| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | The answer to how much an agency charges Thread poster: Arianne Farah
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| What is the problem? | Feb 14, 2014 |
Presumably the information comes out immediately if a client approaches the agency with a text and asks to have it translated from one language to another.
Maybe only one language pair at a time, but if a large corporate client needed a lot of translations into many languages, they could soon compile a similar list.
It may be disguised a little, for instance if the agency quotes an overall price for the job and does not state a per-word rate.
One of the fir... See more Presumably the information comes out immediately if a client approaches the agency with a text and asks to have it translated from one language to another.
Maybe only one language pair at a time, but if a large corporate client needed a lot of translations into many languages, they could soon compile a similar list.
It may be disguised a little, for instance if the agency quotes an overall price for the job and does not state a per-word rate.
One of the first jobs I was asked to do when I worked in house was to translate the text that went with the price list - which all end clients were given on request. It was no big secret.
In that case rates were carefully balanced with consideration for word counts and the availability of dictionaries and resources. So translations between Scandinavian languages and English were relatively cheap - and cheaper into Scandinavian languages than into English. I later learned that rates were carefully calculated to give the translator roughly the same rate per hour, as many worked in house at that time and received fixed monthly salaries.
There were also rates for DTP etc. and the agency provided advisory services by the hour, to help with multilingual projects and lots more.
All quite transparent, so that clients could see what they were offered and what they were paying for. I can't remember the figures, and it was fifteen or sixteen years ago, so I can't reveal anything exciting.
For the smallest jobs the agency doubled the translator's rate to cover administration etc. As the jobs increased in size, they went over to charging for time actually spent, by the hour.
Knowing what agencies charge is a legitimate way of getting an idea of whether you want to work with them. I admit I don't do it regularly, but on a couple of occasions when new, low-charging agencies have come to my notice on my local market, I have written to them and told them they could - and should - charge more! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thanks for posting this. | Feb 14, 2014 |
It's food for thought, and I don't think there's any point in debating the wisdom of posting this, as you've clearly made a well considered decision.
In fact, a substantial minority of translation companies post their rates on the web - you just have to look for them.
| | | | | All the rates from the official EU site | Feb 14, 2014 |
seem like starvation rates. Can you imagine what most all the agencies pay the translators--$0.03?
| | | | | What rates are these ? | Feb 15, 2014 |
Sorry, I think I miss something. Are these the rates that the agency charges their end-customers ? Or is it the maxiumum rates the agency will pay translators on each language pair?
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| Michele's comment - same thought | Feb 16, 2014 |
Michele Fauble wrote:
I assume this is into English. What strikes me is that the rates are not higher for Germanic languages, or lower for Romance languages, considering the fact that for an equivalent amount of text in English there are 30%-40% more words in Romance languages than in Germanic languages.
That struck me right away, since I translate from German (less words than English for a same text) and from French (more words) into English. If they are charging the same fee, then my guess is that this particular agency doesn't know about these two languages. They are not charging much for German, btw.
| | | | | Why not from English? | Feb 16, 2014 |
Maxi Schwarz wrote:
Michele Fauble wrote:
I assume this is into English....
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Because you're both into-English translators?
As a from-English translator, I thought exactly the opposite, ie from-English rates.
Philippe
| | | | | Transparency in Japan | Feb 17, 2014 |
Many Japanese agencies list their rates on their website. A quick look tells you what they charge end-clients for each language pair/field, etc. Rush rates, discounts rates for volume, and so on are also often listed.
| | | | Joy Lewis
Barbados
Local time: 22:33
French to English
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| Very appreciative | Feb 19, 2014 |
Arianne and Attila, thank you both for publishing this information. This will indeed inform my decision when quoting. Although my rates are not low, I'd still like to be able to raise them a few cents.
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| Inside information? | Feb 20, 2014 |
An agency for which I used to do a lot of work asked me a few years ago to proof read the new brochures they were producing for their clients (not their translators!).
I thus discovered that they were charging their clients more than double what they were paying their translators. This really didn't bother me because I was satisified with the rate I was getting myself, they had a London office to run and they found regular work for me which I couldn't have found on my own.
| | | | | I think I am missing the whole discussion | Feb 21, 2014 |
If anyone is willing to pay me 0.20 USD per word (Dutch), please contact me!
| | | | Mark Benson (X) 
English to Swedish
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| One of many... | Feb 23, 2014 |
First of all, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain the relevant information. Just contact the agency anonymously or semi-anonymously, as required, and ask for a quote. Also see Atila's link. As is often pointed out - research skills are important in a translator. At need, I talk about these and any other questions openly with my clients and agencies etc.
Second, this is one agency of many. There are agencies that advertise translations at 0.06 euro per word, as has already been discu... See more First of all, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain the relevant information. Just contact the agency anonymously or semi-anonymously, as required, and ask for a quote. Also see Atila's link. As is often pointed out - research skills are important in a translator. At need, I talk about these and any other questions openly with my clients and agencies etc.
Second, this is one agency of many. There are agencies that advertise translations at 0.06 euro per word, as has already been discussed. Someone also posted considerably higher rates than the ones mentioned in this thread from another agency not that long ago.
There's a range from 1 - 100% in rates. Isn't that strange? There's even a culture of non-payment with preposterous practices and pretexts concerning 'industry standards' such as 'quality' etc. But to my mind, this only reflects the way reality works:
This is an industry that starts on the street with any person you see. If that person knows a second language, they could potentially become a freelance translator. So at the lowest level, there are those who dream of breaking into it, and those who think it's a great possibility of income and so on.
There you have people who will be grateful to work for free, if they believe that has a value to them in the long run, and who have extremely low standard rates. I think anybody understands that no matter how hard such a person works, the translation will never be professionally and expertly done. Even if you add '3 reviewers' and the rest of it.
In the range of low professional rates, there's a lot of different service levels, but you have to go above those rates if you want to be sure to get a bulletproof translation. I believe that 0.1 - 0.2 is somehow an 'intelligent shoppers' range, where you can actually find some good services that save you money (not only overpriced services belonging mainly to the 'category' I mentioned first.)
I don't have any other occupation so I can't say no to anything if I'm not already busy. What an agency charges is really completely irrelevant to me. It's not even interesting as a point of reference to understand where I have to try to place my next steps. An agency often offers a comprehensive service, which I can't do on my own anyways (I can't edit or proofread my own translations.)
I'm much more interested in other things than this... But thank you for sharing, this is good info. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Hush-hush about th payment in Europe | Feb 23, 2014 |
Jse-Eng wrote:
Many Japanese agencies list their rates on their website. A quick look tells you what they charge end-clients for each language pair/field, etc. Rush rates, discounts rates for volume, and so on are also often listed.
I think it is a speciality in Europe to be very very quiet if it comes to rates. I do know a lot of people who talk very frankly about their income, newspapers talk quite frankly about how much they pay for articles etc. but in Germany some newspapers even get hysterical when some information about their payment is "leaked".
In about 90% of these cases, the leak shows that their talking about "fair price" etc. is only talking but the reality is something else.
I must admit that I have never seen the problem in telling people how much they will probaby earn for articles, in their potential new job etc. pp. Seems like people will only get other people to reduce their expectations and to agree to very cheap payments like "we are only able to pay 0,02 Euro a word but we can offer an ongoing cooperation with potential jobs being frequently sent to you"
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| On price "elasticity" | Mar 13, 2014 |
Just a story that illustrates how things work with some agencies.
I got an email today from a large agency asking if I would take part in a multi-million words, rush project (Japanese-English) that involves various file formats (PDFs, PPT, Word, etc.) and the whole project is for legal purposes. At the end of the lengthy email describing the various requirements for the work, they said they are paying 7 cents per target word.
I replied to them saying that a rate like that is an absol... See more Just a story that illustrates how things work with some agencies.
I got an email today from a large agency asking if I would take part in a multi-million words, rush project (Japanese-English) that involves various file formats (PDFs, PPT, Word, etc.) and the whole project is for legal purposes. At the end of the lengthy email describing the various requirements for the work, they said they are paying 7 cents per target word.
I replied to them saying that a rate like that is an absolute insult, especially for a project like this. I also reminded them that I have already asked them on multiple occasions to please do not send me job offers below my standard rates, which start at 21 cents per target word.
They came back and told me they can offer 12 cents, if I changed my mind.
That rate is still very low, and doesn't even merit a reply, but do you see the difference between 7 cents and 12 cents and how quickly they raised their offer?
On previous occasions when I refused to work for their initially offered rate, they came back with DOUBLE of that rate, but it was still only 2/3 of my rates, so I refused.
So, not only they are absolutely low-balling, but they are trying to get people work for rates that are half of their own budget.
I somehow cannot get the words "unethical" and "greed" out of my mind... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 02:33
Member (2007)
English
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| A good lesson for those translating for peanuts | Mar 14, 2014 |
Katalin Horváth McClure wrote:
when I refused to work for their initially offered rate, they came back with DOUBLE of that rate, but it was still only 2/3 of my rates, so I refused.
So, not only they are absolutely low-balling, but they are trying to get people work for rates that are half of their own budget.
We continually hear of freelancers being 'forced' to accept just a couple of euro or dollar cents per word (or even less). But if they can prove they can translate proficiently, do they really have to work for such derisory rates? Of course not - and this proves it!
Reputable agencies may charge the client double our rate, but they add enormous value in terms of pre-translation file preparation, post-translation DTP, glossary building, style guides, proofreading, problem solving, etc. Disreputable 'agencies' (in fact, they are simply translation brokers who add nothing to the process) are simply getting fat on the work of naive, exploited freelancers.
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