Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 81,400 people employed as interpreters and translators in the United States. The median annual salary is $52,300. Entry level employees earn approximately $29,740 per year and senior employees earn approximately $96,480 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Check translations of technical terms and terminology to ensure that they are accurate and remain consistent throughout translation revisions.
• Identify and resolve conflicts related to the meanings of words, concepts, practices, or behaviors.
• Compile information on content and context of information to be translated and on intended audience.
• Adapt translations to students' cognitive and grade levels, collaborating with educational team members as necessary.
• Check original texts or confer with authors to ensure that translations retain the content, meaning, and feeling of the original material.
• Adapt software and accompanying technical documents to another language and culture.
• Educate students, parents, staff, and teachers about the roles and functions of educational interpreters.
• Proofread, edit, and revise translated materials.
• Train and supervise other translators or interpreters.
• Read written materials, such as legal documents, scientific works, or news reports, and rewrite material into specified languages.
• Travel with or guide tourists who speak another language.
• Discuss translation requirements with clients and determine any fees to be charged for services provided.
• Follow ethical codes that protect the confidentiality of information.
• Translate messages simultaneously or consecutively into specified languages, orally or by using hand signs, maintaining message content, context, and style as much as possible.
• Listen to speakers' statements to determine meanings and to prepare translations, using electronic listening systems as necessary.
• Compile terminology and information to be used in translations, including technical terms such as those for legal or medical material.
• Refer to reference materials, such as dictionaries, lexicons, encyclopedias, and computerized terminology banks, as needed to ensure translation accuracy.

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