Recently, there have been discussions about a shortage of professional translators and subtitlers. In this article, we will discuss the situation of the translation and subtitling payment rates and their impacts on the industry.
The president of The American Translators Association (ATA), Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo shared an open letter, a few months ago, urging fair working conditions for translators in the Entertainment industry:
“There is no shortage, but instead a disconnect between the value of this skilled work and the pay offered, leading to a perceived lack of qualified professionals available for these jobs and subpar subtitles in the world’s most popular titles in film and TV. Current practices within the entertainment industry devalue subtitlers’ work, discourage truly qualified professionals from accepting these jobs, and impede international viewers’ enjoyment of these titles.”
How low are the translation and subtitling rates?
In general, the rates offered can be about $1 per minute of programme time, which takes hours to translate accurately and concisely.
It is very difficult for the professional to even reach minimum wage with this rate. In fact, there is not really a limit, the rates can be worse depending on the language, country’s currency, etc.
Vivek Ranjit, a well-known translator for Malayalam films, spoke to Rest of World “Even after all these years of experience, I can’t hike my price, so I lose my worth”.
Vivek, like many subtitle translators, is capped at a certain rate and because of so much competition, he can’t higher his rate even though his demand has increased.
Subtitle Translators
The low rates offered are a huge problem for both experienced translators and new translators alike.
On the one hand, experienced translators are forced to either take on a higher volume of projects, which have tight deadlines, or choose another type of translation job with better pay or leave the field altogether.
On the other hand, the situation for new translators is even worse as they need to get experience. Low rates do not help to improve, it only makes the translators work faster.
Instead, by paying a fair rate, not only do you get better quality, as the translator will not have to speed up their work, but also you will make it sustainable for the translator, who will not have to choose another profession.
Machine translation
Some companies might think that machine translation (MT) solves the problem. As mentioned in Human Audiovisual Translator vs. Machine Translation, it does not. Some audiovisual content is highly creative, plus, subtitling involves sound and image, and MT does not understand context.
Perhaps if machine translation gets to a state where it helps the subtitle translator to work faster, it could be a good idea. But in its current state, there is still not much involvement by the human translator in the development of this technology.
Conclusion
Translation and subtitling rates need to be standardized. Subtitling is a creative process and requires expertise. Professional subtitlers should be compensated for their skills rather than discouraged from staying in the field. New audiovisual translators/subtitlers should receive proper training and should not be exploited with very low rates. Therefore, audiovisual translation “best rates” should not mean low rates, but fair rates.
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts to add.
Reference:
Rest of World: https://restofworld.org/2022/india-translators-netflix/