Raise Your Rates 2019

Let’s jump right into it. We’re talking New York City, but it’s probably applicable to any chronically-depressed market. I haven’t been in the freelance game for five years. But I care a whole heck of a lot about it. Why? The health of the field is a lot like the health in your body. If you’ve got a powerful left leg, but your right leg is falling off, can you walk?

Let’s face some realities. Reporters are doing most of the work when it comes to reporting. We often give the agencies a lot of praise for marketing, production, and the logistics when work takes place somewhere that isn’t counsel’s office, and I’ll even go so far as to say agencies deserve that praise because it’s not insignificant work. But the reality is the reporter is doing the vast majority of the work on any individual transcript.

So what we’ve been seeing in New York is offers of hundreds of dollars in “bonuses,” which is basically an extra appearance fee. This is an indicator to me that agencies could stand to raise their appearance fees a bit. In my freelance life I had a pretty crazy range of appearance fee, from $15 to maybe $60. Honestly, it might not be such a bad idea for reporters to start asking for $100 or even $200, dependent on the client and work. It might not be such a bad idea for agencies to start offering that standard.

Everybody’s trying to get stuff covered. It’d be a huge incentive for reporters to take more depositions per year if that appearance was higher. Let’s say you get somebody who works like a madman and takes a job every weekday, about 260 weekdays by a nice appearance of 120, that’s $31,000 a year compared to the paltry 4K I would’ve made doing the same exact thing. You’re going to get people out of bed pretty consistently for an extra 20 or 25 thousand dollars a year.

Markets shift. When you see agencies whipping out bonuses of $400, $500, it’s a sign that you can all raise the floor on your rates so that they don’t have to bankrupt themselves covering individual jobs. And for the agencies who resist raising the rates, it’s a sign that they are ready to be defunct and you shouldn’t feel bad about taking a client or bringing a client over to an agency that treats you better.

October Occupations 2019

Before we get into this post I just want to say I updated the old Get A Job post to include the exams page of NYSUCS. I still say that every jobseeker in New York should be checking the pages linked there every 15 to 30 days to be safe. Share findings. Be committed to keeping everyone up to date. If everyone is talking about where the work is, nobody’s left in the dark.

Even though this page launches October 1, postings are only current as of September 30.

DANY is still hiring for their grand jury reporter position. It’s a great job. Definitely give it a shot.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor, as I recall, had a posting for one grand jury reporter. Now there’s a posting for two. I say that if you haven’t applied yet, it’s your lucky day, go for it.

The state court system is still accepting applications for the provisional court reporter job. If you didn’t take the test, it still might make sense to apply. If they didn’t get enough passes on the civil service exam, they’re going to need you.

Southern District, that’s federal court, is still looking for a reporter. Don’t let this great opportunity go to waste if you’ve got the certifications or skill necessary to work with SDNY.

There are over ten vacancies federally all around the country. If New York’s not where your heart is, no big deal, but you’re not allowed to leave (joke).

Plaza continues to keep a posting for court reporting and English instructors.

New Jersey has apparently started hiring for the first time in a long time. I had posted this on Facebook but not on Stenonymous. Hopefully the government has realized the inherent value of having someone personally responsible for making the record.

Freelancers, I know that there’s often not a lot of postings on here with regard to work for you. I will work on something that might help there. Until then, you’re free to check out my recent post on historic data and inflation, as it impacts every dollar we make every day we breathe. I have been getting emails from Magna claiming over $100 in bonus fees. Now that I think about it, this probably gives you a clue what’s actually being charged for appearance fees, and a peak into the law of supply and demand. You’re in demand. Your skills are in demand. Act accordingly, do great work, and make a great record.

Fun fact. In the editor this post has no bullet points. In the preview it does. Which version will everyone see? That is the question. If you’ve ever wondered why some posts seem to have bizarre formatting, I blame computers.

NCRA Virtual Town Hall, September 21, 2019

As many know, there was a Virtual Town Hall presented by NCRA on Saturday morning. Uncharacteristically, I did not take detailed notes of the meeting. But I feel it is important for people to be informed, and so for those that could not attend, I wanted to pass along a few important points I got and remember from listening to Max Curry.

One major point was the dues increase. Why did it go up from 270 to 300? Max explained that it had not gone up in five years. He explained the hard work that NCRA is doing in terms of lobbying education and educating state leaders via programs like the Legislative Boot Camp. It follows that all of this work needs funding. More or less, NCRA is not a business, but there are business aspects to it. It has employees. It has expenses. In this way, a dues increase makes sense. I, myself, as he was speaking, quietly plugged our 270 membership into an inflation calculator for 2014, and the value of that membership today is about $296. Succinctly, the value of our membership is about the same even though the dollar cost went up. He didn’t word it this way or even mention inflation, but from my recent post, I realize a lot of people struggle with the concept of inflation like I did once, and I’d like to do my part to make it a more regular part of our business decisions. Every year, every dollar in America has a little less value. Prices must rise in order to have the same buying power. That’s true for me, you, your neighbor, your barber, and NCRA.

One very important thing he did address was the desire many members had to be allowed to vote on the membership increase. Only members at the business meeting got to vote, and they voted for the increase. He explained that there is a process by which such things could be changed, and encouraged members who feel strongly that all of the membership should’ve had a vote, or about any issue, to propose a bylaws change.

Secondly, and a simple clarification, people wanted to know what the difference was between A to Z and Project Steno. He explained that NCRA’s A to Z and Project Steno’s programs can be similar in that they both introduce the concept of steno, but A to Z is NCRA’s program and benefits from NCRA’s infrastructure. So if you are looking to support NCRA’s A to Z efforts, the only way to ensure the money goes there is to donate to NCRA. Donating to other sources, the NCRA doesn’t control what happens to it.

Third, there are many committees dedicated to many different topics and issues. Max encouraged people to get involved. I would also encourage people to get involved. Even if you don’t want to serve on a committee, definitely take the time to write out your thoughts and ask they be submitted to the appropriate committee. It just might make a difference. NCRA’s the largest organization dedicated to machine shorthand stenography, and we all have something to contribute.

I had to leave early. But I was impressed with the meeting. I was grateful that a Saturday morning was spent to update and educate members. I feel it important to dedicate some of my space to preserving these ideas, because for every stenographer educated, a future victory.

Historic Rate Data: A First Look

Some time ago, an intrepid, benign reporter posted documents revealing historic rate data from the west coast. One document showed that in 1995, on PI cases, the rate was $2.81 per page. Also revealed from 1995, $3.60. In 1998, a document showed $3.55. Almost a decade later, 2005, $3.55 a page. 2006, $3.65 a page. 2018, $3.80. Why is it important for us to learn about and publish historic rate data? Education. Every reporter is probably aware that it is now the tail end of 2019. Though I don’t have a fancy document to show it off, I can tell everyone that there are freelance reporters working for less than those 1995 rates today.

Why is this important? Inflation. Every year, the government prints more money and it enters circulation. Higher supply of money means lower value of every dollar that exists. Buying power decreases. You’ve seen this in action. Maybe your groceries seem a little bit more expensive as the years pass. Maybe a membership fee has increased. Prices can be impacted by all sorts of things. One factor is inflation.

As a matter of fact, if you use the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, it shows that that $2.81 PI page in 1995 had the buying power of 2019’s $4.69. What does this mean? Someone making $2.81 a page in 1995 was making the 2019 buying power of $4.69 a page. To have the same buying power and no raise, a 1995 reporter making $2.81 a page needs to be making $4.69 a page in 2019. As someone that was convinced to take my first jobs at $2.80 a page in 2010, I feel there is a great deal of value in investigating rates geographically and over time. If we do not mobilize and keep each other informed, we will continue to churn out students who know no better and accept deals that are largely skewed against them.

I am happy to take and report more historic rate data. If you choose to send me documents, anecdotal or memory-based rate data, or anything helpful in that regard, please take the time to tell me the location, rate, type of job or upcharge, and perhaps input on whether such rates are high, average, or low for your market.

ChristopherDay227@gmail.com

Shortage Solutions 10: Contract or Employment

Can you believe this blog has covered 10 ideas for addressing the shortage? Time flies. Having given the whole court reporting shortage issue some more brainstorming, it’s worth bringing up for discussion the solutions that will follow. As always, happy to have comment on this issue. First, contractual agreements. In the field today, many reporters work under a verbal agreement, or a very informal email or rate sheet agreement. Even in places where independent contractors are required to have contracts, much of the business is contracted verbally or less formally.

Anecdotally, there’s something respectable about putting things in writing. People are more likely to live up to their word when there are clear terms of engagement. Need a freelancer to be on call to cover? Get it in writing. Throw them a little consideration (money) for their availability. Create easy-to-understand terms and expectations on availability. Create fair and realistic penalties for breach of contract on either side, or remedial terms that both sides can live with.

That lets me move on to another thought process. There is nothing in US law, to my knowledge, that prohibits a company from hiring employees and paying them a per-page commission or per diem rate. Pretty much no reporter makes less than minimum wage, so compliance with minimum wage laws is trivial. What is stopping a company from shifting its workforce from 1099 reporters to employees? Nothing. Nothing but a different set of paperwork and some accounting changes. Compliance with workers compensation laws may need a little creative insuring to allow reporters to transcribe from home if they choose to give employees that option. But this does not seem like an impossibility, merely a challenge for the entrepreneurial to overcome.

Why these solutions? Frankly, one of the issues with shortage boils down to the inconsistency of freelance reporting. If reporting firms nail down some availability, via employment contract or independently-contracted agreement, they can have a more realistic idea of how many reporters they have versus how many they need. Businesses survive and thrive off of mastering their staffing needs. Reporting businesses will be no different, and in the end will rise and fall based on their ability to meet demand. In this case, the demand being the service that so many stenographic reporters are ready, willing, and able to provide.

Achieve Your Dream Salary Using Retrograde Extrapolation

Sorry in advance to anyone wanting to learn about the science and math behind actual retrograde extrapolation. Just to skim over it, it’s when a person is accused of drunk driving and they only have the alcohol level the person was caught and tested with, often under the legal limit. Using common absorption rates and facts, they work backwards from the number they have in order to surmise and prove the amount of alcohol the person had in their system while driving. Pro tip, if you begin court reporting in criminal matters, you will probably hear this term someday and can get it in your dictionary.

That aside, we should all be cognizant of the fact that we, as freelancers, can extrapolate what we need to do to get where we want to be. I’ll be keeping a spreadsheet that people can put their dream salary into, and it will go on to calculate their ostensible hourly rate, approximate hours of transcription, approximate hours of on-record time, and a suggestible page rate based on the mathematical formula I’m about to give. If you hate math, skip all that and go to the spreadsheet linked above. Remember that this kind of thinking doesn’t have to be all about money. Envision any goal in your mind and work backwards to see the steps you might take to get there. (DROPBOX)

Just keep in mind that if you’re using this tool in the future, there is a concept called inflation where the buying power of money decreases over time. Inflation is more or less inevitable unless the government begins a massive money-destruction program, so the dream salary you put in today will probably be different 5, 10, 20 years down the road. The numbers will all be the same, but the value of every dollar will be less.

The math:

As a freelancer, you’re a business person. Running a successful business does not require great math skills, but they cannot hurt you. Here is some helpful math.

There are certain givens about time and the world. There are 365 days in a year, but only 260 workdays (52 weeks a year * 5 days a week). So let’s say your target is 100,000 a year. That’s about 1,924 a week. That’s about 385 a workday. That’s about 55 per hour for a 7-hour workday. Believe it or not, at a fair pace of about 40 pages an hour, that’s about $1.40 a page. KEEP READING.

Now let’s evaluate some more truths. It takes an average of 2 to 3 hours of transcription for every hour of testimony, in my experience. That mean that to have some semblance of a normal life without an awesome scopist, you would work something more like three days and leave two for transcription. 156 on-record workdays a year. Let’s go back. 1,924 a week divided by three days is 642 a workday. About 92 an hour for a 7-hour workday on the record, but remember that you’re actually working 14 to 21 hours, so it’s actually more like 46 an hour. That’s only $2.30 per page! KEEP READING.

All of this math assumes you have an absolute guarantee of three 7-hour workdays every week for a year. It doesn’t factor in sick days, scheduling issues, or any of the risk that comes with being a self-employed person. Capturing that risk is a difficult task to put into numbers. Let’s try. A quick glance at some Googled numbers for sick days a year says 7 sick days a year is not a horrible number. Let’s take it. You’re your own boss and you’re going to give yourself sick days, right? Further, let’s assume that some percentage of jobs ARE NOT 7-hour writing days. In an informal poll, respondents averaged about 70 percent of their jobs weren’t 7-hour writing days.

Guess what? I just screwed up our whole calculation. So now we have 149 on-record workdays a year. Remember, you still want 100,000, so that’s 672 a workday, 96 an hour on record, $2.40 a page, plus a 70 percent “I am a smart business owner by anticipating risk” upcharge of $1.68. That’s $4.08 a page. You know what kills me? At least one respondent said only five percent of their jobs were 7-hour workdays, which means if we take my very simple assertion that that’s a good way to calculate risk as true, that’s a suggestible rate of 95 percent upcharge, That’s 2.4 + 2.38. That’s almost $4.70 a page. Do you think that’s too high? Consider that retailers often use a rule of 50% markup to set their prices. If we do that in this calculation? $4.80 per page.

Notably, this is all assuming my data is 100% accurate. Surprise, it isn’t. Surprise, business leaders need to make decisions on incomplete data all the time. Working reporters should take note how familiar some of these numbers are starting to sound. I hope you will all take the time to contribute new formulas and ways that people can calculate the cost of doing business. Newbies who have never done this before, take note of how you can use your end goal to work backwards and know exactly what you need to succeed. You want the copy jobs. You want the jobs with good rates. You want expedite, daily, technical, realtime. You want these things because it’s going to bounce your rate up and close the distance between you and your annual salary desires.

The Resurgence

It was looking pretty bad for steno for a while. Schools were closing. Courts were pushing stenographers out. Easy example, a few decades ago, stenographers started getting pushed out of New Jersey courts. The wheels of progress and the winds of change are slow, but I was fortunate enough to see this spot for a stenographic reporter pop up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This is evidence to me that we can recover lost ground.

And there is certainly ground to recover. The Workers Compensation Board of New York moved to recording and having their stenographers transcribe. Our NYSCRA and others pushed to have the legislature mandate use of stenographic reporting, and the bill to do so was passed by the assembly and senate, but vetoed by Governor Cuomo. Needless to say, whenever New York decides to elect a new governor, it will be time for us to try again.

But seeing such a push by stenographers everywhere to educate the public and continue training each other to provide the best quality records possible, there’s no doubt in my mind that we can continue to take back any areas of the market that were lost.

I’ve gone over the math many times. There are more of us and so many ways to spread the message that stenography is still relevant and superior in this modern world. Old keyboard, new tricks. The best part of it is that as the push continues, people and companies are rising up to start new education programs. Just this year, by my own count, we’ve had something like a half a dozen programs open up and enrolling future stenographers.

The sweeter irony is that digital reporting very well may face the same shortage it tried to use against us. As word about stenography spreads, many transcribers are realizing that stenography can save them time and money in their transcription work, or that they can use stenography as a springboard into a career that is, on average, about double the pay. I’ve seen at least two social media posts in the last seven days about transcribers and digitals switching to steno. Let’s face it, anyone saying stenography is equal is running on intel that’s six years old. At that rate, they’ll catch on and get back on the wagon sometime in the next sixty. We can’t wait for them.

The truth is that from independent people like myself or Mirabai Knight, to major stenographic organizations like ASSCR or NCRA, to all the many consumers, judges, lawyers, stenographic court reporting has a lot of allies. It’s not going away. The New York State Court System said as much. We know the truth. All that’s left is to get out there, tell it, train our students to be the best they can be, and see the resurgence of stenography spread across the country.

Guarding the Record Against Misinformation

Came across some commentary that I’ll call a smooth sales pitch by Steve Townsend, co-founder of AAERT. He correctly points out that the steno shortage has been widely reported, but goes on to draw a number of inferences and conclusions that I find remarkably questionable. There is the claim that steno schools are closing, graduation numbers are dropping, and interest in the career is very low. You can trust him, because he backs that up by saying this is all true.

Well, maybe a few years ago, we could’ve agreed. But this was written August 6, 2019, when stenography is headed back into a steep incline. Programs are picking up stenography. Established programs like Plaza College are creating more awareness through newsworthy events like the court reporting symposium. Several stenographic initiatives have drummed up support and interest for this wonderful field. Just to name a few, NCRA’s A to Z program, Open Steno, Stenotrain, and Project Steno. There are stenographers all around the country asking their local college programs to consider beginning a stenographic course, and interest in the field is ramping up.

Court reporting firms across the country are sticking with steno wherever and whenever it’s available. It’s no surprise that stenography is the desired method because we are four to five times more efficient than the average typist, and have some heavyweight software companies on our team. From advanced note analytics, like CaseCAT’s steno x-ray, to Eclipse’s translation magic, a single modern stenographer has the tools and capability to match the production of multiple transcribers. It was true back in 1972 when stenographers performed with a higher degree of accuracy when tested against audio, and that hasn’t changed. The FJC had all this data back then, and has had the data through the present, and yet somehow the district courts still use many stenographers. Reality tells us we are the superior choice when it comes to quality and cost. Townsend’s great argument, that years ago they said that they could record the court with appropriate management, is a far cry from providing the very best service available to the legal community. If there was a modicum of honesty, Townsend would tell lawyers looking for stenographers to go look in the NCRA Sourcebook. If the shortage is so severe that “soon” there won’t be stenographers, that’s no threat to his business.

There’s just nothing to match the institutional knowledge and commitment we have with regard to preserving the record. AAERT’s fabled Best Practices Guide hides behind a paywall. In stark contrast, our NCRA, the National Court Reporters Association, has publicly maintained its advisory opinions and continues to foster transparency and consumer awareness. It’s entirely open to public scrutiny. Who benefits? The consumer. The lawyers, litigants, and judges we serve every day.

Some easy math will tell you we are a ways off from not seeing stenographers at depositions. The Ducker Report told us about 70 percent of the court reporting field was freelance. That means that you’ll stop seeing stenographers in court long before you’ll see an end to them at depositions — and that’s assuming all the steno projects and programs I mentioned in the beginning fail. That’s assuming that every recruitment effort we’ll make as an industry in the next decade does nothing.

Now add on top of that the fact that if we’re inputting words at 225 wpm and the average typist is getting 40 or 50, you need 5 of them to replace every one of us. Even an exceptional typist at 100 words per minute — and having thousands of such exceptional typists — would mean requiring two transcribers for every single stenographer today. If anybody thinks there’s a problem getting transcripts today, just wait for the future promulgated by AAERT, millions of cases with no one to transcribe. As long as they can sell their equipment, they’re good. The transcript and the legal process is, at best, an afterthought.

I’ve reached out to Legal Tech News about possibly writing a commentary on why stenography is the best tech to protect the record. We’ll see if that pans out. But let this serve as a reminder not to let these folks demoralize you. They have a lot of money riding on most of us staying quiet and letting their voice dictate what is accurate. In reality, the gentlest glance at their arguments reveals a fragile facade. This is all true.

August 12, 2019 Update:

Eric Allen, ASSCR President, got his own commentary published on Law.com. This is precisely what I meant in terms of us actively participating in the conversation.

The vTestify Lie

I’ve often worried we too often buy into hype from voice recognition sellers. Dragon represents itself as being 99 percent accurate, but only has about a 3-star rating. Opened up to scrutiny, VR and digital recording companies don’t make the cut.

So we had a company mentioned on Facebook called vTestify. They brag about all the money they can save people on depositions. Just knowing what I’ve reported in the past, other voice recognition companies have raised a lot of money. Verbit raised $20 million. Trint raised something like $160 million. As far as I can tell, vTestify raised $3 million. Either they’re 50 times more efficient than everybody else or they’re woefully underfunded and their investors are set to lose while the company lurches along burning capital. Let that sink in for the next time somebody is trying to sell you the future, investors!

I would’ve left it there, but then another reporter brought up that they have a calculator. The claims there are laughable. They claim that they can save attorneys $3,198 per deposition. I don’t know what reporters in North Carolina are charging, but I know here in New York I could get somewhere around $4.00 a page, and maybe on a great day a $100 appearance fee. A pretty thick day is about 200 pages, only ever getting to that 300 or 400 page count occasionally. So take 200 pages multiplied by 4. 800. Add on that sweet appearance fee, and maybe it comes to 900 bucks. Even real-time reporters only charge a buck or two a hookup, so even with 6 hookups, we’re still only talking maybe a $2,000 day. We can all acknowledge that these glamorous multi-thousand dollar days exist, but the bottom line is that’s not the norm and vTestify isn’t actually saving anybody a dime. Their calculator doesn’t even make any sense. When I added the numbers they gave, I got $3,646. Somehow their calculator comes up with $4,329.

It gets better — or worse — you decide! Then we have this snippet about the court reporter shortage. Using their numbers and assuming it’s totally true, they say there are 23,000 reporters to cover 3 million depositions. What a crisis! Except when you take three million and divide that by 23,000, you get 130 and change. If every reporter took 131 depositions a year, using vTestify’s own numbers, we’d be just fine. There are about 260 weekdays in a year. Succinctly, if every reporter worked half the weekdays in a year, by vTestify’s own argument, there’d be no shortage. Let’s not forget all of the steno-centric initiatives like Open Steno, A to Z, Stenotrain, and Project Steno, that have taken place since the Ducker Report to bring people into this field. Are we really expected to believe there was zero impact and things went exactly as predicted? I don’t, and you shouldn’t either. Let’s put this another way. If the median salary of a reporter is about 57,000, reporters are only taking home, on average, 5,000 a month gross. So how can vTestify be saving anyone 3k or 4k per deposition when the average reporter is only grossing 5k per month? They can’t. But that doesn’t stop them from saying they can.

We have one decision to make in this field. Are we going to get out there and educate the consumer, or are we going to lay down and let these irresponsible companies fake it until they make it? There’s zero compunction with lying to make a buck, and customers need to know. Smart purchasers have already seen through this BS and stuck with stenographers through thick and thin, and they’ve done better for it. Tried, tested, efficient; stenographic reporters are the way to go. Maybe vTestify will figure that out and make the switch themselves!

Remember all this next time you see somebody peddling a similar product. And next time you’re making a sales pitch, ask your buyer what their monthly budget for depositions looks like. If it’s more than $5,000 a month, I have a few numbers above that say they can save a whole lot by switching to stenography.

August Applications 2019

I’ve turned this into a fun monthly post for job postings I know about. I encourage others to like, comment, and share any postings you have.

In the court system we only have the court reporter and citywide supervising court reporter positions open. Good luck to every applicant looking to join NYSUCS!

Against all odds, the Bronx DA is still looking for a grand jury stenographer.

Southern District, which is federal court, wants a court reporter. This is the first federal NY job to open up in the last few months, so if you’re looking to take that career path, take the shot. Even if they don’t take you, they’ll probably tell you what will better your chances next time. There are potentially up to eight other federal positions available nationwide.

Plaza College is seeking court reporting instructors. Start teaching the future of court reporting today!

Esquire continues to make efforts to advertise for freelance court reporters on sites like Glassdoor. If they don’t meet your rates, your best shot is opening the discussion and asking them to. It’s clear they need qualified people. Why not you?

If none of these are for you, it’s time to hit the pavement and start looking for opportunities. They’re out there, but it’s a careful mix of effort and networking that’ll bring them to you — or you to them!