A rate card is not a number. A rate card is a one-page document that lets a hospital scheduler, a court clerk, or a school district coordinator know the total cost of an interpreted encounter without calling you. Buyers who have to call you to figure out cost will pick the interpreter who publishes their rate.
The structure that works
Language pair: [your language] ↔ English
Modality rates (per hour):
On-site $XX
Video remote (VRI) $XX
Phone (OPI) $XX
After-hours (5pm-8am weekdays, weekends, holidays): +25%
Minimum billable:
On-site 2 hours
VRI 1 hour
OPI 1 hour
Cancellation:
>72h before start No charge
24-72h 50% of booked rate × minimum hours
<24h 100% of booked rate × minimum hours
Mileage: IRS standard rate, beyond 25 mi from [home city]
Travel time: billed at 50% of on-site rate, beyond 60 minutes one-way
Specialty surcharge: +$XX/hour for legal depositions, psychiatric,
oncology consultsThe four line items most interpreters forget
Specialty surcharge. A legal deposition is not the same cognitive load as a primary care visit. If you’ve done CME or specialized training, your specialty rate reflects it. Without a surcharge, you’re invisibly subsidizing the harder work.
Travel time, not just mileage. A 90-minute drive each way to a two-hour appointment is six total hours of your day. Mileage covers the gas. Travel time covers your time. Bill it.
Minimum billable across modalities. A 30-minute OPI call gets billed as the one-hour minimum or it doesn’t get accepted. The scheduler will respect this. Stating it once in writing is worth more than re-negotiating it on every booking.
Annual rate increase clause. Add one line: “Rates effective [date]. Annual review every January.” Without it, you’ll be charging 2023 rates in 2027 because nobody on the buyer side will proactively raise them.