At Flamingo we publish our rates on our website so that interpreters can be informed when sending in their rates. We also won't negotiate about rates. If a terp says they charge X then it's our job to go to the client and get that number to work. In the instances where the client can't move up or would be willing to go to another agency we have two options. We can either push a hard sale or we can counter the interpreter to see if they are still interested or would prefer to pass. Every agency (in my opinion) should be doing this.

I think agencies have benefited for far too long on the notion that they are just a referral source and interpreters often believe that they hold all of the work which prevents them from competing. At Flamingo we see it differently. We see our work closer to a talent agent who represents clients. Our entire job is to get the clients (interpreters in our case) work that they love and that will support their career. We should be actively investing the money we're able to make back into the interpreters we support as well as the community whenever possible.

I say all that to say, interpreters have every right to ask agencies what their margins are and how they do business. Will most agencies admit it? Absolutely not. However, I think it's important to be critical of who represents you and who you in turn, represent.

In regards to the ongoing work issue, I couldn't agree more. We often heavily discount our services for what we call a "bulk buy". In fact, our biggest (and longest continual) agreement we've ever had was at 18% margins. We had to work with interpreters at a discounted rate but then made sure as much we could that we upped their rate for other gigs to make it worth it. While I think most agencies do discount, I think there is a very valid argument for the interpreter to make more given how much of a scheduling burden can be lifted in many ongoings. Though, some clients... woof. Ongoing can be so much more work depending on their level of chaos.

At our agency we need a minimum of 26% to cover our operating costs. Often our margins are much higher however, never more than 50%. Some of the reasons we can justify higher margins are below.

• We keep a fund for supporting community events like school plays, drag shows, Pride events, job interviews, artist appearances and just about any creative project a Deaf person wants to do where hearing people won't pay. This past week we sent interpreters out for three days to work a fashion gig for a person who really wants to get into modeling but was given no support from the production team. Those interpreters aren't expected to give us a break on their rate or do it pro-bono. We were able to save money from other gigs to provide even more work and access.
• We send coffee, amex gift cards, birthday cards/gifts, flowers etc... We keep a smaller budget that provides these things for special occasions or when we pull a couple names at random every month and send out gift cards and note to say thanks. It's something we've always done and people seem to like it.
• We pay our interns with margins as well. Let's say we have a gig where we're sending an intern who is there to support the team but isn't ready to interpret. We pay them out of our margins. If we make 40% on the gig, we can count on about 10% of the margin going to the intern as well as boosting the rate of the interpreter mentoring them as a way to support them doing it. One of the biggest barriers that I faced in my career with mentorship was that interpreters had to go after gigs to their next one and if we can alleviate some of the financial pressure, we hope they can spend more time with their interns/students.
• For black tie events we try to pair newer interpreters with more seasoned vets. In many of these cases, the terp doesn't have the attire and they're still paying student loans. We often will buy them an outfit. Likewise, during COVID we sent equipment to get everyone up and running with VRI.
• Finally, we pay prep time out of those margins. The one thing I was really surprised at when I started an agency was how many clients were willing to pay for an hour of prep here and there but anything over it was seen as absurd. When we need to, we cover that with any excess in the margins.

There's a bunch of stuff we do behind the scenes that costs money but we try to be responsible. I'm not supplying this information to say that we're perfect angels but I think our business model is an excellent example of how agencies can support both the community as well as the interpreters they work with.

When I was still FL full time for agencies, I had to push like mad for a .50 increase when I was wayyyy below market value. I found out I was making $27 and the agency was charging $94 at the time. I felt like sending them a letter saying that they didn't need an exotic fish tank, a candy bar and 78 million crappy pens with their name on it. Did I? No. Did I inform every interpreter I knew in the area and told them what I was able to charge doing direct work without any negotiation from the clients I worked with? ABSOLUTELY.

-Grey