SPVS 2020 Salary Survey released

SPVS has published its annual salary survey, the pay benchmarking tool for the veterinary profession.

The survey attracted 1,582 respondents from across the profession between January and March 2020, reflecting a world prior to the advent of COVID-19.

SPVS said the survey “will undoubtedly be a useful benchmark as the profession grapples with new ways of working that are likely to be with us for many months to come”.

Findings

Key findings include:

• typical package for a first-year vet is worth £33,500
• across all respondents the median value of the salary package was £46,400 for small animal/exotic vets
• in equine practice it was £42,206
• in mixed practice it was £40,333
• median salaries for qualified nurses ranged from £21,663 to £28,875 depending on seniority

Pay gap

Among vets an overall gender pay gap of 15% was shown, although this was skewed by the results for vets qualified for more than 15 years. Below this age the gap varied from 3% to 6%.

When compared with their male counterparts, women qualified 15 years or more were more than three times as likely to describe themselves as an “assistant or associate veterinary surgeon” rather than a more senior role, suggesting differences in career progression account for at least part of the headline pay gap.

Roles

More findings included:

• A total of 14% of respondents said they had another role in addition to their main veterinary one.
• Some 10% of all respondents gave figures for locum work. Slightly more than 23% of employed veterinary surgeons were working part-time in their main role (34 hours a week or less) compared with 12.5% in 2015. These figures suggest an increasing interest in flexible ways of working – something the profession as a whole is learning to adopt.

Field-based

Respondents were asked about their level of satisfaction with their remuneration, hours and condition of work, support received and prospects for career advancement.

The authors said: “Overall, the highest levels of satisfaction were found among practice managers and veterinary surgeons working in industry or field-based roles.

“Generally speaking, veterinary surgeons and nurses were more satisfied with their conditions of work and less happy with their remuneration or career prospects.”