How I Had to Think Creatively in Negotiating My PA Salary
I was working for a multi-specialty private practice in Physiatry. We were paid a base salary and given a quarterly bonus using workRVU’s to calculate productivity. They categorized PAs into three different categories; in-patient non-surgery, out-patient non-surgery and surgery. There is little data on what PAs in Physiatry make so they lumped me in with the PAs from family practice. I had different duties compared to the PAs in family practice so during my annual review I brought this up to the CFO, who was the decision maker on salary and we worked together to come up with a fare way to be compensated for the work that I was doing.
There is good data out there that shows PAs in specialties typically have higher salaries than PAs in family practice. I used the AAPA salary survey to help show this. Also, I had different duties compared to my family practice counterparts, such as taking call for after hour phone calls. The PA’s in family practice had to rotate through the after hours clinic and were compensated for the extra work. I did not get paid anything for extra calls I had to take. We had different duties and they were compensated for the work they did so I brought this to his attention.
As a part of our bonus was calculated based on workRVU, I proposed either adjusting the dollar amount per workRVU that I was compensated or adjusting the median workRVU amount to a lower amount so I hit the higher tier sooner.
[blog_subscription_form]
As mentioned above there is not a lot of data on each specialty for PAs. However, there is data on physicians. Out of curiosity I asked to see what the difference was in how the physicians pay in the two areas compared and as I expected the physicians in specialties had different numbers both in median workRVU and dollar per workRVU that they were compensated. An example of this is data from 2015 showing that the median annual workRVU for physicians in family medicine was 4,908 compared to general surgery was 6,736.
After looking at all the data and trying to find better information on PAs in Physiatry and not being able to find any, he agreed to adjust my salary based on percentage compared to what the physician numbers were. This lowered the amount of workRVUs I needed to generate before hitting the higher tier, essentially making it easier to get to the higher bonus level.
It ended up not being a huge amount but it did give me a little more for the extra work I was doing; and I admit, the after hour phone calls I had to take was not much. When you’re negotiating it is important to have data to back up what you’re saying. Why do you deserve more? Are you doing more work? Are you underpaid? How are others compensated? I had different duties compared to my colleagues in family medicine and since there was no straight data on PAs in Physiatry I had to be creative in figuring out a way to be fairly compensated for the work that I was doing.
