The Salary of Captioning Careers
Captioning services are provided to the public by court reporters. While captioning is often performed for the deaf or hearing-impaired, it is also used to relay information to the public during events such as weather emergencies, notes the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the length of training time for court reporters varies, the bureau notes that the average is 33 months.
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As of May 2010, court reporters earned an annual mean wage of $53,270, according to the bureau. Salaries for the occupation ranged from $25,710 for the bottom 10 percent to $91,280 for the top 10 percent. The median annual wage was $47,700. To calculate the annual mean wage, the bureau multiplied the hourly mean wage of $25.61 by 2,080 -- the average number of hours worked by a full-time, year-round employee.
Industries
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State government was the industry sector that employed the most court reporters. In that sector, they earned an annual mean wage of $56,170. Other industries reporting high employment levels for court reporters were business support services, which paid $47,560 per year, and local government, which paid $57,050. The industry sector that paid the highest annual mean wage to court reporters was local goverment. As of May 2010, there were 18,430 court reporters employed in the U.S., according to the bureau.
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Locations
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Maryland was the state that employed the most court reporters as of May 2010. There, they earned an annual mean wage of $44,260. The five states that reported the highest annual mean wages for court reporters were Oregon, at $81,950; New York, at $81,660; California, at $80,490; Maine, at $80,110; and Colorado, at $78,230. Portland, Oregon, was the highest-paying metropolitan area for court reporters, with an annual mean wage of $96,730.
Considerations
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Employment for court reporters was expected to grow by 18 percent through the year 2018, according to the bureau. An increased need to provide real-time captioning for the deaf will be among the factors driving job growth. The best job prospects will be for individuals who are certified, or are willing to relocate to rural areas or big cities. Captioners employed by captioning companies receive benefits in addition to salary, as opposed to independent contractors, who are paid by the hour.
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