Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Interprepedia. My name is Rosa and I am an interpreter. Today I will attempt to answer one of the most common questions I get. How much money interpreters make? Can you make a decent living as an interpreter? Well, we are about to find out. First, a few things to put this in the proper context. This is only for your information and reference. I am in no way implying that these are the rates or fees you should or should not charge or accept, and this does not include all possible rates that exist, of course. The information I'll share is based on rates offered for interpreters in the U.S., so the range will probably be different if you are somewhere else. There can be significant differences in rates between languages of lesser diffusion and more common languages like Spanish, for example, which is the language I used for reference for the most part. Still, if your language combination is different, you can use similar sources to the ones I used to research rates applicable to you, and of course, any relevant links will be in the description box. So let's get started with OPI, and when I say OPI or the phone interpreting, I mean having a contract with a company that will send you calls during the hours you log in. Just as a side note, remote interpretation assignments scheduled with a specific client for a specific appointment are a different story. That goes more along the lines of face-to-face interpreting when it comes to pricing, but let's not jump ahead because I'll get to that in a minute. For OPI, based on my research and personal experience after having different contracts with multiple companies, I can share that most Spanish interpreters based in the U.S. working as independent contractors, not employees, get paid on a per minute base. The rates range from 25 to 50 cents per minute. Your base rate can be lower or higher depending on your level of experience and your credentials. Doing simple math, that is equivalent to $15 to $30 per each hour you interpret, so the average would be around $20 to $50 per hour. So if you interpret 40 hours per week and you work 50 weeks per year, that would result in approximately $45,000 per year. This is a table I found on ZipRecruiter listing the 10 highest paying cities in the U.S. for Spanish interpreters, and the results are pretty much on point with what I had. For VRI, rates tend to be slightly higher. According to a survey done by IMEI in 2010, and I know this is a research that is 10 years old, but surprisingly many of the rates from 10 years ago haven't changed much to this date, so it's worth taking a look. So based on the survey, most VRI interpreters get paid 50 to 75 cents per minute. I've seen some offers recently that are based on hourly work, not per minute, and the offers range between $20 to $35 per hour, and many companies are offering part-time or full-time employment positions with additional benefits like PTO and 401k. When you're considering an opportunity for remote interpreting, either as OPI or VRI through a big company that will be sending you calls, as you log in, you really have to analyze the volume of calls you can expect to get at any given time because it's not the same to get 50 cents per minute and be busy for 50 minutes every hour than getting 80 cents per minute but only interpreting for 20 minutes every hour. Now let's talk about on-site, and this includes what I mentioned earlier, scheduled assignments with specific clients for remote interpretation. Based on what I found, the range is extremely broad. States like California tend to pay higher rates while other states like Texas, not so much. So for on-site assignments for medical, educational, or other community clients where you will be performing consecutive interpretation for the most part, the ranges I've seen go from as low as $20 per hour to over $100 per hour. In some places, it is customary to charge a two-hour minimum and mileage, while in others it is not. Mileage is usually paid based on the IRS standard mileage rate, which at the moment is 56 cents per minute. Based on the information provided by some colleagues who are staff interpreters in big hospitals, the salary for full-time staff interpreters is around $50,000 to $52,000 per year, which goes along the lines with the latest information provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For legal assignments, rates tend to be higher, and I've noticed that in states like California, for example, again the highest paying state I've seen, legal or med-legal appointments range from about $60 per hour to over $200 per half a day, while in other states like in Hawaii, for example, court interpreters get paid between $25 to $55 an hour with a two-hour minimum and mileage. Full-time staff court interpreters in California earn a minimum of $68,000 per year plus benefits, while in other states like Florida, for example, the minimum pay for the same position is $55,000. If the assignment will require primarily simultaneous interpretation, for example, a town hall, a political event, a community event, or something along those lines, which is not a full-on conference but has to be interpreted simultaneously and lasts an hour or two, rates tend to be higher. The range is usually from $60 to over $100 per hour with a two-hour minimum, and they may require or ideally should require two interpreters. Lastly, conference interpreting. I did not want to cover this because I do not have experience in this area, but I did some research anyway, and just like in other assignments, there is a very wide range of rates for conference interpreting. Rates vary depending on the type of conference it is and the subject matter, but this is what I found. These assignments are usually billed as half-day or full-day. Half-day would be anything that is four hours or less, including breaks, and anything above four hours is usually considered a full-day. The most common rates are between $350 to $500 for a half-day and between $600 to over $1,000 for a full-day. It is customary to work with a partner to switch off every 30 minutes or so, and if you need to travel, travel expenses like flights and lodging would be additional, plus a per diem for food and incidental expenses. As you can see, a lot of this depends on the type of assignment it is, where you're located, the offer and demand for your language combination, and of course, your credentials. The beautiful thing about this is that you get to set your own rates or fees, and you get to choose whether you want to work for X amount of money or not. One piece of advice I can give you is that if you have questions about rates, check with colleagues who work in your area and share your languages of expertise. If you simply post a random message in a Facebook group asking for this type of advice, you will be bombarded with all kinds of information and suggestions that may or may not be applicable to you. If you don't know any colleagues in your area, try to reach out to interpreter organizations in your state as they may be able to point you in the right direction. I have to tell you, it was really fun putting this together and learning what a big difference there is between what they pay in some states versus what the pay is in others. After seeing this, I should probably consider moving to California. And that's what I have for you today. Thank you so much for watching. Adios.