Gamebird
Well-Known Member
Absolutely agree. Small animal wages outstrip large and equine every time. Plus who do you know who earns £92500???? Most vets won't ever earn above £50k, unless they take on practice ownership (which usually involves a raft of loans, offsetting the increased wage), or a clinical director position. Even then CD wages can be below £50k depending on practice.
The issue with wages is mostly that there is nowhere to go. Say you start as a new grad on £28k. After a few years you'll likely be worth something to your practice by dint of your massively increased experience (new grads are actually a cost to a practice rather than a revenue-generator. I saw one article which suggested that some don't actually pay for themselves until they're 18-24 months post graduation). By then you might be earning £38k. And for the rest of your career you can look forwards to possibly achieving the heady heights of £45k. There is literally no progression. Once you're about 10 years qualified your wage is unlikely to increase much more.
I have been offered tips on very odd occasions (mostly clients paying in cash and insisting that we keep the £20 change for ourselves). I usually put the money in the coffee/cake fund, or in the charity tin. I would be pretty unimpressed by any employee of mine keeping a tip they received for themselves.
Wages are extremely poor compared to other similar professions. When I had busy weeks on call (we do 1 in every 2 weeknights, and one in every two or three weekends) when I was younger, I divided my salary down by the actual hours worked, and on a couple of occasions didn't clear minimum wage!! Currently I do a lot of managerial work on top of the hours/on call above, and am regularly in work by 6.30am, and still at work at 7.30pm, and that's without taking any out of hours calls into consideration. No wonder we burn out and leave the profession. So many people are at the ends of their tethers and have been working in practices that have had unfilled vet positions for well over a year. That's a lot of slack to pick up. We are really feeling the effects of the haemorrhage of vets from the profession, and the toll Brexit has taken on recruitment. Last time I advertised a vet position (pre-Brexit) 95% of applicants were from Europe. That's a big worry for next time!