| Număr de pagini: < [1 2] | How do you judge a rate? Inițiatorul discuției: Alex ST
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Nicole Schnell 
Statele Unite
Local time: 07:13
din engleză în germană
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In Memoriam | It's not that easy. | Jun 18, 2009 |
Alex ST wrote:
[but only I myself know somebody(ies) rates, other people not. So, let's share each other, the point is.
I don't even have a standard rate for myself. Even when working with my regular clients, the rate will be negotiated each and every time, and after I viewed the source text. I have minimum rates, and that's it.
| | | | Alex ST
Indonezia
Local time: 21:13
Membru (2009)
din engleză în indoneziană (bahasa Indonezia)
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INIŢIATORUL SUBIECTULUI | Any opinion from other countries? | Jun 18, 2009 |
Jeff Whittaker wrote:
very LOWEST rate paid by clients for professional translation (in the U.S.) would be between .18 - .20 per word. The maximum I have seen is .45 a word, but that is for Spanish. I would guess that for most jobs clients pay somewhere between .30 - .35, depending on the language pair/subject matter/deadline,
[Edited at 2009-06-17 22:09 GMT]
Thanks Jeff. You have shown how lucky we all to know the rate from US side. This info is good and beneficial for all calleagues, who might have a client/outsourcer from US. I myself get some US clients really put same rate as you mentioned, but not all. Combining with your opinion, then I get more "knowledge" to negotiate rate with them in future.
Well, We got nice opinion from our colleagues in developed countries. How about you all from Rusia, Africa, India, Southern America, Middle East, Australia, not least Asia, etc? Shall we share our standard rate from each side? Not really your personnal rate, otherwise, what you think should be standard rate in your country. (oh ya, we don't need to standadize each other)
Deep gratitude for all of you that have shared your opinion!
Warm Regard,
Alex
| | | | Aniello Scognamiglio (X)
Germania
Local time: 16:13
din engleză în germană
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| Referring to the high end | Jun 18, 2009 |
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote:
Upper Standard: USD 0.10 - 0.40
Wow!
Alex's "Upper Standard" has quite a spread (30 US cents) and my comment was aimed somewhere in the middle. With current exchange rates my bottom line is somewhere in the middle of this. According to Reuters rates tonight USD0.20 = GBP0.121880.
Not "wow", just a professional rate for a professional service.
I was certainly not referring to the low end ($0.10 per word) of the spread of $0.30 per word. There are translators who charge more than $0.40 per word. As I said, it depends on a number of factors. The "target group" is just one of many.
Basically, there are two "target groups": agencies and direct clients. Of course, for obvious reasons direct clients can and must be charged higher rates than agencies (about 50 - 100%).
I am sorry, Madeleine, if you got my "wow" wrong.
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sounds like Communism to me.
Equality for all!
Universal prescriptions.....
:0(
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Laurent KRAULAND (X)
Franţa
Local time: 16:13
din franceză în germană
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| Not Communism, but... | Jun 18, 2009 |
Sergei Tumanov wrote:
sounds like Communism to me.
Equality for all!
Universal prescriptions.....
:0(
we should take into account that some pairs are over-crowded (in the worst sense of the term, i.e. everybody and their brother are "translators") while other pairs only have very few competent translators and can be charged accordingly.
One of the first things to do, therefore, would be to define what a professional translator is. AFAIK, our profession is not reglemented at all and all we can do is to become members of a professional association. This, in turn, does not suit everybody's taste, for various reasons I would not think of exploring.
Laurent K.
| | | | Aniello Scognamiglio (X)
Germania
Local time: 16:13
din engleză în germană
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| Supply and demand | Jun 18, 2009 |
I would like to demonstrate why a "standard rate" doesn't make sense.
Go to the Community menu on the ProZ.com homepage.
Go to the Certified Pro Network submenu.
In the 1. Find your Certified PRO peer section click on the
PROs in your language pair and specialties link
Next, select the language pair drop-down list in the Filter PROs shown dialog box (just click in the field, and you will see numerous lan... See more I would like to demonstrate why a "standard rate" doesn't make sense.
Go to the Community menu on the ProZ.com homepage.
Go to the Certified Pro Network submenu.
In the 1. Find your Certified PRO peer section click on the
PROs in your language pair and specialties link
Next, select the language pair drop-down list in the Filter PROs shown dialog box (just click in the field, and you will see numerous language pairs).
For example, there are 114 ProZ.com Certified PRO freelancers for English to German translations, but only 7 English to Danish translators, there are 207 English to Spanish translators, but only 1 English to Estonian translator.
Guess who is in a stronger position to charge higher rates? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alex ST
Indonezia
Local time: 21:13
Membru (2009)
din engleză în indoneziană (bahasa Indonezia)
+ ...
INIŢIATORUL SUBIECTULUI | Not to standadize every translator | Jun 18, 2009 |
Hi Sergei,
Thanks for your comment. We are not standardizing rate here. That's not the point.
Sergei Tumanov wrote:
sounds like Communism to me.
Equality for all!
Universal prescriptions.....
:0(
I could say this:
If an outsourcer emails you, and asks: "give me your best rate". The outsourcer comes from Senegal (for example). Then, how could you give your rate? Certainly it depends on you. It is sure and no doubt. However, if I were you, I sometimes consider the origin of an outsourcer/end user. Then, I will decide my rate or negotiate range of my rate. But, how do I know the common rate/could be said standard rate in the oursourcer/end user's country? The information we get from a translator there at this forum could help me to bargain with the outsourcer.
As I told previously Jeff Whittaker gave very beneficial information. Then If there is oursourcer/client from US, NOW we know how to decide standard rate for the outsourcer/client. I don't mean that there is one Rate for whole of the world.
No. It's not the point. Here we share what we think as standard rate to other translator. It could be beneficial for our colleagues around the world. Anyway, all repliers, you are wonderful for your comment! Thanks.
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Alex ST wrote:
... We are not standardizing rate here. That's not the point.
... The outsourcer comes from Senegal (for example). Then, how could you give your rate?
re: ... We are not standardizing rate here. That's not the point.
And what is this¿
qte
I would like to invite whole translators community to try to figure out standadized rate.
uqte
re: ... ... The outsourcer comes from Senegal (for example). Then, how could you give your rate?
Yes, the poor branch of Caterpillar inc. from Senegal... Or CocaCola trader....
No, problem. Email works in Senegal. I think that post offices still exist there too.....
Email message, text or sms, and last but not least - a postcard.
Seriously, if a translator cannot say how much he/she needs to earn, he/she better hire a professional manager to run his/her business. It is a must in the event such translator does not want to look into business matters himself/herself.
[Edited at 2009-06-18 08:40 GMT]
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| strong position for asking higher rates | Jun 18, 2009 |
Aniello Scognamiglio wrote:
I would like to demonstrate why a "standard rate" doesn't make sense.
Go to the Community menu on the ProZ.com homepage.
Go to the Certified Pro Network submenu.
In the 1. Find your Certified PRO peer section click on the
PROs in your language pair and specialties link
Next, select the language pair drop-down list in the Filter PROs shown dialog box (just click in the field, and you will see numerous language pairs).
For example, there are 114 ProZ.com Certified PRO freelancers for English to German translations, but only 7 English to Danish translators, there are 207 English to Spanish translators, but only 1 English to Estonian translator.
Guess who is in a stronger position to charge higher rates?
Sure the English-Estonian translator can aks higher rates as there are not too many of them, but due to this particular language combination (s)he will have much less work, as English-Estonian is not quite common.
| | | | Jack Doughty
Regatul Unit
Local time: 15:13
din rusă în engleză
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In Memoriam | What would you call 0.005? | Jun 18, 2009 |
I know it gets to be a bit of a bore, people quoting abysmally low rates in forums, but I couldn't resist mentioning this, from a Russian-English translation job posted on another site by an agency located in the USA:
"The lowest rates with the best quality work would be given a priority as well (1 cent US per every 2 words is tops that i can pay (, but the lowest rate gives you a competetive edge)."
So that's five dollars per thousand words. Not worth getting out of b... See more I know it gets to be a bit of a bore, people quoting abysmally low rates in forums, but I couldn't resist mentioning this, from a Russian-English translation job posted on another site by an agency located in the USA:
"The lowest rates with the best quality work would be given a priority as well (1 cent US per every 2 words is tops that i can pay (, but the lowest rate gives you a competetive edge)."
So that's five dollars per thousand words. Not worth getting out of bed? Not even worth poking your nose out from under the blanket! ▲ Collapse
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Alex ST wrote:
Proz has provided the rates, but we never know where the rates come from.
I think you are onto something here. I, for one, would appreciate a per continent or even per country minimum, maximum and average.
This should be easy to implement - ProZ already gleans rates from profiles. The same process could be used, but with an additional data field for continent/country.
I think this should be proposed as an improvement to the site.
| | | | Julie Dion (X)
Canada
Local time: 10:13
din engleză în franceză
Alex,
If it is of any help to you... From what I can gather from my own experience and a few translators I know... these seem to be "decent" rates.
Rate for agencies : about .12 to .15 CAD (can't quote US, it varies too much compared with the Canadian dollar these days)
Rates for direct clients : .18 to .25 CAD
Of course take this with a grain of salt as I am sure that agencies will look for better rates and direct clients rates are highly vari... See more Alex,
If it is of any help to you... From what I can gather from my own experience and a few translators I know... these seem to be "decent" rates.
Rate for agencies : about .12 to .15 CAD (can't quote US, it varies too much compared with the Canadian dollar these days)
Rates for direct clients : .18 to .25 CAD
Of course take this with a grain of salt as I am sure that agencies will look for better rates and direct clients rates are highly variable depending on subject matter, etc.
So anything above .25 is very good, and anything below .12 is... well... a lot less interesting
Maybe ViktoriaG can say if this matches her canadian experience.
[Edited at 2009-06-18 23:25 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Yes, more or less | Jun 19, 2009 |
Julie Dion wrote: So anything above .25 is very good, and anything below .12 is... well... a lot less interesting
The lower end you propose is more or less the lowest I am prepared to get out of bed for. I'd say that for USD, that would be about 0.11 per word. For me to charge that kind of rate, the work has to be pretty straightforward - either easy, general subject matters or those I am so versed in that I can go significantly faster than most translators in my language pair. Obviously, if I get something that makes me reach for a dictionary every five minutes (and I can only produce 150 words per hour), I will charge a lot more than 12 cents. In other words, the lower my productivity, the higher the rate I charge.
In any case, I establish my rates based on an hourly wage, which I set at USD 40 (sorry if I speak in USD - 90% of my invoices involve it). I base my rates on an estimation of how many hours the job will take me to finish (I multiply that by 40 and then divide it by the total number of words to obtain the per word rate I will charge). This means that the per word rate I charge varies greatly. That's why I always answer the question "What's your rate?" by a question instead of an answer.
Seriously, having rate data that takes into account continents/countries/regions would be neat. Should I propose it to ProZ?
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