To all of my lovely occupational therapy colleagues out there currently working or actively searching for employment. Please please remember to negotiate with salary and bring up data to support why you are requesting a certain rate. I would tell my colleagues the same information from all different disciplines. Please go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website and look at their section titled wages by occupation oh, you can look at it for metropolitan areas. Occupational therapy is listed under Health Care technicians practitioners I believe.
For example the average salary for an OT in LA metro in today's market is about $48 per hour.
I just had a recruiter email me for a contract position starting at $40 an hour and it was a travel assignment.
Personally my first job was at skilled nursing and I made 42 an hour. That was as a new grad. I think if we're more open with Dad and maybe we can have better comparative tools and ask for the correct amount more often is my thought... 40 an hour is not bad but it is not but I feel they are especially in the middle of a pandemic where we are putting our lives as risk as providers.
If you are in the market I feel it is beneficial for us all if we kindly update recruiters from different states our from different areas who may offer lower rates what is the norm based of data**(see below).
I feel recently we have seen so many cuts and less then ideal support from our professional advocacy groups. This means we need to ensure that our credentials that we work so hard for and the skill set that we bring to the table is valued.
We provide a unique and critical skill set to our interdisciplinary team and to our patients need us.
We can best care for our patients by taking care of ourselves properly. This of course in part means proper pay.
None of us went into this profession to become rich.
We were aware of the debt to income ratio and the earnings before we went in. But what I've seen recently is completely unacceptable in my opinion and we need to start speaking up more.
Here is a link for LA County; See "wage tables" by metro area at bls.gov! Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA - May 2019 OES Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
Many of you will probably already aware of sites like pay scale and maybe aware of this one already too but I just wanted to share.
❤❤❤
For example the average salary for an OT in LA metro in today's market is about $48 per hour.
I just had a recruiter email me for a contract position starting at $40 an hour and it was a travel assignment.
Personally my first job was at skilled nursing and I made 42 an hour. That was as a new grad. I think if we're more open with Dad and maybe we can have better comparative tools and ask for the correct amount more often is my thought... 40 an hour is not bad but it is not but I feel they are especially in the middle of a pandemic where we are putting our lives as risk as providers.
If you are in the market I feel it is beneficial for us all if we kindly update recruiters from different states our from different areas who may offer lower rates what is the norm based of data**(see below).
I feel recently we have seen so many cuts and less then ideal support from our professional advocacy groups. This means we need to ensure that our credentials that we work so hard for and the skill set that we bring to the table is valued.
We provide a unique and critical skill set to our interdisciplinary team and to our patients need us.
We can best care for our patients by taking care of ourselves properly. This of course in part means proper pay.
None of us went into this profession to become rich.
We were aware of the debt to income ratio and the earnings before we went in. But what I've seen recently is completely unacceptable in my opinion and we need to start speaking up more.
Here is a link for LA County; See "wage tables" by metro area at bls.gov! Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA - May 2019 OES Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
Many of you will probably already aware of sites like pay scale and maybe aware of this one already too but I just wanted to share.
❤❤❤
