Poll: Are the rates offered by agencies decreasing? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Meanwhile, prices are increasing due to inflation.
| | | | Nikolay Novitskiy 
Russian Federation
Local time: 02:38
Member (2018)
English to Russian
| It depends on what agencies you work with | May 22, 2022 |
It really depends on your skills and on what agencies you work with. My income in USD is growing, for instance. From the other side, USD becomes cheaper and cheaper because of the inflation - so I'm not so sure now.
[Edited at 2022-05-22 08:46 GMT]
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In my world, the provider sets rates not the client. The rates I SET depend on the language combination, degree of difficulty, turnaround time, format, etc., and might be negotiable (within reason). Negotiation is our bread and butter and at times there is some room for bartering, but otherwise I’m confident to just say "No" if I can't reach a satisfying agreement. The fact that I have a solid client base makes my decision extremely easy. Of course, over the years I have done jobs for a cause ... See more In my world, the provider sets rates not the client. The rates I SET depend on the language combination, degree of difficulty, turnaround time, format, etc., and might be negotiable (within reason). Negotiation is our bread and butter and at times there is some room for bartering, but otherwise I’m confident to just say "No" if I can't reach a satisfying agreement. The fact that I have a solid client base makes my decision extremely easy. Of course, over the years I have done jobs for a cause dear to my heart for a lot less than I normally charge or even free…
[Edited at 2022-05-22 12:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 23:38
Spanish to English
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I only work with one agency nowadays, on a very occasional basis. I haven't done anything for them for at least a year, although they have approached me a few times, but their deadlines are always too pressing and I'm usually too busy (on one occasion I recommended a colleague, and she's done a few things with them since then). If they did try to lower the rates they offer, they'd get short shrift from me, as would any direct clients who tried it on.
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stable gliding above the grass
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:38
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Question: are the rates offered by agencies decreasing?.
Answer: only for the translators who are foolish enough to accept them.
[Edited at 2022-05-22 12:39 GMT]
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 22:38
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| You read my mind | May 22, 2022 |
Tom in London wrote:
Question: are the rates offered by agencies decreasing?.
Answer: only for the translators who are foolish enough to accept them.
[Edited at 2022-05-22 12:39 GMT]
Here is an answer that I agree with.
As long as there are a good number of translators who will accept to work for very little money, (some) agencies will continue to lower the rates imposed by them. (I wish I could be wrong, but it's my feeling).
I can't set prices myself on the services I use. So, why this only happens with translation?
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texjax DDS PhD
Local time: 17:38
Member (2006)
English to Italian
+ ...
What I'm sure though, is that rates are not in line with the current inflation or cost of living (in my case, the US).
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
expressisverbis wrote:
As long as there are a good number of translators who will accept to work for very little money, (some) agencies will continue to lower the rates imposed by them.
I have a funny feeling that a lot of this is simply because many new freelance translators just don't know how much they should charge. This was my problem too when I was just starting out. I had no clue about pricing, so I just used the minimum wage in my region as a reference, which was really low.
Of course, you also have some of your old time fellow translators who intentionally try to undercut everyone else by charging as low as they please while promising the fastest delivery time.
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 01:38
English to Arabic
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expressisverbis wrote:
I can't set prices myself on the services I use. So, why this only happens with translation?
Because, unlike that of those services you're referring to, our wall has holes in it.
These holes come in different forms:
- Translation societies/alliances/associations/organizations/etc. being actually run and totally controlled by companies and/or companies' affiliate persons, not by independent translators at all.
- Attempts of fixing flaws of the current situation are almost always met with fierce opposition from companies and/or companies' affiliate persons (both of whom posing under fake identities most of the time).
- Some self-proclaimed-philosopher translators who are always failing any effort of improvement by diluting any and all serious discussions/talks/debates/etc. into a philosophical bagatelle.
- And, the list of shady practices goes on far more.
We fix those, or more accurately kick their asses, we can then control our profession.
| | | | Hipyan Nopri
Indonesia
Local time: 04:38
Member (2005)
English to Indonesian
+ ...
Agencies whom I work with never ask me to lower my rates, and I don't increase my rates to my existing clients either.
However, different translation agencies have different rates with which they agree.
Thus, my "standard" rate may be accepted by an agency, but another agency wants it a bit lower than that, and still another one accepts a rate that is much lower than the "standard" one.
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They don't lower the rates but apply the abominable fuzzy matches which makes it the same.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 23:38
French to English
I can't actually say I've noticed, because I haven't had any contact with any new agencies for a good while.
There was one agency that was trying to persuade me to lower my rate, and I just kept saying no, they dropped the subject after a while. But they don't give me as much work nowadays.
Doesn't matter, because I've acquired some direct clients instead, who pay almost double the rate I negotiated with that agency.
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