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Interpreting rates in UK?
Thread poster: raduprisacaru
raduprisacaru
raduprisacaru
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:34
English to Romanian
Apr 1, 2013

Hello
I work as an interpreter in the UK.
Agencies pay £ 10-12 / hour.
I want to work on my own.
Does anyone know what would be the rates for interpreting in the UK?
Radu
 
Ania Heasley
Ania Heasley  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:34
English to Polish
+ ...
When you say.... Apr 3, 2013

...you want to work on your own, what exactly do you mean, who do you want to work for?

I presume you mean private sector.
In which case a decent interpreting rate in the UK would £150 per half a day and £300 per day.
Except they hardly ever materialise.
It is next to impossible to obtain these rates for several reasons, some of them being:
- agencies have achieved near monopoly on the market
- there is a 'glut' of interpreters in several langua... See more
...you want to work on your own, what exactly do you mean, who do you want to work for?

I presume you mean private sector.
In which case a decent interpreting rate in the UK would £150 per half a day and £300 per day.
Except they hardly ever materialise.
It is next to impossible to obtain these rates for several reasons, some of them being:
- agencies have achieved near monopoly on the market
- there is a 'glut' of interpreters in several languages, not sure what the situation in your pair is.
- there are always people willing to work for a very low rate so the rates are constantly driven down by newcomers who want to break into the industry.

Just to give you an idea, ccasionally I have small translation jobs in rare languages which I post on proz, and the number of translators willing to work for, what amounts to UK legal minimum wage, is scary.

Realistically if you will be lucky to get half the rate quoted above, and not very often either.

Public interpreting rates are almost universally £20-25 per hour. ▲ Collapse
 


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Interpreting rates in UK?







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