROKE regardless of the input). If you ever want to calculate your bytes for certain amount of text -> paste it on NotePad and save it as text file. Later you can right click on the file to get it's properties to see it's exact size.
What is "compensation 65-character line B/W"? nm
xx
Has anyone ever heard of B & W 65 character line?
What exactly is it?  I know 65 characters, but is that without spaces or what??
65 gross character line

Could someone please explain to me how this works. I have been an MT for 7 years with the same company and have been paid by # of total bytes divided by 72 x 11 cents per line. I am now moving on to a new job which pays by the 65 gross character line and I'm not sure how to figure this out. Would appreciate any help. Thanks so much.


6 character counts as a word
What would that calculate to be? Thanks for your help. I do not know many companies that pay by the word. I guess I will just have to see what my first pay check looks like. Thanks!
My hospital uses 90 character lines.
nm
An illness? More like a character flaw.
We all have choices to make, and the choices we make define our character. She chooses to drink herself into a stupor and drive a car. She could just as easily choose not to do so. It's all the apologists for drunks, the "it's-an-illness-we-must-not-judge-them" brigade that keep sending the dangerous drunks back out on the road. If someone chooses to drink and drive then kills someone, they have chosen to commit murder and should face the same consequences as any murderer.
.08 cpl/65 character line for me right out of school.
/
Are your lines 65-character, gross, or
other? Just curious as I do clinic work and in my area the going rate for gross lines is about 12 cpl, but more like 15-17 cpl for 65-character lines. I have heard (don't really know how reliable it is) that hospitals are charged up to the 22 cpl range. (I assumed that was on 65-character lines.)
I make 9 w/o spaces but I get every character - sm
on the page, regardless if I typed it or not, plus a cover page that is macro'd. However w/o the spaces I'd say I am out an average of $200 a month. Since you will not get headers/footers, it will probably be a little more. I try to template up as much as I can but only a handful of docs actually say the same thing every time. I figured it out once and I think the 9 w/o spaces equaled 7.75 with spaces. I get fairly regular raises though and with any luck get bumped up to .10 in the Spring (at least I am going to ask for it). You don't say how much experience you have, but if you do not have much I would go for it. I have been looking on an off for a while for a new job but am very limited as I have dialup (no DSL here, and most companies don't want satellite), so I am between a rock and a hard place. Any jobs I do find with dialup offer .07 cpl, unless it is real easy work I don't want to go that low. Make a list of pros and cons and go from there.
Why would a company pay by character when they also pay for spaces?

nm


Like poster below said a space is a character and
the only time you really need to be concerned is when they say they pay for 'printed' characters - which is not spaces...
I charge by 65-character line (sm)
My clinics have wanted 0.5-inch margins on the side. One of them wanted 10-point Times font. I think 65-character lines are fair for both parties.