How high can a translator charge? Thread poster: deleted. (X)
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deleted. (X)
Australia
Local time: 14:20
English to Chinese
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We have all been hearing about how low translation rates have been tumbling, but I wonder, at the other end of the spectrum, how high can a translator charge and do it regularly and sustainably and still manage to find enough work to justify calling it a full-time occupation?
In my case, the rate I set is $25 Australian dollars plus 10% GST per 100 English words for regular text. I have to pay in income tax 37 cents for every dollar I earn, and considering the high cost of living i... See more We have all been hearing about how low translation rates have been tumbling, but I wonder, at the other end of the spectrum, how high can a translator charge and do it regularly and sustainably and still manage to find enough work to justify calling it a full-time occupation?
In my case, the rate I set is $25 Australian dollars plus 10% GST per 100 English words for regular text. I have to pay in income tax 37 cents for every dollar I earn, and considering the high cost of living in Australia, I feel any rate lower than this does not justify my time and effort, besides, I don't think by lowering my rate, there will be more work coming my way, so I set this as my minimum rate. But from time to time I find myself at the wrong side of this rate and have seldom been able to charge higher than this rate except on a few occasions which are exceptions rather than rules.
I have never been able to find enough work to keep me fully employed as a translator, so I had to take on an unrelated full-time job, and the $80k+ salary from my full-time job is more than I can hope to earn as a translator. I'm so pessimistic about the translation market that I always advise young people against considering a career in the translation business.
What is your experience? How high do you think you can charge?
[Edited at 2013-10-16 22:27 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phil Hand 
China
Local time: 01:20
Chinese to English
| In the other direction... | Oct 17, 2013 |
Your rates are higher than mine - my minimum is USD 0.10 per Chinese character. I do this full time, and I'm generally overbooked. But on the other hand, I don't pay any tax at the moment (ahem!). When I move back to the UK, I'll have to up my rates.
| | | | deleted. (X)
Australia
Local time: 14:20
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER | Your rates are good | Oct 17, 2013 |
Phil Hand wrote:
Your rates are higher than mine - my minimum is USD 0.10 per Chinese character. I do this full time, and I'm generally overbooked. But on the other hand, I don't pay any tax at the moment (ahem!). When I move back to the UK, I'll have to up my rates.
Thanks for sharing, Phil. Actually I think your rate is better than mine: my rate converts to about AUD17.85 per 100 Chinese characters (for this purpose, 100 Chinese characters translates into approximately 71.5 English words). After paying the income tax, I'm left with AUD11.25 per 100 Chinese characters, which is about USD0.1073. In your case, you get enough work at this rate, which I think is probably due to that as a native speaker of English and a skilled translator, you don't have much serious competition translating from Chinese into English, while in my case, there is a lot of competition translating from English into Chinese. I would lower my rate a bit if I believe lowering my rates would increase the turnover, but I don't think that will be the case.
| | | | | Chinese to English? | Oct 17, 2013 |
This is a topic I'm interested in as well. He-li, you seem to have very decent English writing abilities, have you come across any opportunities translating from Chinese to English? Do you think you can charge higher rates and will there be enough work for you?
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deleted. (X)
Australia
Local time: 14:20
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER | Translating into English | Oct 17, 2013 |
Cookietranslate wrote:
This is a topic I'm interested in as well. He-li, you seem to have very decent English writing abilities, have you come across any opportunities translating from Chinese to English? Do you think you can charge higher rates and will there be enough work for you?
Hi Cookietranslate, I'm accreditated by Australia's National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) for translating between English and Chinese in both directions, and the rate I set is also for both directions. I used to publish my accreditation details on NAATI website and also sent out some emails to potential clients, but I did not receive many enquiries, so the rates did not matter. A few people who bothered to reply to my emails informed me that translators in my language pair are in oversupply. After a few years, I removed my contact details from the NAATI website and concentrated on my full-time job. I know of a few fellow NAATI translators who are also employed in other unrelated jobs to support themselves, I do not know of any translators in my language pair here in Australia who managed successfully to support themselves by working as a translator, I suppose there are some, but I do not know.
As a native speaker of Chinese, I feel more comfortable handling translation from English into Chinese, but the few clients who have been using my service in the last few years only use me to do translation from Chinese into English, I suppose their English into Chinese translation is handled inhouse.
| | | | | $0.25 per English word is at high end | Oct 22, 2013 |
he-li wrote:
We have all been hearing about how low translation rates have been tumbling, but I wonder, at the other end of the spectrum, how high can a translator charge and do it regularly and sustainably and still manage to find enough work to justify calling it a full-time occupation?
In my case, the rate I set is $25 Australian dollars plus 10% GST per 100 English words for regular text. I have to pay in income tax 37 cents for every dollar I earn, and considering the high cost of living in Australia, I feel any rate lower than this does not justify my time and effort, besides, I don't think by lowering my rate, there will be more work coming my way, so I set this as my minimum rate. But from time to time I find myself at the wrong side of this rate and have seldom been able to charge higher than this rate except on a few occasions which are exceptions rather than rules.
I have never been able to find enough work to keep me fully employed as a translator, so I had to take on an unrelated full-time job, and the $80k+ salary from my full-time job is more than I can hope to earn as a translator. I'm so pessimistic about the translation market that I always advise young people against considering a career in the translation business.
What is your experience? How high do you think you can charge?
[Edited at 2013-10-16 22:27 GMT]
Agree with you that freelance translator in this language pair is not right career for young people who live in a country or city with high cost of living. You wouldn't get enough work load when you set your rate high; or you wouldn't make enough to pay your bills when you set it low. IMO, solution to this is either you need another job and work on translation as a side job only (maybe move on to full time working on this at the point of your life when less bills need to be paid ); or consider moving to a place with low cost of living.
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he-li wrote: Cookietranslate wrote:
This is a topic I'm interested in as well. He-li, you seem to have very decent English writing abilities, have you come across any opportunities translating from Chinese to English? Do you think you can charge higher rates and will there be enough work for you? Hi Cookietranslate, I'm accreditated by Australia's National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) for translating between English and Chinese in both directions, and the rate I set is also for both directions. I used to publish my accreditation details on NAATI website and also sent out some emails to potential clients, but I did not receive many enquiries, so the rates did not matter. A few people who bothered to reply to my emails informed me that translators in my language pair are in oversupply. After a few years, I removed my contact details from the NAATI website and concentrated on my full-time job. I know of a few fellow NAATI translators who are also employed in other unrelated jobs to support themselves, I do not know of any translators in my language pair here in Australia who managed successfully to support themselves by working as a translator, I suppose there are some, but I do not know. As a native speaker of Chinese, I feel more comfortable handling translation from English into Chinese, but the few clients who have been using my service in the last few years only use me to do translation from Chinese into English, I suppose their English into Chinese translation is handled inhouse.
We (a bulge bracket supposed to be super rich and generous) don't even pay our vendors that much, but enough to ensure 100%+ net profit margin for our vendors. The service quality of one of our vendors is very poor but we still use it a lot - managment connections + confidentiality issues. If you want to make big money, try focusing on sectors that are profitable. E.g. In Australia, I'm sure a mining-focused translator makes much more than an IT-focused translator. In fact, we Chinese should take advantage of the opportunities in this sector, as a large number of Chinese SOEs are looking to buy mining assets in Australia
| | | | redred
China
Local time: 01:20
English to Chinese
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he-li wrote:
I have never been able to find enough work to keep me fully employed as a translator, so I had to take on an unrelated full-time job, and the $80k+ salary from my full-time job is more than I can hope to earn as a translator.
Don't satisfy the income of $80k-full time job, want to earn more, undboultedly, more work, more gain, some hours will be spending other than normal 8 hours, it is at the cost of sacrificing the valuable leisure time. Are you tiring?
AU$ is little lower than US$ against RMB, $80k is not less, even in Australia.
[Edited at 2013-10-25 08:16 GMT]
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Rita Pang
Canada
Local time: 13:20
Member (2011)
Chinese to English
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Moderator of this forum | How about how LOW can you charge instead? | Oct 25, 2013 |
I am relatively green in the business compared to many here, but in general I have raised my rates slightly from what I used to charge two years ago.
I don't actually work in translation full-time. It takes up about 60 to 70% of my working hours every week but I have another part-time job to subsidize my income, to offer a bit of a change of scene, etc. I also find it the best when I combine two work roles as such.
That being said, I don't actively seek out clients as f... See more I am relatively green in the business compared to many here, but in general I have raised my rates slightly from what I used to charge two years ago.
I don't actually work in translation full-time. It takes up about 60 to 70% of my working hours every week but I have another part-time job to subsidize my income, to offer a bit of a change of scene, etc. I also find it the best when I combine two work roles as such.
That being said, I don't actively seek out clients as full-timers might. My rates in general start at USD 0.09 (CH>EN) but I have charged more depending on the technicality and subject of the text. While I am both a native Chinese and English speaker, I just find it easier to translate into English, so frankly I don't work enough of EN>CH to share with you all how much I charge for that pair. It's too sporadic to tell. However, in general I would say I do not want to work anything lower than 8 cents a word for the into English pair, as I do find that anything lower doesn't justify the expenses I have to pay. I have a registered company (1 (wo)man strong) in Canada.
I work with Portuguese>Chinese as well and for that language pair I specialize in oenology. I've had in the past companies in Portugal who asked me to work at 6 cents a word as the Portuguese economy isn't strong...well, you can imagine that I'd said no. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Good thinking! | Oct 25, 2013 |
Rita Pang wrote:
How about how LOW can you charge instead? ...
Can't agree more with Rida. Thinking about how Low you can afford may be a more practical approach to set your Right rate that you want it to be competitive and sustainable at same time.
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 13:20
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
| I think the thread starter asked the question this way on purpose | Oct 25, 2013 |
Coffee-Tea wrote: Rita Pang wrote:
How about how LOW can you charge instead? ... Can't agree more with Rida. Thinking about how Low you can afford may be a more practical approach to set your Right rate that you want it to be competitive and sustainable at same time.
because "How LOW can you charge" had been much talked/thought about. He just wanted to trigger some thinking the other way round.
[Edited at 2013-10-25 21:38 GMT]
| | | | deleted. (X)
Australia
Local time: 14:20
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | An exercise on calculating how low I can afford to charge | Oct 25, 2013 |
The answers to the question about how high a translator can charge gives you a feel of the market, and then you compare the answers to that question with your own answer to the question about how low you can afford to charge, and you may get a better idea of how likely you may still find yourself in this business on full-time basis 5 or 10 years down the road.
Let me do an exercise to find out theoretically how low I can afford to charge.
In finding out how low I can... See more The answers to the question about how high a translator can charge gives you a feel of the market, and then you compare the answers to that question with your own answer to the question about how low you can afford to charge, and you may get a better idea of how likely you may still find yourself in this business on full-time basis 5 or 10 years down the road.
Let me do an exercise to find out theoretically how low I can afford to charge.
In finding out how low I can afford to charge, I look at the following factors:
I need a minimum of AU$50,000/year in income. Why? Because the (financial) key to happiness is a gross household income of $100,000 in Australia(http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html), and this AU$50,000 is only one partner's contribution to the family gross income. Those living in the United States, you only need to earn half of $75,000 (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-02/researchers-find-money-is-one-of-the-keys-to-hapiness/4793388) if your partner takes care of the other half.
There are 11 public holidays in 2013 in Queensland where I live, and employees here typically get 4 week paid annual leave, 10 days paid personal leave (so I can afford to be sick for a maximum of 10 days). That leaves 220 days available for work.
$50,000/220days = $230 per day
Employees typically work 7.6 to 8 hours on a work day. You may need to spend 40 percent of this time on administration, including staff training, you then have a little over 4 and half hours to do translation.
4 and half hours per day is also the maximum hours you can sit in front of computer screen without exposing yourself to the risk of depression and insomnia (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-153281/Why-using-cause-depression.html).
$230/4.5 hours = $50/hour
Now I have a figure that I can use as a guide, the rest is about efficiency and how complex the text is. ▲ Collapse
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redred
China
Local time: 01:20
English to Chinese
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You are quite capable of analysing problem, far better than those people who brag about they are able to translate 10,000 characters per day. I appreciate you.
"4 and half hours per day is also the maximum hours you can sit in front of computer screen without exposing yourself to the risk of depression and insomnia."
| | | | deleted. (X)
Australia
Local time: 14:20
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | The links above didn't work | Oct 27, 2013 |
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 01:20
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
| Here's your problem | Oct 27, 2013 |
I can make $50 USD a DAY and match my expected income if I were working full time. I can work 4 hours a day, spend half of that Youtubing, and still be no worse off than if I were sitting in an office 10 hours a day 6 days a week.
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