I’m currently a 4th year veterinary student and am (COVID willing) anticipating graduating this spring. I’ve been interviewing with a clinic I’m especially interested in and they’ve invited me to make an initial salary request. I‘ve done some research into cost of living and average salary for new grads so I have an idea of what annual salary I’m hoping for. The clinic uses salary and production (ProSal?) for clinicians.
I haven’t worked with this type of approach to wage so I’m struggling to figure out how to break down my target salary into a base salary and production. I recognize that, with this system, the salary is never guaranteed, but I’m trying to figure out a balance between the two that will average out to the target salary.
if anyone is willing to either share some insight into coming up with a reasonable ProSal request, I would very much appreciate it. Also, if you’re comfortable with sharing what your base salary and production percentage are and what that, on average, works out to, I’d also appreciate it!
ProSal implementations vary widely, so there isn't necessarily a pat answer to this.
In most implementations your base (salary)
is guaranteed; that's the point. You are guaranteed to make X base, with (typically) some excess on top of that as determined by your production.
The biggest question is what happens if your production doesn't equal or exceed your base salary. In most implementations they'll carry that deficit from period to period and subtract that from your next payout period. In a few implementations your base is truly a base and you can't run a deficit (that benefits the employee, but is rare). In some implementations you are 'reset' on a yearly basis so that you can't carry a deficit forward into the next year.
You really need to have a very clear understanding of how you will be paid if it is ProSal, and what will happen if your personal production isn't enough to cover that base. It may be very stressful for you depending on their expectations or how they handle it if you are in the hole.
Make sure you understand how vacation factors into it. In many (most?) situations, you can take time off, but it cuts directly into your pay since you aren't producing anything in that period.
In my situation (ER, USA) ProSal is great. My base salary is a joke - I get paid biweekly the equivalent of my salary - but where I really make my money is the 25% production payout on top of that. So I get the difference between 25% of my production and my salary every quarter. That payout is fantastic because I'll easily clear 2.5x my salary this year. That means I have no stress, though, about going negative because my production is so much higher than my salary. It also means that in times like this where caseload is extremely high, I at least can remind myself that I'm making more money to compensate for the increased workload.
Bottom line is that ProSal is implemented differently at different practices and you really need need to understand THEIR implementation.
I actually had a true Pro-Sal with no deficit possible in my first job out of school. We were paid a minimum of hourly or 25% production - whichever was greater - on a monthly basis. Functionally, since we had a guaranteed number of hours, that meant we had a ProSal set-up with a guaranteed minimum salary and no possibility of going negative. It was fantastic because I didn't stress over whether I was working at one of our busier hospitals or covering for someone in a sleepier overnight ER. When we got bought by a big corporation who paid a more traditional ProSal, that changed.
I personally think 20% is too low, but that might be my ER bias. I make 25%, and while that's probably on the upper end of things, I'd never settle for less than 23% unless my employer was making
very significant benefit package additions for every 1% below it. And I'm not talking like "hey, here's a clothing allowance!" If you're paid on production and you produce $500k, every 1% is $5000 less that you make - I'd expect something comparable for every % below 23%. And just getting me from 25% down to 23% would be tough.
