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Rates per minute
Thread poster: Marie Louise Åbom
Pierre Souchar
Pierre Souchar  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 10:25
English to French
+ ...
United for fair rates Sep 24, 2020

We as translators can be a force.
We must not accept low rates.
Take your calculator and see how long it takes you to translate 20 minutes of program and compare it with the rate earned by an Uber Eats deliverer.
An Uber Eats deliverer earns 15 $/hour as an average...
How long would it take you to subtitle four Netflix episodes ? Two weeks ?
So, let's say 47 min per episode x 4 episodes x 3 $/min = 564 $ for 120 hours of work, at least... It's 4,76 $/hour.
The
... See more
We as translators can be a force.
We must not accept low rates.
Take your calculator and see how long it takes you to translate 20 minutes of program and compare it with the rate earned by an Uber Eats deliverer.
An Uber Eats deliverer earns 15 $/hour as an average...
How long would it take you to subtitle four Netflix episodes ? Two weeks ?
So, let's say 47 min per episode x 4 episodes x 3 $/min = 564 $ for 120 hours of work, at least... It's 4,76 $/hour.
The proposed rate is not even equivalent to the minimum wage in the USA, from which we would have to pay 30 % of taxes, plus investment in hardware, and Internet connection, electricity, insurance, telephone and bank fees, among others.

Just to give people arguments...


[Edited at 2020-09-24 20:20 GMT]
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Nena Perovic
SoleneVolz
Elisa Fernández Iranzo
Pauline Alexiou
Benjamin Rinds
Jana Kyselá
Louise Péron
 
Tomo Olson
Tomo Olson  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 05:25
Japanese to English
Reality - I don't think the rate should have anything to do with what we think we *deserve* Oct 10, 2020

You can decide to stick to whatever rate you think you *deserve*, but the reality is that if your rate is higher than even just one other person, most likely, you won't get the job, so it's a balancing act IMO. You need to determine the lowest rate you're willing to work for, and if you still don't get employed, I guess you'll have to resort to other jobs like becoming a Uber driver or whatever you want to do. I don't think "how much you think you *deserve*" should determine what rate you should... See more
You can decide to stick to whatever rate you think you *deserve*, but the reality is that if your rate is higher than even just one other person, most likely, you won't get the job, so it's a balancing act IMO. You need to determine the lowest rate you're willing to work for, and if you still don't get employed, I guess you'll have to resort to other jobs like becoming a Uber driver or whatever you want to do. I don't think "how much you think you *deserve*" should determine what rate you should be asking for.

I've heard people who own restaurants argue that it costs this much for the lease of the building, it costs this much for the raw material, human resources, and they have to have a profit margin of this much to make a living, and that's how they decide to price their dishes, etc, but the truth is, if nobody wants to buy their restaurant food for that price, they'll get absolutely zero dollars.

My subtitling work is my side income. I could never do this as a main gig as the demand is not steady. I've been working exclusively for one company for $3.50-$5.50 USD/hour for the last two years or so. I've been told by one of the managers of this company that most of the freelancers they have are students or housewives who do this as a side income. Some find better paying or full-time jobs and leave.

I stopped applying for job opportunities that require me to state my hourly rate a while back as they almost never picked me. I hate timecoding from scratch and my current subtitling work requires very little timecoding (I just adjust existing timecodes as needed.) If I didn't work for this company exclusively, I would probably take work that's $3/hour, maybe even lower, not because that's the rate I feel I *deserve*, but it's just the rate I would not mind. Any lower, I'd rather sit on my couch and watch Netflix or go do something else.
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Madalina Florescu
Xiangqun (Shawn) Ye
Mohammad Mustafa
Michal Eyal
htms
 
Susanta Chakraborty
Susanta Chakraborty
India
Local time: 14:55
English to Bengali
+ ...
Flexibility is required Nov 23, 2020

I think if you are very much depending on agency contracts, you better be flexible on your rates. Quote according to your current engagement as well as regular job contract. Flexibility is very much necessary to sustain in current market. Rates are dropping dramatically and you need to match.

 
Xiangqun (Shawn) Ye
Xiangqun (Shawn) Ye  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:25
English to Chinese
+ ...
totally agree Dec 27, 2020

Slobodan Kozarčić wrote:

Marie Louise Åbom wrote:

What is a fair rate per minute for subtitling ? What do you charge ? I think the rates that are offered are very very low, and I do not understand that anybody can afford to work for 2$ per minute. I have just declined a subtitling job for 2.50$ pr minute, since I can not defend working for that.



Try working for 0.50 EUR per minute (50 euro cents), like we do in Serbia, for both translation and subtitling. Of course, you can decline that, as I do, but then you end up with no work at all, and there is always someone who will gladly take it. Foreign agencies offer higher rates (1.40 to 1.80 EUR) for English-Serbian pair, but nevertheless you can see subtitles like these:

- Fox Movies Serbia, Anaconda movie: Talking about some Amazon moths fast mating, Jennifer Lopez says, "So, no pick up line," translated as "So, no loading dock line" (as in a factory).

- TV 1000 Serbia, Primo Carnera movie: "With no future, penniless." Transl., "With no future, with no penis."

- Fox Crime Serbia, the Las Vegas show: "Frеаking contact (lens)." Transl., "Silly contract."

- C Extra Serbia: The King of Queens show: (Husband and wife had sex at his workplace. A colleague of his comments) "He punched out after. Rocking on the clock." Transl., "He passed out after that, working overtime."

And I thought Fox is a serious company.

[Edited at 2018-03-13 23:05 GMT]



Hi, Slobodan, I totally agree with your point. I am English Chinese translator and located in USA. I found that no matter how low the rate, there are always cheap labors in China mainland would do the projects.


Shaw Khantikachenchart
Adieu
Slobodan Kozarčić
Mr. Satan (X)
celiacheung85
 
Shaw Khantikachenchart
Shaw Khantikachenchart  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 16:25
English to Thai
+ ...
way worst Jan 21, 2021

Xiangqun (Shawn) Ye wrote:

Slobodan Kozarčić wrote:

Marie Louise Åbom wrote:

What is a fair rate per minute for subtitling ? What do you charge ? I think the rates that are offered are very very low, and I do not understand that anybody can afford to work for 2$ per minute. I have just declined a subtitling job for 2.50$ pr minute, since I can not defend working for that.



Try working for 0.50 EUR per minute (50 euro cents), like we do in Serbia, for both translation and subtitling. Of course, you can decline that, as I do, but then you end up with no work at all, and there is always someone who will gladly take it. Foreign agencies offer higher rates (1.40 to 1.80 EUR) for English-Serbian pair, but nevertheless you can see subtitles like these:

- Fox Movies Serbia, Anaconda movie: Talking about some Amazon moths fast mating, Jennifer Lopez says, "So, no pick up line," translated as "So, no loading dock line" (as in a factory).

- TV 1000 Serbia, Primo Carnera movie: "With no future, penniless." Transl., "With no future, with no penis."

- Fox Crime Serbia, the Las Vegas show: "Frеаking contact (lens)." Transl., "Silly contract."

- C Extra Serbia: The King of Queens show: (Husband and wife had sex at his workplace. A colleague of his comments) "He punched out after. Rocking on the clock." Transl., "He passed out after that, working overtime."

And I thought Fox is a serious company.

[Edited at 2018-03-13 23:05 GMT]



Hi, Slobodan, I totally agree with your point. I am English Chinese translator and located in USA. I found that no matter how low the rate, there are always cheap labors in China mainland would do the projects.


I couldn't agree more. Here I have to accept the rate as low as 0.7 USD/minute, and this is the normal rate for English-Thai subtitle translation. If I decline the job, there will always be someone who's taking the job. There are always a lot of translators in developing countries who experience way worst.


Adieu
PIMCHANOK UTTHA
Pauline Alexiou
Mr. Satan (X)
Magdalena Naworska
 
Beki Hunt
Beki Hunt
Canada
Local time: 03:25
Chinese to English
+ ...
Newbie Question.. Mar 3, 2021

Hi all,
Silly question, and probably sounds a bit dumb to all of you seasoned translators, but I'm wondering about the price /minute.
I am assuming the minute is per minute of video, am I right in that thought?
Been on this site for a while, but haven't gotten much from it tbh, market is saturated, but looking to start up again.
Is there any info about what standard per minute rates for video subtitling/translations are?
Appreciate any advice you could give me.
... See more
Hi all,
Silly question, and probably sounds a bit dumb to all of you seasoned translators, but I'm wondering about the price /minute.
I am assuming the minute is per minute of video, am I right in that thought?
Been on this site for a while, but haven't gotten much from it tbh, market is saturated, but looking to start up again.
Is there any info about what standard per minute rates for video subtitling/translations are?
Appreciate any advice you could give me.

Thanks so much!
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Assia Terpecheva
Assia Terpecheva  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 10:25
Member (2007)
English to Bulgarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Rates per minute Jan 11, 2022

Nobody should accept low rates, the companies are constantly pressing us but we have to be firm and explain we are professionals and professional subtitling is not our hobby. We invest in the software, we invest in this website, etc.

Mr. Satan (X)
Kathleen Kownacki
veranillo
 
NorwegianFlyer
NorwegianFlyer
Norway
Local time: 10:25
English to Norwegian
+ ...
Subtitling is more than translation Jan 12, 2022

Hi. I am nowadays negotiating with a company myself regarding rates, and I can see this is a hot topic. Luckily we all have the same experiences that they ask for lower rates, but the result of all this is that if everyone only accepts the lower just to "get the jobs done", the result for the community as a whole is that it gets lower quality and also lowers the subtitling profession/role for the group as a whole, because another ... See more
Hi. I am nowadays negotiating with a company myself regarding rates, and I can see this is a hot topic. Luckily we all have the same experiences that they ask for lower rates, but the result of all this is that if everyone only accepts the lower just to "get the jobs done", the result for the community as a whole is that it gets lower quality and also lowers the subtitling profession/role for the group as a whole, because another company can easily trace the curve of how rates are accepted, and there we are. At somewhere we as community would like to be more decent. It is the same with music and everything, to not just think of oneself at the moment even though it is very easy to do, but to think of your future and the subtitler as a role to expand and to become more attractive. I would say a middle range of what they propose to what you suggest, and come up with a compromise might be the best.

I read everything from someone accepting as low as 7 per minute to someone accepting 13, and this is actually a quite stretchy range that we should try to balance up somewhere in between. I received feedback these days that 11 EUR per minute is very high... I tried to ask the client what the job consist of except from subtitling, the location and market might demand higer volume of translated words per minute, and then you have captioning, or time coding and learning new software. The responses are waiting. I need to know what you would say to a company that proposes lower rates or how you far you would stretch or lower your original pricing ? We might try to find a sort of community standard, I think. It is important. Perhaps for locations, say western Europe, and eastern Europe have different pricing, Asia can vay from higher to lower, and this is also up to the company to view things differently. If you are a western European subtitler, how far would you lower your pricing to an Asian company for instance ? I would like to know, also.
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Mr. Satan (X)
Min Xuanping
 
NorwegianFlyer
NorwegianFlyer
Norway
Local time: 10:25
English to Norwegian
+ ...
per minute Jan 12, 2022

Beki Hunt wrote:

Hi all,
Silly question, and probably sounds a bit dumb to all of you seasoned translators, but I'm wondering about the price /minute.
I am assuming the minute is per minute of video, am I right in that thought?
Been on this site for a while, but haven't gotten much from it tbh, market is saturated, but looking to start up again.
Is there any info about what standard per minute rates for video subtitling/translations are?
Appreciate any advice you could give me.

Thanks so much!


Beki> It is per minute of video. But the video-minute itself can contain high volume of words, depending on everything from location, genre, script, dialogue, recording, and market. Keep that also in mind that the more words per minute, the more job to do.


Mr. Satan (X)
Aline Ferreira
Kathleen Kownacki
 
NorwegianFlyer
NorwegianFlyer
Norway
Local time: 10:25
English to Norwegian
+ ...
Can you give us more info, please? Jan 12, 2022

Susanta Chakraborty wrote:
(...) ...Rates are dropping dramatically and you need to match.


I wonder where you have this info from. Is this the standard, that we should be dropping prices? Might this very thing be what we are responsible for not to be happening ?? What if this is the very result of always accepting lower bids... and we are creating it, as a community. Also by the flexibility you are saying to be required. Yes, to be flexible, but it has limits and should not stretch to dramatical levels or drop anywhere dramatically. Then we are suddenly in trouble. Think business.


Mr. Satan (X)
Aline Ferreira
veranillo
 
Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
- Jan 12, 2022

If you want to voice your concerns, our colleague, Jason Franzman is campaigning against this very issue.

https://www.proz.com/forum/subtitling/354809-japanese_to_english_subtiling_rates.html#2935466

Just to let you all know.

[Edited at 2022-01-12 14:37 GMT]


 
Martin Päres
Martin Päres
Sweden
Local time: 10:25
English to Swedish
+ ...
beginner Mar 22, 2022

Hi
I am a professional translator. I have never translated subtitles though, but would like to start. Back in the beginning of 2000 I took a subtitling course via a subtitling company. It gave me both theoretical and practical knowledge, even though the technical skills surely is outdated by now.

I have now been offered 5.50 USD per run-time minute for doing subtitling from English to Swedish. They admit it isn't ideal, but they can provide a lot of work. There is no time cod
... See more
Hi
I am a professional translator. I have never translated subtitles though, but would like to start. Back in the beginning of 2000 I took a subtitling course via a subtitling company. It gave me both theoretical and practical knowledge, even though the technical skills surely is outdated by now.

I have now been offered 5.50 USD per run-time minute for doing subtitling from English to Swedish. They admit it isn't ideal, but they can provide a lot of work. There is no time coding needed and translation will be handled online.

Do you think I dare to take on this work, since I don't have to think about time coding skills at this point? What else could be difficult for me as a beginner? What have happened since 2000? Is there anything I should ask to know more about, before accepting the job?

What do you think about the offered rate? I also see it as paid training. According to this thread, it at least is double the 2.50 USD, even though I understand that it's still low.

Is there any good online free course or open source program that I could train on? What could be good subtitling programs to start with. Or any other tips.

/Martin
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Mr. Satan (X)
Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
@Martin Päres Mar 23, 2022

Hopefully these links would provide to be useful.

https://subtle-subtitle
... See more
Hopefully these links would provide to be useful.

https://subtle-subtitlers.org.uk/tips-for-av-translators/
https://www.proz.com/forum/subtitling/283471-ask_me_anything_about_subtitling.html
https://www.proz.com/forum/subtitling-123.html

Cheers.
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Any Marry
 
Martin Päres
Martin Päres
Sweden
Local time: 10:25
English to Swedish
+ ...
answer Mar 24, 2022



Thanks. Will have a look.


Mr. Satan (X)
 
Sylvano
Sylvano
Local time: 10:25
English to French
Classic rhetoric... Mar 24, 2022

Martin Päres wrote:
They admit it isn't ideal, but they can provide a lot of work.


Yeah, they always justify low rates with massive workload (which you don't really see most of the time).


Mr. Satan (X)
htms
Dorota Oleś
 
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