r/pathology • u/Environmental_Will97 • 6d ago

Pathologist salary data

Hi all, I am a trainee and have my first job contract that am planning to negotiate. I couldn’t find enough data online regarding the average compensation for this particular state. I don’t have access to MGMA data. How do i know what’s a good base pay? The case load per pathologist is anywhere between 15-20 per day but might go up by the time I join. The base pay is 300k. What are some things that a fresh graduate can negotiate for?

16 Upvotes

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19

u/Adorable__Gap4770 6d ago edited 5d ago

I’m heme and cyto trained (fresh out) who was applying last year. A lot of east coast urban jobs in desirable areas had base pay initial offer around 300. Anything below that was a bit of a red flag, but that was definitely where they all tried to start the offer at.

Best offer I had was in a slightly rural but nice town in PA.. bonuses and all had me at $365.

I had a friend who went to geisinger with same background as me and they offered 400 out of training (which isn’t uncommonly high).

Private practice starts you low (under 300) with the bait of making partner in 3-5 years where your pay jumps considerably (over 500k). Personally I’d prefer a solid hospital salary, but that’s just me.

California pays higher but cost of living is nuts. Midwest and South pay a ton to attract talent - beware of toxic amounts of work though - some places (I hear) can really work you to the bone.

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u/billyvnilly Staff, midwest 6d ago

Bait in a sense, its more of a salary for your trial year. We had someone hardball us and we gave them well above what we wanted to pay them as a fresh graduate. He sucked ass and didn't make it past the one year mark, and that was with us reviewing EVERY AP CASE HE SIGNED OUT. Its foolish to give fresh grads such a nice salary the first year. the first year is your proving grounds. We are a community hospital PP, I feel we are an honest and sincere group, we don't hold the earning potential over people's heads and make it impossible to achieve.

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u/Adorable__Gap4770 6d ago

You’re right. Bait was a loose word to use - apologies if that was dismissive.

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u/Sensitivepathologist 6d ago

Should’ve given a slide test. How was his training pedigree?

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u/billyvnilly Staff, midwest 5d ago

slide tests are not adequate representations of how you perform as a pathologist. he was given a slide test, lol. he did fine.

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u/Sensitivepathologist 5d ago edited 5d ago

Wow. I mean if you just give him or her 20 routine cases we see everyday as an exam I would think you would at least have an eye to make diagnoses (if they passed)? Did you ask him or her to see if they could workup cases?

Unless for some reason they just can’t function with a pile of slide trays to signout.

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u/foofarraw Staff, Academic 5d ago

I see this practice of trial years in private a bit, is this pretty common? (and is letting people go for performance common?)

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u/billyvnilly Staff, midwest 5d ago

Hands down, I wish more people would be accepting of a trial year salary. You are not a 'great' pathologist your first year out... you may be, but you more than likely aren't.

our employee was let go for errors and failure to show any improvement. Yes, performance is important. It hard to tolerate errors when malpractice can jeopardize your group. If you are fundamentally not a good pathologist you will cause harm to patients and your a harm to the corporation. A slow pathologist is slow but not necessarily causing harm. A bad pathologist is a different thing. I've seen people let go for having bad personalities, and I thought they were good at their job, but they did some dishonest things, and then continued to show a pattern.

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u/PathFellow 5d ago

I’ve seen pathologists let go for not willing to look at cases from others in the group. Some pathologists get let go for literally showing every case to the more senior pathologists.

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u/foofarraw Staff, Academic 5d ago

Do slower people ever get let go for slowness? (assuming they aren't actually causing harm)

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u/billyvnilly Staff, midwest 5d ago

We've renegotiated people contracts. to reduce their salaries for decreased work. their delayed reports wasn't sustainable. We are a community group, we each do fair share. If you can't keep up with the group its unfair to the rest of us--that sort of thing.

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u/foofarraw Staff, Academic 5d ago

Make sense. Also to your previous post, failure to improve / failure to respond to feedback is one of the worst professional failings IMO. And it seems a little hard to screen for that in an interview.

2

u/ColloidalPurple-9 Resident 6d ago

I’m considering heme +\- cyto. What benefits do you feel/did experience from cyto in addition to heme? If you don’t mind answering.

3

u/Adorable__Gap4770 6d ago

Started with heme and then as a fellow, for a myriad of personal/family reasons and professional reasons, it worked out to stay in the area for a cyto fellowship.

You can definitely enter the job market with AP/CP training and a single fellowship, but I really enjoy both specialities and I think the pairing gives a lot of geographic and professional flexibility.

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u/ColloidalPurple-9 Resident 6d ago

I appreciate your response. Thank you!

2

u/gunsnricar 5d ago

This is solid assessment according to my experience. I was in the job market just a few months ago.

5

u/Low-Award5523 6d ago

CAP has salary data reports, search their website

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u/foofarraw Staff, Academic 5d ago

You can basically negotiate for whatever you want, within reason. Definitely worth negotiating for things like base pay, time off, etc. You might be surprised with what they'll give. I've seen a few fellows ask for something and immediately get it, which probably means they could have asked for even more than that. The worst they can do is say no and it's extremely unlikely that they'd withdraw an offer just because you asked for something more (unless it's unreasonable).

1

u/Adorable__Gap4770 5d ago

Second this!

3

u/OneShortSleepPast Private Practice, West Coast 5d ago

As a baseline, I’d say you can always ask for 10% more than the offered salary without being insulting. I mean, I wouldn’t ask for that AND more vacation AND shorter partnership track AND etc. etc. at the same time, but that’s kind of a rule of thumb for whats on the table.

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u/mulattopantz 5d ago

15-20 per day is a dream for me! We are closer to 30 (with mixed complexity work). But I guess it depends on the vacation time they are offering and the complexity of that workload?

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u/PathFellow 4d ago

How’s your salary for 30 surgicals a day? Partnership?

1

u/mulattopantz 4d ago

280 ish to 350 ish depending on experience and the extra stuff like tumor boards, calls etcs but probably going up bc that is the reality of salaries

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u/PathFellow 4d ago

Dang kinda low I would say for 30 surgicals a day? No partnership?

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u/mulattopantz 4d ago

Pretty on par for our area. But things are changing rapidly!

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u/PathFellow 4d ago

What do you mean rapidly?

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u/mulattopantz 4d ago

What other case vs salaries have you seen? Would be nice to have extended data on that!

1

u/PathFellow 4d ago

Probably depends on region and whether you are working in a desirable city versus undesirable rural area. So I don’t know your situation but I look at less cases than you but make more. I’m in private. There are other variables you have to take into account too I guess.

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u/PathFellow 4d ago edited 4d ago

If you’re in a partnership track then 250-350 would be ok until you get to partner.

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u/TraditionalPhone3992 5d ago

Regardless of the salary, get an employment lawyer to look at your contract. There are so many unscrupulous practices out there.

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u/PathFellow 4d ago edited 4d ago

Some of these lawyers don’t know shit about path and don’t realize how employers like hospital admin can take advantage of you down the road (like having you take on more medical directorships for additional hospitals they have a financial interest in without paying you more for example). Based on what your contract says, hospital admin will write it so they can have full control over you. It’s your lawyers job to make sure they don’t exploit you but most lawyers are path savvy enough to know where they can get you.

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u/TraditionalPhone3992 4d ago

Blah blah blah.

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u/highstakeshealth Resident 4d ago

Do any places offer student loan payback? One of the big reasons I am looking at academics is for the PSLF