| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > | How much do you make? Thread poster: Vytautas Kacerauskis
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Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 10:32
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Revenue = turnover? | Jun 1, 2010 |
Edwin den Boer wrote:
There has been a recent survey of the revenue (not income) of freelance Dutch translators...
1. I downloaded the book and searched for "turnover" and "revenue". I get the distinct feeling that the author uses the word "revenue" to mean "turnover" (he uses "turnover" for staff turnover). Or does revenue mean turnover in your country?
2. I read on page 174 (where your figure also comes from) that 27% of the translators in their survey charge no per-unit rates and charge only hourly rates. The average hourly fee (of all translators) was about EUR 50.00. And, according to this book, full-time freelance translators only work about 14 hours a week (the rest of the week's hours are spend doing things that aren't billable to clients). The average job for a translator takes about 12 working days to complete, and the average translator does about 80 jobs per year.
Clearly this is not my league... as my hourly rate is about half that, I very rarely work with hourly rates anyway, I work at least 25 hours a week, my jobs typically take 1 or 2 days to complete, and I do between 50 and 70 jobs per *month*.
I'm not going to disclose my income, but my revenue is considerably lower than € 36,300. Collegues have told me this figure is quite high.
I breathe a sigh of relief because my revenue is also lower than that.
| | | | | how much you charge, per word? | Jun 2, 2010 |
I guess, my question is how much is the average, per word, rate in today's market. English to Spanish and Spanish to English, legal field.
Thank you for your replies.
Jose
| | | | | Revenue, income, net, gross | Jun 2, 2010 |
Of course, in any comparison, it's important to be able to compare apples to apples, even if some of those are Red Delicious and others are Golden Delicious.
The word "revenue" is generally used to refer to all incoming money received for goods or services during a specified period. This word could also be used as an equivalent to "gross earnings". The term "gross" is, as one glossary describes it, "The total amount before anything is deducted."
The... See more Of course, in any comparison, it's important to be able to compare apples to apples, even if some of those are Red Delicious and others are Golden Delicious.
The word "revenue" is generally used to refer to all incoming money received for goods or services during a specified period. This word could also be used as an equivalent to "gross earnings". The term "gross" is, as one glossary describes it, "The total amount before anything is deducted."
The word "income" is often deemed to be the same as "revenue", but is also often seen with the modifier "net" (which makes it something else), so it's important that when we use the word "income", we make it clear which kind we are talking about.
Generally speaking, "net income" is income remaining after accounting for expenses and taxes.
What is more difficult to discern is what some of our sources mean when they say "earn" without any further clarification. Is this "gross earnings" (before accounting for expenses and taxes), or "net income", or something in between (having accounted for taxes due but not expenses, or vice versa)?
As for me, because I have a varying amount of business-related travel in any given year, my net income can vary greatly, and I can control how high my expenses will be for the year to a certain degree (by choosing not to travel, for example). ▲ Collapse
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Yes, I also noticed that although we, Eastern europeans, have lower rates, and still probably lower overall incomes compared to our western colleagues, we rank better in terms of the average national income. As I said, I make four times the average in my country and indeed an very low percentage of salaried university graduates make what I make. HOwever, of course, my income would be quite modest by West European standards. By the way, 15 euro cents per word would be fantastic for me. I don't ge... See more Yes, I also noticed that although we, Eastern europeans, have lower rates, and still probably lower overall incomes compared to our western colleagues, we rank better in terms of the average national income. As I said, I make four times the average in my country and indeed an very low percentage of salaried university graduates make what I make. HOwever, of course, my income would be quite modest by West European standards. By the way, 15 euro cents per word would be fantastic for me. I don't get even close to that. If 15 eur cents net is the standard in the West, than those who manage EUR 30 000 per year either don't have enough clients or should simply work more/faster. ▲ Collapse
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 01:32
English to German
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In memoriam | Exactly, Janet. | Jun 2, 2010 |
Thanks for your post!
In case our anonymous asker is still not satisfied:
My car is brand-new, I moved into a house twice as large as my former one in January and I pay my proofreaders US$ 7 cents / word.
HTH. We don't want him to experience sleepless nights.
| | | | | into my pocket | Jun 2, 2010 |
Janet, when I say "earn" or "make" , I always mean money after taxes and relevant expenses. I mean money that goes straight into my "pocket" and I can spend it as I wish. I really don't see much point in talking about income in any other way, because we are all taxed differently in different countries (I myself have three different statuses for taxation purposes because of the complicated system we have here). So when someone says I make 50000 before taxes or gross, that really doesn't give much... See more Janet, when I say "earn" or "make" , I always mean money after taxes and relevant expenses. I mean money that goes straight into my "pocket" and I can spend it as I wish. I really don't see much point in talking about income in any other way, because we are all taxed differently in different countries (I myself have three different statuses for taxation purposes because of the complicated system we have here). So when someone says I make 50000 before taxes or gross, that really doesn't give much info of how much he actually makes. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | comparisons to other professions | Jun 2, 2010 |
Edwin den Boer wrote:
So the comparison with other professions is the reverse of what Vytautas reported for Lithuania.
Maybe I wasn't too clear on that. I don't mean to say that in general an average translator is better off than bankers, doctors or lawyers. At the time being I may compare favourably to them because of my rather narrow niche, additional education, luck in finding good clients and maybe also the fact that I work 60 hour weeks. But no one knows how long this is going to last. But the fact is that in Lithuania a translator at least CAN (with the right qualifications, dilligence, self-marketing skills and a bit of luck) earn much more than the average earner. I know translators making even 8-10 times the national average (which is "only" 5000 eur per month here), yet again I could probably count them on the fingers of one hand. And they all have the best clients, such as EU institutions for which they freelance directly. Yet overall, an average doctor or lawyer is probably better off than the average translator.
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It's a pitty I don't know of any official stats for my country, but from my experience, from that of my colleagues and from info on local chatrooms/forums, an average translator can make anywhere between 350 eur to 5000 eur. Of course those at the high end are very few. And I exclude sporadic or part-time workers here. So differences are vast and different are also the perceptions about the "prestige" of the profession and about the earnings of professional translators. But I often get the feeli... See more It's a pitty I don't know of any official stats for my country, but from my experience, from that of my colleagues and from info on local chatrooms/forums, an average translator can make anywhere between 350 eur to 5000 eur. Of course those at the high end are very few. And I exclude sporadic or part-time workers here. So differences are vast and different are also the perceptions about the "prestige" of the profession and about the earnings of professional translators. But I often get the feeling that people see the translation job as something that anyone who speaks a particular language can do (i.e. no special skills required), also something that one should do only temporarily, as a side job, as a student job or even as a hoby, but not as a "serious career", especially for a man... I wonder if the same is true in other countries. (A few years ago my colleague translator had guests visiting from the UK, and they kept her asking what she "plans to do" in her career and seemed not to take it seriously that translation is what one can actually do for a living for a long time...). I still wonder if that's funny or sad?:) ▲ Collapse
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| car and house is valuable info | Jun 2, 2010 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
Thanks for your post!
In case our anonymous asker is still not satisfied:
My car is brand-new, I moved into a house twice as large as my former one in January and I pay my proofreaders US$ 7 cents / word.
.
Here you go - that is valuable info. What you say gives an impression that you are satisfied, at least to a certain degree, with your financial situation. See, we can talk even without disclosing exact income. By the way 7 USD cents per word is more than the average translator in my country makes - for translation (not proofreading).
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 01:32
English to German
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In memoriam | Car and house - and the art of diplomacy. Here you go! | Jun 2, 2010 |
vytautask wrote:
Here you go - that is valuable info. What you say gives an impression that you are satisfied, at least to a certain degree, with your financial situation. See, we can talk even without disclosing exact income. By the way 7 USD cents per word is more than the average translator in my country makes - for translation (not proofreading).
See, it's that easy. You should have asked your peers (wait a minute, are you a peer? We still don't know who you are... he, he..) about their cost of living and you would have been able to draw your own, anonymous conclusions. Aah, the art of communication! Eventually you will understand.
| | | | Williamson
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:32
Flemish to English
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| If my banker is happy. | Jun 2, 2010 |
vytautask wrote:
But I often get the feeling that people see the translation job as something that anyone who speaks a particular language can do (i.e. no special skills required), also something that one should do only temporarily, as a side job, as a student job or even as a hoby, but not as a "serious career", especially for a man...
I wonder if the same is true in other countries. (A few years ago my colleague translator had guests visiting from the UK, and they kept her asking what she "plans to do" in her career and seemed not to take it seriously that translation is what one can actually do for a living for a long time...).
I still wonder if that's funny or sad?:)
The portals were very helpful, but contributed to the fact that everybody with a computer and internet-connection, could become a translator overnight.
The public does not know what the profession entails and regards it an ennobled secretarial job, whereas since the film with Nicole Kiddman "The interpreter" and the filming of interpreters in their booths, whenever there is a tv-report from the E.P., interpreting is highly regarded, although some agencies offer peanut rates and some are so stupid to bid on those rates, thus undermining that profession.
Whether or not the public takes translation seriously, I don't care as long as my banker smiles. At the moment and until September, he does not smile, for I live of my savings to chew through accounting, financial management courses and math formulas. I earn 0. When I get back on the market, I intend to get an ROI on that effort. I already have a yellowish paper, saying that I have a Master in Translation and now I try to specialise in everything which has to do with money.
When I was translating and interpreting at full speed, my banker smiled. If my banker is happy, so am I.
By the way, could you tell us something about yourself? You complain or not(?), but you are in a market-niche, where there are not too many players present. Every considered interpreting and trying to get to Brussels. You "only" need a university level degree and an interpreters degree for that.
For Baltic languages and for Estonian and Lithouanian, there are not too many candidates for the interpreters competition.
[Edited at 2010-06-02 11:54 GMT]
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Williamson wrote:
You complain or not(?), but you are in a market-niche, where there are not too many players present. Every considered interpreting and trying to get to Brussels. You "only" need a university level degree and an interpreters degree for that.
For Baltic languages and for Estonian and Lithouanian, there are not too many candidates for the interpreters competition.
I'm not complaining, I do ok, yet it seems that for translators there's a limit to how fine you can do financially. At this point it doesn't seem to me that I can work much more, or much faster, or get much better or more clients (I have more than enough right now) and I don't believe I can raise my rates in the current market much higher in my market and in my language pairs. So really, I don't see how I could get to a considerably higher income level... Perhaps options worth exploring are outsourcing a large portion of my work to other people, but it's not easy to find people who would produce the same quality work at lower rates, leaving me a profit. Yet another option is to go into the translation agency business; I have a colleague already owning a small company and trying to persuade me to go into that direction. But that's a totally different subject as it would acctaly entail change of occupation - from mere translation to business.
As for interpreters, there's no distinction in the Lithuanian market as to the prestige of interpreter vs translator. In fact we don't even have separate words for the two. Many people actually do both. True, interpreters' earnings somewhat higher provided that they have enough work, but not significantly. As for myself, I simply do not have enough need and motivation to switch to interpretation. I would have to start from the bottom, look for new clients, perhaps get an education in interpretation (for Brussels this is a requirement).
Working for EU institutions as translator or lawyer-linguist is never off the table. I see it as an option. That would improve my earnings but would require relocation by myself and my family and would also increase my living costs.
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Paula Borges
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:32
Member (2010)
English to Portuguese
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wouldn't this limit of 'how well you can do financially' have anything to do with 'how much work can you accept without going crazy'?
| | | | Dmitri Lyutenko
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:32
English to Russian
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| I also think so ... | Jun 3, 2010 |
polyglot45 wrote:
However many people reply to you, you are almost certain to get a skewed picture of the situation.
Almost all the translators I know personally do not come to sites like this for work and are therefore well outside the average rate bands typical of such sites. Many of them have worked for international organisations, UN, EU, NATO, etc. before going freelance and have kept some business from their former employers.
As you are probably aware, staffer jobs in such organisations are VERY WELL paid (often tax-free). You also have the benefit of health insurance, pension schemes, etc. I am talking from personal experience.
None of the people to whom I am referring make, to my knowledge, less now they are freelancing than as staffers. They can command high rates because they have expert skills and - often - experience in particular highly specialist fields.
However, they are not going to tell you what they earn - any more than I am - simply because they often only work part time, only take assignments that interest them, do not work outside their fields and have direct clients (rarely, if ever, agencies) and pocket all the cash, not the bit the agency deigns to hand on. After that, it's a question of quality of life, tax bills and choosing the best balance. These people enjoy good reputations. They also usually have strong qualifications.
Having shown you the other side of the coin, now how to you intend to reconcile this with inexperienced beginner rates for people fresh out of school? Impossible. Beginners often feel forced to accept peanuts. Those with specialities do not. If offered peanut prices, they politely direct the client towards the monkey house at the nearest zoo.
My basic conclusion from all this is that, at the top end of the market, translation is a respected profession. At the lower end, it is not. Period.
I mean I think the same way ...
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polyglot45 wrote:
...they often only work part time, only take assignments that interest them, do not work outside their fields and have direct clients ... After that, it's a question of quality of life, tax bills and choosing the best balance.
While I would not say that I "only work part time", I'm willing to admit that my schedule is not always full, especially over the last 18 months. Sometimes this is not by choice, but at other times it is.
I travel internationally, I go out to concerts (my working hours are at night) or spend time with my significant other, sometimes I just refuse to take an assignment at a slightly lower rate even if I have a big hole in my schedule - I recognize the value of extra free time and I can use it - and I'd rather hold out for the better-paying jobs than potentially imply I might be amenable to low rates.
In short, my quality of life is fairly good. And because I hold out for the better-paying and more suitable jobs - and impress my clients - my income (revenue) is not bad either, considering the circumstances and tradeoffs. It may not be at the same level as some of my IT friends ($80-100,000 in the US before taxes, plus benefits), but if I ever filled my schedule to the brim, I might get close.
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