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So, I was talking with an acquaintance today, who is a translator here in Salem, OR, which is both the state capital and the second-largest city in Oregon. (The largest is Portland, about an hour's drive north.) He said that business is booming, because while his private sector contracts have declined, his work for the Oregon state government has shot through the roof. It seems that several departments that routinely need translators have in the past used a major Portland firm, and with budget cuts needed to see if there was a cheaper alternative. How much were they paying the Portland translators?
*A very high hourly rate for the work they did
*Mileage to drive down and back, to the tune of $70+ roundtrip
*Four-hour minimum (meaning if it only took half an hour of the translator's time, he/she still got paid for four hours of work)
*Meal vouchers for anything over four hours of work
*Hotel stays for anything over eight hours of work
(And by the way, most of these guys only translated into a couple of languages, so they'd often need several different translators for a single day's work)
Now, the guy I know translates five or six languages, and since he lives in town he doesn't need mileage, meal vouchers, or hotel vouchers, his minimum is one hour not four, and he charges in the middle range instead of top dollar. All told, they were paying the Portland translators an average of $800/hour more than what this guy gets. And it never occurred to them to check and see if there might be someone local who could do translation work without all the extra charges until they absolutely had to. Our tax dollars at work.
*A very high hourly rate for the work they did
*Mileage to drive down and back, to the tune of $70+ roundtrip
*Four-hour minimum (meaning if it only took half an hour of the translator's time, he/she still got paid for four hours of work)
*Meal vouchers for anything over four hours of work
*Hotel stays for anything over eight hours of work
(And by the way, most of these guys only translated into a couple of languages, so they'd often need several different translators for a single day's work)
Now, the guy I know translates five or six languages, and since he lives in town he doesn't need mileage, meal vouchers, or hotel vouchers, his minimum is one hour not four, and he charges in the middle range instead of top dollar. All told, they were paying the Portland translators an average of $800/hour more than what this guy gets. And it never occurred to them to check and see if there might be someone local who could do translation work without all the extra charges until they absolutely had to. Our tax dollars at work.
