Call center jobs may pay an hourly wage, a per-call, or a per-minute rate, or one of these rates plus an incentive. If a job is an employment position in the U.S., it must pay minimum wage in the state where the agent lives. However, independent contractors do not necessarily receive minimum wage.
Pay Calculation
No matter the pay structure used, home-based call center agents
should evaluate whether they are receiving a competitive pay rate by
calculating the true hourly wage. This is figuring how much you earn per
hour in an average week while also accounting for the costs you incur.
When calculating their true hourly wage, independent contractors
should figure in any training fees, unpaid training time, or other pay
deductions that companies may charge, and they should consider the
portion of the self-employment taxes that they incur, but employees
don't. And both employees and contractors should calculate the ongoing
and one-time external costs, such as Internet/phone service, headsets,
computer equipment, and virus scan subscriptions when calculating their
hourly rate. (Plus, these things may be tax deductions, so keep good
records.)
Call Center Hourly Rates
Both independent contracting and employment call centers
may pay an hourly rate, but it is more common in employment positions.
Basic pay rates (not including incentives) range from the U.S. minimum
wage to a $15 an hour. Bilingual agents may be paid at the upper end of
the scale because there is often a pay differential of $1 or more per
hour for bilingual call center jobs.
Any call center job that advertises that it pays more than $12 per
hour is likely including the incentive in its average pay, looking for
very specialized skills and experience (such as telehealth nursing jobs)
or charging fees to its workers. As with a brick-and-mortar job, pay is
often based on the average wage in the geographic area of the worker,
so the same company may pay remote employees in different states
different hourly wages.
Per-Call and Per-Minute Rates
Agents compensated on a per-call and per-minute basis (or for “talk time”)
are paid only for time on the phone—not for time waiting for calls to
come in. The agent may have no way to know if calls will come in a
steady flow. Per-call pay rates might be anywhere from $.10 to $.25 per
minute, but there is no way to know in advance what this might work out
to as an hourly rate. After some time on the job, it is possible to
calculate an average hourly wage, which then can be adjusted for the
expenses incurred.
For those paid per call, moving quickly through calls means more
money. Employment positions will pay a minimum hourly wage—usually
minimum wage—if too few calls come for an agent to earn the basic wage.
However, independent contractors rarely get such protections and can
easily make less than the minimum wage. Because taxes aren’t taken out
of independent contractors’ wages (though contractors pay these later at
tax time), it can appear that they are making more money than their
hourly-wage counterparts.
However, in reality, independent contractors pay more taxes
because they are responsible for the employer and employee portions of
Medicare and Social Security taxes.
Agents paid on a per-call or per-minute basis should make a habit of
calculating their pay on an hourly basis for their records so they can
project paychecks, compare their current jobs with potential jobs, and
be sure they are getting the going rate for call center work. Also, as
with those paid on an hourly basis, it’s a good idea to figure in any
costs associated with working at a company.
Incentive Pay
In the majority of cases, incentives for both employees and
contractors are in addition to one of the base pay systems above. There
could be a few independent contractor sales jobs that are incentive
only. Incentives could simply mean commissions on sales (a percent of
the amount sold), but call center companies use many other types of
incentive pay programs. Companies might offer cash bonuses for sales of a
certain product, for sales above a certain amount, or for the top
seller of the day, week, or month. Incentives
can be offered in non-sales jobs too. Companies might offer a higher
rate for those who complete a certain number of calls per hour, a bonus
for those with good customer service feedback or a certain number of
calls or surveys completed.
Regardless of how a company calculates incentives, agents starting a
new job will not be able to project incentive pay until they’ve been on
the job for a while. And even then, it will fluctuate.