Scoping, Transcription, and Proofreading
Rates Poll Results - April 2010
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The following information is the result of a recent poll taken on the Yahoo! Scopists Support Group E-mail group and the Court Reporters Forum. The poll included 145 participants and all 50 states are represented. 129 of those were scopists. The remaining 16 were proofreaders or transcriptionists.
This poll is based on averages of where the rates fall for each category. It is not scientific due to the fact that different people use different scales in finding their rates and should only be used as a guide. These results are meant as a tool for a scopist to get an idea what other scopists are charging for the same services. In order for an amount to be listed, 15 or more scopists must have said that that was their rate out of all the scopists who responded. (NOTE: Some scopists in the poll do not accept jobs requiring audiotapes and/or video work at all. Of the scopists who are willing to use tapes or do video work, the following rates were reported.) The lowest and highest rates for all questions have been omitted so that better averages may be found. "Average" in this poll means the majority of scopists charge that rate. Where there are ranges given, an equal amount of people gave those rates. If only one rate is given, that is the rate that most scopists charge for that work. Click to subscribe to Scopists Support Group - It's free! The length of experience of scopists participating in this poll ranged from one year to well over 20 years. Over 70% of scopists responding have been scoping for over five years. Definitions: Audiosync - listening to audio word for word within the CAT system throughout the entire job Taped - listening to audio using a transcriber throughout the entire job Spot-checking - listening to audio using audiosync or transcriber just in questionable areas of the job Scopists tend to use a few different formulas to reach their rates. The two most common are: A) Normal turnaround time of five = normal rate Two to four days = normal rate + 50% Less than one day or next day = normal rate + 100% B) Normal turnaround time of five days = normal rate Turnaround time of four days = normal rate + 50% Turnaround time for three days = normal rate + 65% - 70% Turnaround time for two days = normal rate + 80% Anything under 24 hours or next day = normal rate + 100% What is your NORMAL turnaround time? Average normal turnaround time is five days for freelance work, 30 to 50 days for trials. A large amount of scopists actually use five to seven days as their normal turnaround time for freelance work.
What is your EXPEDITED turnaround time? Expedited turnaround time is anything more than 24 hours and less than three days.
What is your DAILY turnaround time? Daily turnaround is anything less than 24 hours for most scopists.
 90% of the respondents read steno. "Scoofing" is a term used when a scopist or proofreader proofs a file with audio. While rates for this service vary, about 85% of people polled charge full scoping rates for this service. Some scopists are now adding a new category called "Immediate Scoping" or "ASAP Daily Copy." This means that rather than the scopist receiving the file in one piece and having about 24 hours to send it back, the scopist is receiving the file in small increments as the reporter is working throughout the day and is sending them back to the reporter as soon as they are finished. In other words, the scopist is basically working behind the reporter in a remote scoping type of situation until the job is done. This is a bit more demanding than daily copy. Scopists who have differentiated this service tend to add an additional $.50 to their daily copy rates. Do you charge more for technical jobs? About half the scopists polled charge more for technical jobs. If so, what percentage do you add on to your rate? This varied greatly from scopist to scopist. The rates were as low as $.10 more a page to a high rate of $.65 more a page. Some scopists add a percentage from 25% to 50% to the page rate. Do you charge more for medical jobs? Same as technical question. If so, what percentage do you add on to your rate? Same as technical rates. If you are working with a really excellent writer, do you discount your rate? Only a handful of scopists discount their rates for excellent writers. If so, what type of discount do you give? The average discount was $.10 a page, although a couple scopists gave a bigger discount. If you're working on a transcript that contains quite a bit of raw steno and a high untranslate status, do you charge more? Most scopists either charged more (rates began at $.25 more) or simply refused to work with reporters who produce this type of work or those who will not update their dictionary entries. If so, how much more per page do you charge? Rates varied from $.25 more per page up to double the normal page rate. Do you charge more for voir dire (jury selection) or wall-to-wall colloquy (opening statements, closing statements, motions, etc.) Many scopists add $.25 - $.40 more for this type of work if it goes on more than five pages. Do you charge a different rate for freelance reporters versus official reporters? About 20% of scopists polled charge official reporters a higher rate than freelance reporters. If you charge a different rate for freelance reporters versus official reporters, please explain your rates. The scopists who charged a higher rate gave the following reasons: Wall-to-wall colloquy of opening and/or closing statements, extensive motions, wider margins, and more lines on a page. Average rate increase was $.20 - $.35 per page to the freelance rate. Do you charge more for work with interpreters? Only about 5% of scopists charge a higher rate for work with interpreters. If you charge more for work with interpreters, how much do you charge? Those who do charge more state they charge on average $.15 more a page. Do you work with voice writers? Only about 20% of the respondents of our poll said they worked with voice writers. If you work with a voice writer, what page rate do you charge? Most of the respondents viewed working with voice writers like transcription, so the rates were much higher than scoping rates. These rates varied wildly. The averages for normal turnaround were between $1.25 - $3.00. After scoping, do you proof your work before sending it back to the reporter? 78% of scopists said they do not proofread their work before sending it back to the reporter. They will, however, check their flags or scan for known issues or areas that they know may need a second look. These scopists believe they should not be the final set of eyes on the transcript. 22% of scopists who said they will proofread or go through the file quickly again said they did this to be sure they didn't miss anything, but many also said they still should not be the final set of eyes on the transcript. Do you include weekends and holidays in your turnaround time? 50% of scopists, proofreaders, and transciptionists answered yes to this and 50% answered no. Some people said they took different days off in the week as their "weekend." Respondents were asked if they sent invoices out by the job, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. The results were pretty evenly split in this category. Biweekly edged out the other three by about 10%. Do you charge a late fee if the invoice is not paid on time? 20% of respondents charge a late fee if the invoice is not paid on time. If you charge a late fee for invoices that are not paid on time, how much do you add to the invoice? Fees range from percentages (1.5% to 25% of invoice) to a flat fee of $25 to $35. What is your income goal per month? Part-time scopists had an income goal of $800 on the low end, $1,500 average, $2,000 high end. Full-time scopists had a low income goal of $1,500, average goal of $3,000, high goal of $5,000. TRANSCRIPTION: Determining transcription rate averages proved to be a difficult task because transcriptions have so many variables. Rates vary depending on turnaround time, lines per page, characters per line, and spacing. The fees are often increased for technical jobs or whether the work is a deposition, arbitration, or trial. Turnaround times varied from five days to 30days for normal turnaround; three to 15 days for expedited turnaround; and one to seven days for "daily copy" rates. General rates per page seem to be as low as $3.50 a page and as high as $10.00. Rates per audio hour range from $40 to $100. Transcriptionists who desire a more detailed poll may need to conduct a specific survey geared directly to a transcription group. As with rates, turnaround times for transcriptionists vary greatly. Here are the ranges given. What do you consider normal turnaround time? Normal turnaround times varied from three business days to 30 days. What do you consider expedited turnaround time? Expedited turnaround times varied from three business days to 15 days. What do you consider daily turnaround time? Daily turnaround times varied from under 24 hours to anything under seven days. Do you charge the same rate whether it's a deposition, a trial, or an arbitration? 85% of transcriptionists said they charge the same rate. Do you charge a surcharge for foreign accents or extremely difficult testimony? About 12% of the transcriptionists polled said they charge a higher rate due to difficulty in hearing the witness or the extra time it takes to complete the job. PROOFREADING: The following rates are for both proofreading within the CAT system or providing an errata sheet to the reporter. What do you consider normal turnaround time? Normal turnaround for proofreading is three to five days. What do you consider expedited turnaround time? Expedited turnaround for proofreading is one to two days. What do you consider daily turnaround time? Daily turnaround is less than 24 hours.
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