That median is barely enough to make a dent in some educational loans the vets carry!
I do wonder though, when where veterinarians highly paid? It seems they are (slowly) getting higher pay rates now, but not at the same degree as their educational loans have increased. I know it used to be less expensive to go to vet school.
First, IANS(exist). IANAE(conomist) I have heard many older, retired veterinarians talk about how salaries for associate veterinarians have decreased over time due to an influx of females to the profession who are eager to work part-time and willing to accept lower salaries. THIS IS ANECDOTAL!! However, it does reflect historically what has occurred within the profession.
Not long ago, veterinary medicine was an all male field. Then it was a male dominated field. As more women entered the field, supply/demand etc led to a lowering of pay. My veterinary school class (University of Pennsylvania 1990) had more female than male grads. Once again, observation only. I LIKE WOMEN.
Hey, I’m not going to bash you, a similar thing was said to my class (2008, 66 women, 17 men) during the business management lectures (and at other times, too, it was banged on our heads). Supposedly the salaries are going up again.
But I also remember hearing of vets in the 70’s and 80’s with starting salaries in the $20K-$30Ks (for private practice). That does suck.
Nowadays, I don’t think many in my class (discounting interns and residents) got a job for less than $60K, and I know about 10 who went to private practice with salaries above the stated median (even one in the six digits, for emergency medicine only).
Again, though, that increase does not follow the increase in student loans.
Don’t blame the state; blame your fellow teachers. The federal government guarantees your right to collective bargaining. In a right-to-work state, the only difference is that in order to have a job, you aren’t required to be shackled to a union against your will merely to keep a job. Think of it this way, if 100% of you agreed that you wanted a union, and 100% of you agreed to pay dues, and 100% of you let the management know that you’d want union representation, then you’d have it, pure and simple. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be 100%; 51% will suffice. Union management don’t like the arrangement because they don’t get the dues from the other 49%, while the rules and wages apply to 100%.
If you have a crappy contract, that’s probably because you have a crappy union or crappy bargaining committee, or your support isn’t strong enough to endure a strike. That is, if you choose to strike, anyone has the right to resign from the union and continue working. So… in the end, it’s not the state’s fault, but your own members’ fault.
Too right.
My time is split between teaching in high schools and primary schools, so I feel I’m in a pretty good position from which to judge which is more demanding. And bloody hell, it’s the younger ones, by a long stretch. I find an hour with eight-year-olds as exhausting as half a day with high school kids.
Sorry, Leaffan, all those ‘benefits’ (which may or may not apply depending on locality) are easily obliterated for the reasons already given elsewhere.
Always a difficult situation interpretation - did you know that their husband/wife wasn’t a doctor/lawyer themself?!