Negotiating salary after starting

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Deucedano

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Im thinking about trying to renegotiate my salary after my first year in PP. I started at 200k without any benefits on a 5 year partnership track. I feel it is pretty low compared to others I know from training. Practice location is medium size city with slightly above average cost of living. Does anyone else think this is low? or am I just crazy? Anyone have any success with this?
 
Deucedano said:
Im thinking about trying to renegotiate my salary after my first year in PP. I started at 200k without any benefits on a 5 year partnership track. I feel it is pretty low compared to others I know from training. Practice location is medium size city with slightly above average cost of living. Does anyone else think this is low? or am I just crazy? Anyone have any success with this?
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Salary is not bad, starting. But no benefits? Health insurance? Malpractice insurance? 401k contributions?
 
Wow. Seems like a crap group. 5 yr track with no benefits the entire five years ? That's just mean. Get some experience and bounce. They seem like the type who will say no to partner after the 5 yrs just to keep their money.
 
Sad to say, but in our field I think you're doing fine.
 
agree with Zarn if the PP partnership is a "guarantee" and good money, otherwise i'd bounce...5 yr track sucks, especially with no benes, but better than being an employee indefinitely. LA can chime in any time now about how he'd never even offer partnership; that's fine because i'd never apply...but some groups do still offer it, and depending on the long terms prospects it's usually worth it.

ditto other posts--401k? malpractice/health insurance paid for? vaca differences between employee and partner?
 
Do the partners have benefits? If they already have a group plan set up for the stuff sticky shift mentioned (+/- disability and/or life insurance), it just seems stingy not to let supposedly partnership track employees in on it as well. Salary is a little low for starting pp from what I've seen, but not excessively so, although would be nice if they offered you some incremental increases between hire and theoretically making partner. I guess your chances at negotiating with them really depend on how much leverage you have. Some other questions to consider: do you have other offers elsewhere such that you could legitimately threaten to leave? do you like the location, group and working conditions otherwise? have they made any other employees partner in recent years?
 
Partnership is rarely automatic or guaranteed based on continued employment. Even if it is in your contract, they can easily delete you from the payroll with appropriated notice.

200K without benefits is bad if it is fixed over a five year term. Get some experience and bounce.

I doubt you will get very far in this practice.
 
The salary increases throughout the 5 years, but only ~10% from first to second year. No one has benefits, but there is a group plan and all are subtracted from my salary. The group is great and I am very happy with them, but I just feel like Im doing more than my share of the non-AP related work and after finding out partners made over 3x my salary stings a little bit. Partnership is guaranteed and I have no reason to believe I would not make partner (everyone does).

I do believe I have leverage in the group and the head of another group (person I knew from training) recently reached out to me encouraging me to consider applying for an open spot in their group. I would consider myself more of a type A/alpha personality and have a relatively unique skill set. This is also not the first time someone from another group encouraged me to consider their group.

I wouldn't want ask for that much more maybe 30k or at the very least to pay for benefits (which is done for our PAs). If they say no, I wouldn't consider leaving because I like the group and passed up higher paying jobs to take this one. I figured its worth asking. They can say no and there will be no (at least very little) hard feelings.
 
In addition to what has been said, what is the buy-in at the end?

Agree that if the salary is flat over 5 years, you may want to consider greener pastures after you get 1-2 years experience. Depends on lots of other factors of course - but 5 years to partnership is the longest I have seen. One of my colleagues had a 1 year track. Average seems to be 3-4 years from what I have seen, with salary parity at 3 years or so.
 
What is the salary increase after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years? It's a group you like and trust and so far everyone has made partner. Do you like the area and want to stay there? After partnership, the partners make over 600k? If the group and health system seem stable and you like the area, I'd probably keep my mouth shut and work towards partnership there. If all the other pathologists who make partner went through the same thing you did, you are going to seem "difficult" or "problematic" if you ask for special treatment, unless your skill set is actually difficult to find and you are essential to the group.

What's the offer like for the other group? If it's considerably better and you think you'd also make partner there in a shorter time, consider it. Otherwise a group that you like where partners make over 600k is going to be hard to find in an area you find desirable.
 
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univlad said:
After partnership, the partners make over 600k? If the group and health system seem stable and you like the area, I'd probably keep my mouth shut and work towards partnership there.
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Bingo.
Unless the other job is going to net you an equal paycheck, keep your eye on the prize, as long as you feel the group & accounts are relatively stable.
 
The starting is not bad but minimal increase over 5 years is sub-par. This all depends on what you're looking for. If it's an otherwise good job and you like the people and the area and other options aren't any better, then it might be fine (presuming you think the offer of 5 years then partner is realistic). 5 years is on the higher end, although there are a lot of groups who try to hire "employees" not on a partnership track. That is only a good option if you really want it - like you want to do significantly less than what a partner would be responsible for.

As far as renegotiation, that's a bit tricky. If you're working hard and doing equivalent work (i.e., taking on more responsibilities) you may have more success. Our new hires tend to start out with fewer responsibilities which increases along with pay until partnership. But we would re-evaluate (as we currently are) if circumstances dictate that new hires do more than they were originally planned to or they brought more to the group than expected. If the group is a good one and they want you as a member of their group, I would think they would work with you. But you have to be careful to not be alienating to the rest of the group. Having someone in the group demand more when they are not really working any harder than anyone else gets old and problematic REALLY fast.
 
I had a similar offer in the late 90's. Didn't take it. The group sounds douchy. Beware of good first impressions. People who I have liked almost immediately often turn out to be the people I wind up disliking the most.
 
Deucedano said:
The salary increases throughout the 5 years, but only ~10% from first to second year. No one has benefits, but there is a group plan and all are subtracted from my salary. The group is great and I am very happy with them, but I just feel like Im doing more than my share of the non-AP related work and after finding out partners made over 3x my salary stings a little bit. Partnership is guaranteed and I have no reason to believe I would not make partner (everyone does).

I do believe I have leverage in the group and the head of another group (person I knew from training) recently reached out to me encouraging me to consider applying for an open spot in their group. I would consider myself more of a type A/alpha personality and have a relatively unique skill set. This is also not the first time someone from another group encouraged me to consider their group.

I wouldn't want ask for that much more maybe 30k or at the very least to pay for benefits (which is done for our PAs). If they say no, I wouldn't consider leaving because I like the group and passed up higher paying jobs to take this one. I figured its worth asking. They can say no and there will be no (at least very little) hard feelings.
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And I know from experience, miserable milquetoast scheming beta's will make mincemeat out of an honest trusting alpha who isn't watching his back.
 
The whole concept of "alphas" and "betas" is nonsense. Pretending it's real doesn't make it so.
 
Excellent! Good to see a bright spot in a dim arena. Sounds like you have a nice situation.
 
mikesheree said:
Excellent! Good to see a bright spot in a dim arena. Sounds like you have a nice situation.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was pretty happy about it. I know there is a lot of doom and gloom on this forum, but there are still good people/groups out there.
 
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