Interpreting Salary and Rates: What to Charge as an Interpreter?

What’s the salary of an interpreter in the UK? And in the rest of the world? How much do freelance interpreters charge per hour? Let’s dive into the numbers!

Knowing what rates to charge is a challenge most new freelance interpreters have to face early in their careers. Universities and other training institutions, while addressing the most technical aspects of an interpreter’s job, often overlook the financial side of things.

Unlike translators, who typically charge a translation rate per word, interpreters are paid by the hour, half a day or for a full day (depending on the case.) So the main challenge for new-starters is to determine what interpreting fees they should charge for their services.

I will dedicate this post to explaining how things work in the interpreting industry. I’m a UK-based professional and this information is mostly localised for the UK interpreting market, but it may still be beneficial to you even if you’re based in a different part of the world.

There appears to be a larger discrepancy in the average interpreter’s salary (or should I just say ‘interpretation rates’) when compared to those of translators; yet again, the principles of how to charge for one’s interpreting services tend to be valid worldwide.

How Translation Rates Are Calculated

First things first: there are professional interpreters who are employed by a company or organisation. Staff interpreters are the ones who actually have a salary, since they are employees included in the company’s payroll. Not many interpreters make a living like this nowadays: most of us work on a freelance basis.

Freelance interpreting services are charged for by the hour, half day or full day. Generally speaking, the first step for a freelance interpreter is to decide on an hourly rate.

Next, depending on what type of interpreting service we are talking about, there are other things the interpreter can (and should) charge for. These include:

• Minimum Booking
• Travel Time
• Mileage and/or Travel Fares

Many assignments don’t last longer than just a couple of hours (especially in public service settings), but they may also last a full day or half a day. In such cases, instead on just an hourly rate, clients may ask you to inform them about your overall fee for:

• A full day of interpreting
• Half a day of interpreting

For assignments that last multiple days and/or involve long distance travelling, there’s also:

• Accommodation Expenses
• Travel Days
• Per Diem
• Preparation Time

The below image sums up the main rates, charges and fees when it comes to freelance interpreting:

As you can see, there are many nuances to take into account. Let’s have a closer look into each of them.

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What Rates Do Interpreters Charge Per Hour

There are 4 main factors to take into consideration when it comes to understanding the average market rates for interpreting:

• Language combination(s)
• Type of interpreting
• Specialism(s)
• Local market (per country)

Language Combination(s)

Some languages tend to be more pricey than others. It all comes down to supply and demand. Languages in high demand relative to the available supply tend to be more expensive than those with a lower demand.

The below table* lists some languages and splits them into different average price groups, just to give you a very rough idea.

*Note: It’s not a ‘scientific’ table, it just sums up my perception as a Project Manager who has organised many assignments over the years. If you believe it contains inaccuracies please flag them up in the comment section. Please note as well, for example, that although interpreting rates for Spanish tend to be lower than those for Mandarin, that does not mean there aren’t Spanish interpreters who charge higher rates than some Chinese interpreters.)

In the end it’s the actual language pair (also called ‘language combination’) that ultimately influences the average interpretation rates on the market. The rarer the combination, the more expensive it tends to get.

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Types of Interpreting

I have covered the different types of interpretation on a separate post, so I’ll just assume here you are familiar with them.

In broad terms, we can say that Conference Interpreting rates are usually the highest among all types, with Consecutive Interpreting in the middle and Public Service Interpreting (PSI) at the bottom. I’ll cover each of them in more detail below.

Conference Interpreting Rates

Because conference events normally last either a full day or multiple days, it is common practice for conference interpreters to charge a full day rate.

Many accept being booked for less than a full day, so they set their half-day rate as their absolute minimum charge for a booking (meaning, the client has to book them for at least 4 hours even if only needs the interpreter for 1 hour.)

On top of that, they need to inform the client about their additional hourly rate in case the assignment runs over time. Interpreters can, and most definitely should, charge for any extra time they are required to work – and that applies to all interpreters, not just those who specialise in conference interpretation.

The interpreter may also charge for travel time when significant, but not overly long, commuting is involved. Mileage or travel fares (train, bus, plane, taxi, etc) should be passed on to the client and added to the interpreter’s invoice accordingly. The same applies to any accommodation costs, where applicable.

For multiple-day assignments, especially if they involve travelling long distances, a travel day charge (normally a percentage of the interpreter’s standard full day rate) should apply: that’s because the interpreter won’t be able to take any work on those days they are travelling for the event, thus some sort of compensation is only fair. A per diem should also be charged, i.e., a daily amount to allow the interpreter to pay for meals.

Finally, some interpreters also charge some extra for preparation time.

To sum up, here’s the table for conference interpreting (just for reference):

Consecutive Interpreting Rates

Consecutive Interpreting used to be the main interpreting type for conference events, until advances in technology allowed the implementation of Simultaneous Interpretation as the standard mode.

Despite somewhat losing its spot to Simultaneous when it comes to large events, Consecutive Interpreting continues to be largely used in many settings: business meetings, interviews, press conferences, etc.

In theory, the same charges and rates that apply to Simultaneous could also apply to Consecutive. The average rates on the market, however, can be slightly lower across the board because, in addition to Conference Interpreters, Public Service Interpreters (whose rates, as we shall see below, tend to be lower) may also end up taking full-on consecutive interpretation assignments.

There’s a number of factors that cause this to happen, including the fact that conference interpreters are arguably better organised and backed up by a professional body (AIIC) that has been efficient in promoting the standards of the profession on many levels.

Public Service Interpreting

Public Service Interpreting (PSI) is a form of interpretation commonly used on sectors such as Law, Health and so forth. PSI events run mostly on a Dialogue Interpreting basis, also known as ‘short consecutive’.

Rates for PSI assignments in the UK tend to be lower than Simultaneous and Consecutive interpretation, mainly because it’s the most competitive of all markets.

Sources such as Payscale suggest that the median hourly rate in the UK is around £15.00, but that some interpreters get paid as little £10.00 per hour (which is shocking.) I am not entirely sure whether these numbers are accurate, but I’ll say this either way: both values are ridiculously low and set a dangerous precedent for the profession.

You WILL struggle to make a living in the UK if you charge such low rates. Trying to undercut everybody else almost never leads to good results.

From my experience, an apparent standard practice for NRPSI-registered interpreters is to charge somewhere between £27.00 and £32.00 per hour, with a 3-hour minimum booking – which sounds a bit more reasonable.

In 2013, the government also suggested £25.00 as the recommended hourly rate for interpreters (in Legal Aid cases, specifically). Sadly, with the increasing involvement of certain agencies in this market sector, it seems less and less clients are willing to pay that.

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Interpreting Specialisms

Although the actual types of interpreting (simultaneous, consecutive and PSI) is a more determining factor when it comes to rates, technical specialisms may also have some influence.

The more specialised the assignment, the more skill and experience it requires to interpret. An interpreter with a vast experience in the Oil sector is in a better position to charge more for their services than an interpreter who specialises in medical appointments.

This kind of overlaps with the previous point: Public Service Interpreting is often considered a type of interpretation in its own right due to its predominant Dialogue-basis dynamics, but in a sense it’s also a specialism. It’s a prime example of a functioning supply and demand curve: there’s a high level of supply in PSI when compared to many other specialisms, hence the rates are often lower in comparison.

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Local Markets: UK vs Rest of the World

It’s important to note that the UK, despite having a relatively developed and well-organised interpreting market, is not particularly expensive when compared to other countries.

In other words, UK-based interpreters often charge lower rates than interpreters based in other countries.

Not only the UK market is extremely competitive, the country (or at least the interpreting industry) is paying the price of its language’s global success. English has become the world’s lingua franca: more and more people are becoming fluent in it, and equally, there’s an ever increasing number of interpreters that have English in their language portfolio. In short, the demand is decreasing while the supply is increasing, which drives prices down.

I’ve had some limited experience with other markets such as the USA, France, Germany or Sweden, and the professionals working in all these markets tend to charge rates that often are considerably higher than those practiced in the UK. So, in conclusion, the place where you’re based does make a considerable difference too.

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Conclusion

Despite the fact there is a small market for staff interpreters, the profession is largely dominated by freelancers nowadays. The rates typically charged by interpreters can vary greatly depending on things such as language combination, interpreting type, technical specialisms and the country in which the interpreter is based.

Unfortunately, the industry appears to be heading towards a worrying direction when it comes to rates, at least in the UK Public Service Interpreting market. Some professionals are undervaluing their services and charging unbearably low rates, driving the whole sector down along the way.

You should aim to set your interpreting rates at a price that makes sense to your skills and circumstances. It’s always best to value your profession fairly and, most importantly, yourself.