Rads in general typically pays about 30-40% more than path does. In the latest
Medscape survey of 18,000 people, Rads annual comp mean was $416K and path was $316K (31% difference). Let's assume this reflects underlying revenue streams flowing into these specialties for the mean physician.
If path jobs pay 1000-1200 per day (mentioned earlier), assuming a 5 day week this is 5000-6000 per week. Assuming that the Rads jobs are also 5-day weeks, and let's pretend of similar intensity of work, this would mean that if this figure would be a fair representation of the lucums marketplace for Rads, that there is at least a 50% differential, meaning that there is a relative overvalue of Rads locum services compared to Path (inverse could also be stated).
If the above assumptions hold true, this would suggest that either it locums Rads jobs are a relative great deal for those who take them, or that Locums path jobs are a relative bad deal. They can only be relative to each other without more information.
EDIT: adding a little more math here....
If we take the mean path comp data and extrapolate weekly revenues (with 2 week vacation), we calculate that the average path weekly comp is $6583. This means that taking a locums job is a bad deal compared to the average pathologist take home. I would interpret this to mean locums work should not be done by a pathologist unless they don't have an option- i.e., it is a bad deal for the mean Path, although it is not that far off. So if you make considerably less than the mean, it make still make sense for you.
On the other hand, the average weekly comp for the average Rads is $8,666 with the same assumptions in place. In this setting, you can see Rads locums work is paid at a very high premium over salaries, meaning these are either very rare, or the buyer is very desperate, or likely for very short-term work. Also, of course, this figure of $18,000/wk may simply NOT be representative of the Rads locums market. However, most Rads would thus benefit from doing locums work over a regular job, if they sought to get paid.
What I would take away from this is that the Path and Rads locums markets are probably very different. The Path one is probably for semi-long term work (weekly for an extended period, monthly, or yearly). This would fit what has been advertised to me over the past few years (as I said before, I can't get these people to stop calling me).
I would suspect this would be very different for the Rads market, and would expect it to be mostly for immediate/emergency need only, justifying such a high weekly rate (unless this particular rate is not in line with typical rates).
Thoughts?
