Postdoc, licensure, and salary question

[neurotic_cow]

Hello! This may have already been discussed elsewhere but I couldn't locate anything, so apologies if it has been!

I am currently halfway through a 2 year neuropsychology postdoc and although not included as part of the requirements of the program when I signed on, now that I have completed one year, my supervisor and the administration have decided that I need to get licensed in this state so that they can "make more money" off of me (yes, this is how it was presented). I have heard of other programs encouraging licensure and including a salary increase with licensure, but they have only offered to reimburse me for certain fees associated with licensure. Is is appropriate to ask for a salary increase? I don't know if this is standard practice and I'm just being butthurt over feeling like I'm being taken advantage of/used. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

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[WisNeuro]

Sounds like this is an informal postdoc, as a formal postdoc would have had the 2 years of salary mapped out in the program brochure. You can always ask for a salary increase, but I wouldn't hold out too much hope, as having trainees is usually a break even at best kind of position for many training programs. I would definitely take them up on the offer to pay for licensure. That will help you when you are applying for jobs. Places love it when postdocs are already licensed. Then they don't have to worry about your licensure being held up when you start and all that.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I agree: 1) it can't hurt to ask, although unfortunately, I don't know how great your chances are; and 2) at the very least, I'd definitely take them up on the offer to cover those fees. Related to what WisNeuro said, it's possible that even with increased billing capability for your services, the site may still not be actually making money off of you; it might be more a matter that they want to try to break even. On the flip side, if they typically give you a large number of patients that they're now able to bill for while providing the bare minimum supervision and few to no didactics or other training activities, they could (potentially unethically) make a killing.

I know I've seen some postdocs advertise that their trainees receive a salary bump upon attaining licensure, so it's not unheard of.

 

[summerbabe]

Sounds like this is an informal postdoc, as a formal postdoc would have had the 2 years of salary mapped out in the program brochure.

Of the few formal VA neuro postdocs that I'm familiar with, I think year 2 comes with a pretty significant stipend bump without licensure attached (maybe like $10k?). Not sure how standard this is across the board for the field or if OP has their 2nd year salary firmly stated already.

Even if you can't get a salary increase, between the nearly $700 fee take the EPPP, the couple hundred dollars to apply for your license, and maybe even some $$$ for prep materials, that's not an insignificant amount and you'll definitely be happy to have a license when applying for jobs.

One thing to consider is the timeline between how long you'll need to adequately prep for the EPPP without it taking over your free time and then the length of time your state board will take to process a license versus how quickly your work wants you to be fully licensed for billing purposes.

 

[WisNeuro]

Of the few formal VA neuro postdocs that I'm familiar with, I think year 2 comes with a pretty significant stipend bump without licensure attached (maybe like $10k?). Not sure how standard this is across the board for the field or if OP has their 2nd year salary firmly stated already.

Even if you can't get a salary increase, between the nearly $700 fee take the EPPP, the couple hundred dollars to apply for your license, and maybe even some $$$ for prep materials, that's not an insignificant amount and you'll definitely be happy to have a license when applying for jobs.

One thing to consider is the timeline between how long you'll need to adequately prep for the EPPP without it taking over your free time and then the length of time your state board will take to process a license versus how quickly your work wants you to be fully licensed for billing purposes.

For our VA postdoc, it was a 4k bump from year 1 to 2. I wouldn't translate this much out of the VA settings though, as the VA salaries are largely removed from the realities of billing and collections. The VA has money set aside specifically for training salaries. Most non-VA places have to recoup that money somehow, have some training grants, or eat much of the cost somehow.