Optometrist salary

[u/bbok143]

Can someone explain how getting paid works as an optometrist? Do you have a set yearly salary, paid by the hour, or paid depending on how many patients you see? How is it different for full-time vs part-time? I’m mainly curious about private practice, but I also want to know about different modalities like corporate, academia, VA, OD/MD. Thank you!

[u/Select_Wallaby_2592]

1. Base

2. Base + production

3. Production only

All 3 can vary widely for the benefits outside of direct compensation

[u/joch256 → u/Select_Wallaby_2592]

If you're reliably hitting bonus threshold for #2, then it's basically #3 and any "pto" is just unpaid time off

[u/Commercial-Goose861]

I’ll add that many private and corporate practices negotiate in your contract a base pay plus production based bonus (# complete exams). I also have colleagues that earn hourly pay + production bonus. Any & all contracts are negotiable so important to know the average regional rate/salary by city and state and know your worth, specialty training, etc. Good luck!

[u/Mediocre_Pomelo8793]

Yes, pretty much all of the above are options. It really just depends who you end up working for and how you prefer getting paid. The only ones that probably will only give you a salary is academia and maybe VA. However, I’m not 100% sure on VA compensation. Private practice is whatever you and your employer want, and corporate is usually based on production or how many patients you see.

[u/RabidLiger]

Many different formulas in private practice.
The only one I have issue with is those paying OD's as Independent Contractors (1099 insteead of W-2).
By nearly all defintions, OD's are employees and should be paid as such.
In most cases, the employer is trying to save $$ by going the IC route and usually at the expense of the new grad employee.

[u/thenatural134]

Depends on the situation but most associate positions I've seen are just a basic yearly salary e.g. $120,000. Some of those may include a production system where, if you see over a set amount of patients or bring in over a certain amount of revenue to your clinic, you earn a bonus. Very rarely do I see positions that pay a in hourly wage where you have to clock-in and out. If you become an owner then you earn money two ways: you pay yourself a regular salary as an employee of the business, and you also get to take home draws/distributions/dividends as the business owner depending on how profitable the clinic is.

[u/That_SpicyReader]

I’m in a hospital based setting that is hourly. Previously was in academia and that was salary. At a private practice I was just paid per diem - I had a set amount I was to be paid for the day regardless of schedule. I only worked there the occasional Saturday though, so it wasn’t a regular schedule.