akjean Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Okay, I need some perspective here. I live in Nashville, TN and work in orthopedics (no surgery, mostly seeing patients in outpatient setting with some inpatient rounding, etc). I work a solid 45-50hr/wk with dismal support in terms of clinic staff and management's purely theoretical support. I am paid $47/hr SALARIED (so I get paid X amount Q2wks, so matter how many hours I work). Looking at the posts I see on facebook PA groups, $47/hr is crap pay for someone working in orthopedics. Is that real life? Or are the only people who care to comment on salary threads the ones who "won't get out of bed for <$80/hr"?? I really just want to know if I'm being taken advantage of with my current level pay. I get decent benefits with 401k, medical/dental/vision, etc. so the benefits are a plus, but I still feel like I'm missing something here. Will someone help me know where this stands in reasonable pay? I have access to AAPA's salary report, and I see that my pay for my years of experience and specialty is a little on the low side, but geez - people are making $80/hr on the regular? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktheshark89 Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 You are probably slightly underpaid, but you also do no OR time so you aren’t bringing in first assist revenues which are often associated with higher salaries. Some are likely making 80/hr or more, my guess would be that most fall in the 55-75/hr range depending on experience and area of the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electric130 Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 You are definately on the low side, especially if you are working up to 50 hours per week at times. You do have benefits though, and I think most people who are making in the 75-85 per hour range may not have benefits. I can tell you in my experience you will not get a bump up in pay without asking. Knowing your production can be tremendously helpful if you can get in a practice that will share that with you. When you know what you are bringing into the practice it is easier to ask for more pay. Also sometimes it takes going out and getting another offer, and then seeing if they will match it if it is more in line with what you feel like you should be paid at. I am one of those 85 per hour people, but I bust my tail while I am in clinic, I have a ton of experience and I am very vocal about asking for raises based on the production numbers that I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbrothers98 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 OP is not revealing time in specialty and there is no consideration for regional economic differences. No mention if hospital employee or for a private practice. More time in specialty usually equates more $. One will likely make more in higher cost of living areas such as Northeast vs Midwest or South. Demand for PA services also have to be taken in consideration. There are regions and organizations that value PAs....and those that do not. Having an idea of revenue produced is helpful but organizations may ignore that logic....cause that is what some do. Ask for a raise next eval time. May be surprised what asking can get. If not satisfied, start looking elsewhere. Flexibility to move to better opportunities is key when wanting to improve your professional situation. Good luck. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgriffiths Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 Having gone to PA school in TN and looked for jobs as I was finishing school about 18 months ago, I can assure you that TN pay is generally not great. I was offered several ortho positions coming out of school throughout the states of TN, some with and some without first assist duties, and the highest offer was $80k with availability of a max bonus of $7.5k based on some ridiculous algorithm that had nothing to do with whether the doc gave me a good review, the number of patient's I saw, etc. On the other hand, TN cost of living is generally lower than the national average, especially with no income tax, but Nashville cost of living to my understanding is rapidly increasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiovolffemtp Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 Compensation is very much driven by specialty and location. Salary surveys don't really get down to that level of granularity. The only way to get that data is to network with other PA's & NP's in your specialty and ask and to test the job market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colorado Posted February 16, 2018 Share Posted February 16, 2018 An offer comparison from a fellow classmate: (permission to share given) -Location: Colorado, generally a HIGHLY desirable state with only average/below average pay per salary report. Rural, but in a vacation town with amenities. Year-round pop ~7,000 but hundreds of thousands of annual vacation visitors to the area. Its a town that is personally highly desirable. -Specialty: Primary Care, outpatient only. Peds thru elderly w/OB. Community health center. 36-40hrs/wk. Expected 18-24pts/day, but start with 12/day. No call. No weekends. -Salary: 75k. Minimum raise of $5k/yr to base salary. -Bonus: Productivity based, average bonus/yr by other providers $15k, range 7k-35k/yr. Bonus paid per pt beyond 18 pts/day. -Benefits: (some start immediately, some after 90days) -1 wk CME w/$2,000. 9 Paid holidays (6 federal, 3 floating). 3 wks PTO to start. 8 sick days. -Health/vision/dental mostly covered. ~$120/mo/provider only for PPO health and dental (he didnt need vision so he didnt tell me what it cost). Family plans available. -Retirement plan 401k, w/ match after 1 yr. -Site qualifies as high need for both federal and state loan repayment programs (potential for additional 50k for 2-3yr service commitment) Although the base salary of 75k was low, we both thought it was a good offer based on time off, benefits, and being a great fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camoman1234 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 On 2/16/2018 at 11:26 AM, Colorado said: An offer comparison from a fellow classmate: (permission to share given) -Location: Colorado, generally a HIGHLY desirable state with only average/below average pay per salary report. Rural, but in a vacation town with amenities. Year-round pop ~7,000 but hundreds of thousands of annual vacation visitors to the area. Its a town that is personally highly desirable. -Specialty: Primary Care, outpatient only. Peds thru elderly w/OB. Community health center. 36-40hrs/wk. Expected 18-24pts/day, but start with 12/day. No call. No weekends. -Salary: 75k. Minimum raise of $5k/yr to base salary. -Bonus: Productivity based, average bonus/yr by other providers $15k, range 7k-35k/yr. Bonus paid per pt beyond 18 pts/day. -Benefits: (some start immediately, some after 90days) -1 wk CME w/$2,000. 9 Paid holidays (6 federal, 3 floating). 3 wks PTO to start. 8 sick days. -Health/vision/dental mostly covered. ~$120/mo/provider only for PPO health and dental (he didnt need vision so he didnt tell me what it cost). Family plans available. -Retirement plan 401k, w/ match after 1 yr. -Site qualifies as high need for both federal and state loan repayment programs (potential for additional 50k for 2-3yr service commitment) Although the base salary of 75k was low, we both thought it was a good offer based on time off, benefits, and being a great fit. The overall package is nothing to be proud of, very standard. The only difference between this offer and my current job is I am 4 years out of school, live in a very low COL, my salary is $20K more per year, I get $1,000 for CME, my health insurance is paid 100%, NHSC score of 18 with loan repayment, RHC family medicine, I work 32 hrs/week, see 18-22 patients per day, 1/2 Friday. I would not be to happy with base salary, now the loan repayment would be nice, but not a guarantee. P.S. I also worked a PRN job on weekend and worked a total of 7-8 weekends the entire year and made $31K (1099) in 2017. I averaged about 35 hrs/week over the entire year. So I grossed $125K in 2017 and did not even come close to hitting 40hrs/week. Food for thought for a recent graduate as well, I do not want you to be in the mindset of "getting screwed" cause you are a newbie, stick to your guns. You are worth more money and you make them A LOT more money, so you should be compensated for that. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akjean Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 On 1/9/2018 at 9:02 AM, gbrothers98 said: OP is not revealing time in specialty and there is no consideration for regional economic differences. No mention if hospital employee or for a private practice. More time in specialty usually equates more $. One will likely make more in higher cost of living areas such as Northeast vs Midwest or South. Demand for PA services also have to be taken in consideration. There are regions and organizations that value PAs....and those that do not. Having an idea of revenue produced is helpful but organizations may ignore that logic....cause that is what some do. Ask for a raise next eval time. May be surprised what asking can get. If not satisfied, start looking elsewhere. Flexibility to move to better opportunities is key when wanting to improve your professional situation. Good luck. George Sorry, for more clarity, I have 6+ years experience as a PA, 3 in family practice, have been at current position since late 2014. Former sports medicine experience as an athletic trainer pre-PA school, so this bleeds into ortho very well. I am employed by HCA. I have asked for a raise more than once, and another ortho practice sought me out last year and offered more $. I then took that offer to my practice manager and basically said "make me feel better about turning this offer down." (Unfortunately the offer with more $ had dismal benefits, and it wasn't something I actually wanted to do, so I declined hoping for a raise when it came time for "yearly raises.") I did NOT get any more of a raise (2%, cost of living) than every other standard employee got, even though I have asked and had another practice recruiting me. Is this what I need to expect working for a large corporation? I feel like I'm basically expendable to them, but I don't feel that way with my SP - he values my contributions, but he doesn't control the money in the slightest. Nashville is quite saturated in terms of medical schools, NP schools, and now PA programs. And while TN is a low COL state, home prices in Nashville have doubled and tripled over the last 4-5 years. Fun times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akjean Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Oh, I see 15-20 patients daily in clinic, regularly perform multiple procedures and injections, am involved in Opioid Stewardship Committee for our hospital, Outpatient Joint Replacement program, give US guided joint injections (something not all my colleagues do at our practice) and am now giving Iovera (cryoneurolysis) treatments. So, in terms of making myself valuable, THAT I am doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAtoB Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 50/50 OR to inpatient rounding time, about $47/hour here as new/inexperienced PA in midwest. no more than 40 hours/avg per week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.