2010 Neuropsychology Salary Survey (via TCN)

I posted this in another thread, though I thought it was worth posting on its own. It is from the most recent issue of "The Clinical Neuropsychologist":

http://www.theaacn.org/position_papers/
(first link)

<1-5 years in practice
n=304
Mean: 94.1
Median: 86.0
SD 51.2
25%: 75.0
75%: 100.0
95%: 160.0
99%: 219.2

The fellowship years need some work (1st yr mean: 34.7k, 2nd yr mean: 37.8k). I can only speak to the places I considered, and the salaries ranged from $34k to $60k, with the average probably be in the high 30's. The VA positions tend to be in the low 40's, and academic medicine anywhere from mid 30's to high 40's. I've been told jobs after fellowship range from $70k-$85k and higher, depending on location/competitiveness/research funding/etc. All in line with the above numbers.

I'm glad to see that the numbers aren't quite as dismal as I thought for early career psychologists (<1-5 yrs experience).

Table 13 (Mean annual incomes in initial years of clinical practice by work setting) and Table 14 (Income at varying intervals of years in clinical practice) are worth noting because it addresses earning averages across settings and experience.

Table 18 addresses earning differences between ABCN and non-ABCN neuropsychologists. This speaks to the inquiry of, "Why should I bother with boarding?"

I also found it interesting that 71.8% of ABCN neuropsychologists who responded to the survey do some type of forensic evaluations. Lastly, <1% of respondants reported being unemployed, which is nice to read.

Therapist4Chnge said:

Table 13 (Mean annual incomes in initial years of clinical practice by work setting) and Table 14 (Income at varying intervals of years in clinical practice) are worth noting because it addresses earning averages across settings and experience.

Table 18 addresses earning differences between ABCN and non-ABCN neuropsychologists. This speaks to the inquiry of, "Why should I bother with boarding?"

I also found it interesting that 71.8% of ABCN neuropsychologists who responded to the survey do some type of forensic evaluations. Lastly, <1% of respondants reported being unemployed, which is nice to read.

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Forensic work and neuropsychology tend to go together fairly frequently, as those numbers would attest (and as I'm sure you've seen in your own experiences). Given that it generally pays VERY well, many people find the temptation hard to resist.

Personally, from my time assisting my professor on multiple forensic cases in grad school, I have little desire to get involved in the legal arena for at least the first few years of practice. The money is great, but the job itself is usually pretty rough. Also, if you jump in prematurely and get skewered during depo or while testifying, that sullied reputation can follow you around for quite some time.

AcronymAllergy said:

Forensic work and neuropsychology tend to go together fairly frequently, as those numbers would attest (and as I'm sure you've seen in your own experiences). Given that it generally pays VERY well, many people find the temptation hard to resist.

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I guess I didn't realize that it'd be 70%+.

Therapist4Chnge said:

I guess I didn't realize that it'd be 70%+.

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Yeah, that's a bit high even based on what I would've expected (maybe closer to 50%), but perhaps it depends on how they defined forensic work--whether the clinician actively sought out the work, or whether it also included having their previous evaluation brought up in a legal case.

interesting post. Must fit these numbers into the Ferrari payment calculator

Existenz said:

interesting post. Must fit these numbers into the Ferrari payment calculator

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I wish. The ABCN numbers are pretty good, but that is after all of the formal training, boarding, etc. It is a long road and definitely not for everyone.

Therapist4Chnge said:

I wish. The ABCN numbers are pretty good, but that is after all of the formal training, boarding, etc. It is a long road and definitely not for everyone.

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my payments for a new Ferrari would be 2450 a month 🙂

Hey guys, which pays more, Neuropsychology or I/O Psych ?

Before everyone calls me a money grubber, my question was pure curiosity, nothing else.

Thanks.

Psycholoco said:

Hey guys, which pays more, Neuropsychology or I/O Psych ?

Before everyone calls me a money grubber, my question was pure curiosity, nothing else.

Thanks.

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Long time lurker here - may I add to this question? Google searches come up with all kinds of sources for info about clinical psychologists' salaries, but I'm more interested in a non-clinical/purely reserach degree, such as health psych or cognitive psych. Are there any reliable resources where I could look up whether there's a salary difference for these subfields? Or is it safe to assume researchers make pretty much the same amount (where can I realistically find an idea of what this number is?), regardless of the specifics of their PhDs? Sorry about the hoard of questions, and thank you!

Research salaries vary enormously. Among the true "top of the field" salaries can be enormous (> several hundred thousand dollars...more if you move into administration)...but those are not reasonable expectations for most folks.

It depends a lot on what you do. If you are in a psych department you will likely be earning less then if you are in an academic medicine department (but it will be hard money so....better money vs. stability....I haven't decided yet).

I'm in health psych (though am clinical...the bulk of health psychs are clinical folks who specialized). Can't speak for other areas, but our hospital (cancer center) starts assistant professors at 75-80k, which is a good bit more than you are likely to make in a psychology department. We hire primarily non-clinical post-docs given our work is heavily experimental, and pay 40-45k. Not great, but not bad given it is still technically "training".

Things are definitely not universal across PhDs though...it depends greatly on what you do, what sort of position you want, etc. While we complain about salaries here, we are in an infinitely better position then our basic science colleagues. Post-docs in biology, chemistry, etc. pay horribly, competition is stiff since there are many more international applicants, etc. I have some friends in those fields, and it provides an interesting contrast to some of what we discuss here, where people typically compare salaries to medical fields rather than science/humanities. We do kind of straddle it so I can understand why, but it also helps me keep some perspective on the matter.

Basically, don't expect to get rich, but don't expect to live in a gutter either.

Therapist4Chnge said:

I wish. The ABCN numbers are pretty good, but that is after all of the formal training, boarding, etc. It is a long road and definitely not for everyone.

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Careful not to infer causality there.

In addition to having a few more years of practice on average, it doesn't seem at all unreasonable to assume that folks that would go through the trouble of getting boarded are likely harder-working than average, etc., etc. so we don't know what their salaries would be if they hadn't gotten boarded.

Neuro isn't my area and I'm certainly not arguing against boarding. However, research methods is very much my area so I couldn't help myself🙂

Wow! Thanks for your thoughtful response 🙂

Therapist4Chnge said:

I posted this in another thread, though I thought it was worth posting on its own. It is from the most recent issue of "The Clinical Neuropsychologist":

http://www.theaacn.org/position_papers/
(first link)

<1-5 years in practice
n=304
Mean: 94.1
Median: 86.0
SD 51.2
25%: 75.0
75%: 100.0
95%: 160.0
99%: 219.2

The fellowship years need some work (1st yr mean: 34.7k, 2nd yr mean: 37.8k). I can only speak to the places I considered, and the salaries ranged from $34k to $60k, with the average probably be in the high 30's. The VA positions tend to be in the low 40's, and academic medicine anywhere from mid 30's to high 40's. I've been told jobs after fellowship range from $70k-$85k and higher, depending on location/competitiveness/research funding/etc. All in line with the above numbers.

I'm glad to see that the numbers aren't quite as dismal as I thought for early career psychologists (<1-5 yrs experience).

Click to expand...

it's cute, one can be plus or minus 1 sd and be in the norm. 43k as an abcn no gracias 🙂

I'll take my chances w. boarding....as i've jumped through 80% of the hoops to do it.