I'm reading a lot of emotional posts regarding what you THINK you are worth vs. what the market will pay.
Don't shoot the messenger. I am not telling anyone that you are not worth as much as our allopathic colleagues, but I am telling you that unless you have actually SEEN your friend's contracts of $200,000 or more, I simply do not believe it...PERIOD.
The statements are all over the place. Contracts being signed for $200,000 and others being signed for $65,000 plus incentives, and some people making the "assumption" that averages are low because some grads are taking "part time" positions, etc.
Well you can be insulted, pound your chest about your great training, etc., but the facts remain the facts. As someone involved in a VERY large practice, I can tell you that in order for our group to pay a new grad $200,000, we would have to be guaranteed that doctor would generate at LEAST $500,000 his/her first year to make it worth our efforts.
And the chance of a new doctor generating a half million dollars his/her first year out are VERY slim.
Our practice has over 13 doctors and is growing, so I know of what I speak. Between all our office locations and nursing home visits, we saw a combined 100,000 patient visits last year. So I am very aware of how much we can afford to pay a new hire, how much overhead is involved, how much a new hire must generate to make it profitable, etc.
The idea that a new hire is making a base salary with incentives, makes MUCH more sense than signing a contract of $130,000, $150,000, $200,000, etc. We simply could not and WOULD not sign a new hire at those numbers because we don't know if that doctor would produce or have incentive to work hard.
We do NOT encourage our doctors to perform procedures simply to boost his/her income, and we monitor that very carefully. However, we also don't want to hand the new doctor a high income and than that doctor has no incentive to work hard. Our formula has worked well. Work hard and you WILL be rewarded. Don't work hard and you will set your own destiny.
In today's times, with low reimbursements, high overheads, high malpractice premiums, we simply can not afford to hand over high salaries simply because you are well trained. We aren't stroking egos, we are hiring well trained doctors and providing YOU with an opportunity to potentially make an excellent income if you provide quality care and work hard.
And I believe that's what most of these "low" ball contracts are actually offering. They are not an insult, they are realistic. Doctors can not afford to simply hand over and commit to high six figure salaries until YOU begin creating that income. It's simply a matter of economics, not pride.
