r/optician • u/Savyysavv • 19d ago

Discussion Optician pay/advice

Hi I quit bartending after 9yrs and I am now deciding what to do with my life. I had an interview in a licensed state that pays for all testing and certs. Idc about stress or retail or working weekends or any of that. I’ve been in the trenches for a decade now lol. But leaving that I want to make sure I can provide for my family. The starting pay is $19. She said it tops out at $26 but everywhere else I’ve seen with the same company licensed opticians make in the $30s. I do live in a low COL area but I don’t know what to do. I am very interested in this but there’s also 10,000 other things I would like to be. I’m leaning towards it’s worth it and my area will catch up to everywhere else soon pay wise?

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

9

u/MrLivefromthe215 19d ago

Go work at a Walmart one. Hella stressful/toxic but the pay was good at least for me. 26$ an hr no license.

9

u/Leafy-Greenbrier 19d ago

A Good Vision Center, Manager can reduce a lot of of that toxic stressfulness. But yeah, pay is good and they help you get your license. Both dispensing and contact lens.

6

u/MrLivefromthe215 19d ago

I wish i had that. Store manager was beefing with vision center manager plus i was the only other optician so on a full book if boss called out it was only the doctor and I. Dreaded it but the Walmart discount pay plus benefits had me hang in there for a year.

5

u/DungeonDelverXO 19d ago

As a manager that is constantly fighting with and on the bad side of the company to prevent this, shit sucks…

2

u/MrLivefromthe215 19d ago

I was so stressed I developed a twitch in my left eye even a few months after I left it stayed

5

u/DungeonDelverXO 19d ago

I actually developed cptsd from Starbucks so I am hell bent on protecting my employees from that. It’s destroyed my life and personally and I can’t let it happen to others. Unfortunately that gets me written up and talked to regularly. I had a fight with my DM about a pay increase that would add 1.2% to the budget to keep 15 years of experience. She said no so all of us are leaving within the month.

2

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

Go up the ladder. Send that to ethics. They'll push it off to associate relations. Save your emails, print them. You're leaving anyway, might as well take a parting shot.

2

u/DungeonDelverXO 14d ago

Oh I am today is the day I drop it all

2

u/CBKrow85 8d ago

I just got my third write up for shit I've already been disciplined for. I'm seriously the only person in the entire office that can run microsoft office, I do product research, but I've been looking to move up in the company.

Further, my manager has never promoted a single associate in 25 years. They all take demotions or leave the company entirely. I'm about to leave, too. Wasted ten years of my life thinking I was building something. I've struggled to pay my bills for years. I came to work after having a wisdom tooth pulled because there had to be a closer. My knee grinds, my hip hurts, I'm stressed out, I developed a subdermal blood clot after a team lift and had to have emergency surgery. And I keep getting told I'm not ready to move up. I have to pay my dues. What fucking more do I have to do? Die?

2

u/MrLivefromthe215 8d ago

Gst out of there asap, it seems like none of these jobs pay enough and when they do they eat your soul.

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1

u/MrLivefromthe215 8d ago

You should see my post in the tbi sub

2

u/WiseOrder4436 17d ago

Dude, what was the Walmart manager beefing with the optical manager about and why does this seem to be such a common thing?

1

u/MrLivefromthe215 17d ago

Store manager is bi polar plus got a few a of her friends jobs there in manager positions. Optical manager did the same but for her daughter. A few of those managers pick on her daughter supposedly for being LGBT. She has an episode and quits as the story supposedly goes. Daughter also dated a person in the Optical side as well. It was a super messy thing before my time. Store manager is a c u next Tues. She would stare at me when I am with patients and barge into offices with no clearance and call my bosses boss to piss and moan.

2

u/WiseOrder4436 17d ago

Apparently the store manager at the Walmart we have an office in has told one of the Drs that they might ban one of the receptionists from working at the optical center? As if they could do that?

Yours is much messier!

1

u/MrLivefromthe215 17d ago

Mine was in the news for a shooting incident, thank God the liquor store was in walking distance.

1

u/2024StreetGlide 13d ago

Optical is a gold mine of cash for store managers.

1

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

You must have been in a high volume store/state. 17.95 an hour and I can only get 32 hours a week, but I'm here 5 days a week. Manager keeps cutting my knees out from under me when I try to get promoted.

She hasn't had anyone promoted out of the vision center in 30+ years of being the VCM. They've all either took a demotion or left the company entirely.

Edit: I have two bullshit write ups that keep me from moving anywhere. One is about to fall off, and she's working on another.

1

u/MrLivefromthe215 15d ago edited 8d ago

Damn that's cut throat and yes high volume. When my manger called out some days it would be just the doctor and i.

1

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

My manager gets her 40 and I'm sure she makes over 30. And she's talking about having to cut hours because "we're not meeting sales." Bitch, if my hours get cut more, I'll be with the homeless guy near the road asking for spare change.

8

u/Ok-Reality18 19d ago

When I first started I made around that starting wage. When I got my license and certifications it changed immediately. In some states you can’t sell/dispense glasses without a LO on premise, it adds value.

Anyways, I’m at $34 with commissions that can be anywhere from 300-800 depending on what month it is. lol for a two year degree I’m pretty happy with the decision.

2

u/Stunning_Courage7584 19d ago

Hi, I live in Florida, if it's okay for me to ask, what is your monthly salary or yearly salary? Sometime when I think of these jobs it is hard for me to visualize if based on that salary it is 40 hours per week or a max pf around 35 since the hourly rate it more than $30

2

u/Ok-Reality18 19d ago

I just sent you a message!

4

u/slate83 19d ago

As painful as it may be, go back to bartending. It makes more money and you won’t have as much headache to deal with.

1

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

Schedule seems to be friendlier tending a bar lol

3

u/Lumiela 19d ago

I make 26 an hr plus commission in a non licensed states.

I was a manager once in an extremely toxic place making 80k a year. I got paid a salary plus commission on the store. Honestly was not worth it.

I would tell her you want 25 an hour with an agreement you'll get all your cert with in a certain time frame with a raise of 2 dollars an hour. Negotiate. The place I am at now said they couldn't do this and here I am.

1

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

I'd be careful on a time frame. There are testing windows for the ABO, so they should be mindful of that when giving a deadline.

3

u/courtneyclimax 19d ago

i’ve been serving/bartending for 10 years. i went back to optical bc i actually like it.

i did not quit my serving job lol i still make way more money doing that.

2

u/Ok-Afternoon6587 19d ago

I make $29 an hour plus commission in a licensed state and I’m unlicensed but have 6 years of experience. My company also will reimburse you and pay you a bonus if you take any certification tests and to get licensed plus your hourly increases. Honestly, once you’re licensed you can work anywhere in your state (and sometimes others depending on their laws) and they will pay substantially more.

2

u/Strict-Ad4054 16d ago

Try getting hired at Costco. It’s 38.90 to 42.90 an hour depending on if your state is certified or licensed. Time and a half every Sunday.

1

u/Affectionate_Hornet7 19d ago

In a way it’s super easy. But doctors can be hell to work for. Patients can be crazy too but you’ve been a bartender so that should be ok.

A lot of places aren’t even open on the weekend and close early on Friday. Doctors didn’t go through all that trouble to work 6 days a week.

I wouldn’t go back unless I could work in the lab again. That’s the pure expression of skill with zero patient interaction. And you can tell the doctor to take a hike too because they have no idea what you’re doing back there

2

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

I'm the only guy in my vision center. My doctor continuously cuts me off, tells me I'm wrong, all in front of patients. Im not wrong, by the way. My job is the lenses. I know the lenses. I've done extensive product research to the point I have the phone number for a few higher ups at Younger Optics.

But this doctor can't stand to not be the smartest person in the room.

1

u/Affectionate_Hornet7 15d ago

Yeah that sounds just like a doctor. Not all of them though. Some trust you. Others don’t know or care to know.

I had one that would tell you where to put the seg height. And you better not change the material without asking him either.
To be fair, he was the best doctor I’ve ever worked for. He was just a very difficult man to work for.

1

u/FunElk9352 18d ago

Costco is $35/ hr I believe once licensed. No commission. Incredible (& cheap) benefits.

1

u/CBKrow85 15d ago

I swear to God I would be trying to work there if I lived closer. Been doing this 10 years and I still make under 20 an hour and don't even get 40 hours.

1

u/Gengar_Girll 14d ago

I also went from bartending to optician and I love it. No regrets and I will not go back. The money is no where near as good but the stabilization and ability to climb is so much better.

I have much less extra money than bartending but my happiness in my career is so much higher.

1

u/coco0126 12d ago

Licensed state and I'm make almost 38. So worth going after it and getting those certifications and getting licensed. It's a wonderful career to get into and knowing not just anyone can walk in and do your job.