Psychiatry moonlighting average hourly wage

[F0nzie]

I am currently a PGY-III psych resident moonlighting in my community and I am sorta shopping around town for the best deal to compensate for my sleepless nights.

Does being out of residency raise your hourly rate?
Any difference between being BE/BC affecting your moonlighting hourly rate?
Years of experience?

Seems with training, certification, and experience that one would be able to negotiate a higher hourly rate once residency has been completed.

FYI I am currently working 13 hour shifts overnight (7:30pm to 9am) in a psych ER and earning approximately $74 an hour. According to the bureau of labor and statistics (BLS) this number seems consistent with the average hourly rate for practicing psychiatrists. However, I keep hearing of moonlighting opportunities where people are earning $130+ per hour, which seems to be more on par with Neurosurgery (according to the BLS). (maybe that's because they're not covering your health insurance?)

I know the hourly wage fluctuates depending on the city and state in which you practice, but I am just curious to know what the hourly rates have you folks seen or negotiated?

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[digitlnoize]

I am currently a PGY-III psych resident moonlighting in my community and I am sorta shopping around town for the best deal to compensate for my sleepless nights.

Does being out of residency raise your hourly rate?
Any difference between being BE/BC affecting your moonlighting hourly rate?
Years of experience?

Seems with training, certification, and experience that one would be able to negotiate a higher hourly rate once residency has been completed.

FYI I am currently working 13 hour shifts overnight (7:30pm to 9am) in a psych ER and earning approximately $74 an hour. According to the bureau of labor and statistics (BLS) this number seems consistent with the average hourly rate for practicing psychiatrists. However, I keep hearing of moonlighting opportunities where people are earning $130+ per hour, which seems to be more on par with Neurosurgery (according to the BLS). (maybe that's because they're not covering your health insurance?)

I know the hourly wage fluctuates depending on the city and state in which you practice, but I am just curious to know what the hourly rates have you folks seen or negotiated?

From the interview trail, I've heard numbers ranging from ~$50/hour to ~$3000 for a weekend call (which really isn't that great per hour, but it's apparently an easy weekend, typically). I've heard of some ~$100/hour gigs, but the average places are quoting seems to be in the $60-70 range. This is in multiple parts of the country too.

 

[Scorcher31]

Fonzie,

I was just kinda of curious how you go about finding moonlight opportunites in your community. Next year around this time I plan on starting and none of our upper classmen seem to be doing it so I don't have them as a resource. I will obviously talk a few attendings/chairs from different hospitals I know, but other than that do you just cold call all your local community hospitals and psych hospitals and ask for the psychiatry chair? I can't imagine it would be easy to do.

Most places I have heard about in the past were between 50-100/ hour and never more than that. I wish I could just rememebr they were now.

 

[BobA]

I am currently a PGY-III psych resident moonlighting in my community and I am sorta shopping around town for the best deal to compensate for my sleepless nights.

Does being out of residency raise your hourly rate?
Any difference between being BE/BC affecting your moonlighting hourly rate?
Years of experience?

Seems with training, certification, and experience that one would be able to negotiate a higher hourly rate once residency has been completed.

FYI I am currently working 13 hour shifts overnight (7:30pm to 9am) in a psych ER and earning approximately $74 an hour. According to the bureau of labor and statistics (BLS) this number seems consistent with the average hourly rate for practicing psychiatrists. However, I keep hearing of moonlighting opportunities where people are earning $130+ per hour, which seems to be more on par with Neurosurgery (according to the BLS). (maybe that's because they're not covering your health insurance?)

I know the hourly wage fluctuates depending on the city and state in which you practice, but I am just curious to know what the hourly rates have you folks seen or negotiated?

I moonlight two places. At one it's busy and we get paid $75/hr.

At another it's very chill (might not get called at all about 1/3rd of the time) and we get paid $500 per weeknight (5pm-pm) and $1,600 per weekend 24hr shift (must round inpatients in the AM).

 

[TexasPhysician]

There are plenty of options that all range in price. If I were doing a 24 call shift that included some sleep, $60-75/hour seems to be what I am finding.

For rounding, clinic, and prn moonlighting, $75 would be on the lower end. $300/hour on higher end.

I'm sure you could be paid more if BE/BC.

 

[F0nzie]

Fonzie,

I was just kinda of curious how you go about finding moonlight opportunites in your community. Next year around this time I plan on starting and none of our upper classmen seem to be doing it so I don't have them as a resource. I will obviously talk a few attendings/chairs from different hospitals I know, but other than that do you just cold call all your local community hospitals and psych hospitals and ask for the psychiatry chair? I can't imagine it would be easy to do.

Most places I have heard about in the past were between 50-100/ hour and never more than that. I wish I could just rememebr they were now.

100% connections from attendings... I don't know of any other way. I have tried connecting with various hospitals through their human resource departments with no success despite the hospital being known for hiring moonlighting residents. Zero success from trying to get help from colleague resident moonlighters.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I've found them through 75% colleagues and 25% alumni of my institution.

 

[whopper]

A lot of this is going to depend on your locality. I'm sure underserved areas would pay more for moonlighting.

As a fellow I found a gig that was paying $90/hr for moonlighting, though I heard of some places paying $100, others for $75.

A lot of what I found out was purely through word of mouth and connections, and I advise all of you to keep these open as attendings. Some attendings merely do their job and that's it and despite the high demand of psychiatrists, no one knows to ask them.

 

[F0nzie]

It's good to know that I'm being compensated within an acceptable range for 13 hours of work overnight ($74/hour). Average is 15-20 overnight admission H&Ps in the psych ER (sleep is non-existant). I will admit it's exhausting work. However, psych NPs are practicing independantly in my state and filling in the shoes of physicians for most of the day and night shifts, so there probably isn't as much need to offer more competitive rates.

 

[LizzytheShrink]

i'm soooo looking forward to the day when I get my license back, because moonlighting is what I'm planning to start with exclusively. I've been out of practice 10 years so I need to get my feet wet with some weekend on-call at state hospitals, or working nights with a crisis team whose members can reacquaint me with the system. Those hourly rates you have mentioned sound right to me, aside from the $300 someone mentioned. It would have to be a pretty onerous amount of work to expect that kind of pay, and if you are truly moonlighting (ie working full-time otherwise), you might get burrrrrrned out!

 

[TexasPhysician]

Those hourly rates you have mentioned sound right to me, aside from the $300 someone mentioned. It would have to be a pretty onerous amount of work to expect that kind of pay, and if you are truly moonlighting (ie working full-time otherwise), you might get burrrrrrned out!

The upper limits I mentioned aren't difficult work, but they are rare prn type gigs that are very limited.

I can make more money in a weekend working $75/hour 24 hour call shifts.

If I have things to do on a weekend, I can try to pick up gigs that pay better per hour, but I may only get 1 hour or nothing at all.

 

[LizzytheShrink]

It's nice to have those weekend deals. Low stress,sleep, you can study and read, and -believe it or not, laptops didn't become ubiquitous till AFTER I was an attending and didn't lock down for weekends anymore - I imagine you can work on your computer too. wow that seems like a vacation after years of taking care of small children for $0/hr, lol