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Here are the latest statistics from the U.S. Dept. of Labor (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319094.htm):
Employment : 86990. Mean hourly wage : $15.44. Mean annual wage : $32,120.
What do these numbers mean, anyway? Well, let's go through them:
This says that there were, as of May 2007, about 87,000 people employed as medical transcriptionists, and their mean annual wage was about $32,000.
And what does "mean" mean? "Mean" is simply the average wage. So you total all the wages and divide them by the number of transcriptionists. This number is really about as meaningful as the average temperature in a state or city. The average temperature is 68 degrees, but it starts out at 38, and goes up to 98. Quite a range there!
So what does that mean in terms of what you might earn when you start out, and after a few years in the business? For that we need to look at the next set of numbers:
Percentile wage estimates for this occupation:
Percentile: 10%. Hourly Wage: $10.65. Annual Wage: $22,160
Percentile: 25% Hourly Wage: $12.73 Annual Wage: $26,470
Percentile: 50% (Median) Hourly Wage: $15.02 Annual Wage: $31,250
Percentile: 75% Hourly Wage: $17.95 Annual Wage: $37,330
Percentile: 90% Hourly Wage: $21.19 Annual Wage: $44,070
These are a little more educational. They say that 10% of the transcriptionist population earns an average of $22,000, and the top 10% earns an average of $44,000 per year.
If we throw out whether a particular area of the country pays better or worse than another, and assume that everyone gets paid the same rates everywhere, then we can look at this as a sliding scale according to experience. The most experienced transcriptionist will get paid more than a newbie.
According to the Government, in Averageville, USA, if you are just starting out in transcription and you are working full time, you can expect to make about $22,000.00 per year, or about $10.65 per hour. Not too bad, and it goes up, after several years, to about $21 per hour.
The question one needs to ask themselves is, "Can I make more than this doing something else?"
Since these are averages, unquestionably there are folks out there that are making more (and quite a bit more) than $44,000 per year. Are you going to be one of them? And do you know what you need to know to get there?
For the truly dedicated and talented transcriptionist, the potential exists to make a comfortable living. But as with all things, the cream rises to the top. Make sure you check out all the available sources of information to help you get there.
