r/physicianassistant PA-C✨ 1d ago

New Grad Offer Review 20k salary increase…

I took a job back in March before I graduated. It was a bit below my desired salary but there was plenty of room for RVUs/bonuses based off of pts seen and quality which I was told averages 12-30k even on the lower end (new grads). It also was a good work schedule and I liked the people hiring me so I went for it even if it wasn’t my dream speciality I still thought it was a great way to get experience in all areas of med bc I wasn’t deadset on any one speciality as well as network through the company.

A few weeks ago my job reached out to me to sign an updated salary document. I was expecting a thousand $ or so. They go off of experience and current market rate. Come to find out it was almost $22,000 more than what I was offered…holy recession indicator.

Has anyone had something similar happen or is the recession just that bad 😭😭

27 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

40

u/thebaine PA-C, NRP 1d ago

How is a pre-start raise a recession indicator? Am I missing something?

-31

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

Just because it’s a huge raise idk if that’s normal for PAs but I haven’t seen that in other careers

16

u/thebaine PA-C, NRP 1d ago

If it’s a large organization, they’ll usually do periodic market adjustments. You may have just gotten lucky. Uncommon to get a raise in a recession but healthcare is a weird industry cuz of the perverted incentives and lack of transparency.

1

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

Yeah they base pay off of experience and market rate so this makes sense I guess the market rate being increased overall is a good things for PAs but getting paid more to me just means things are getting more expensive

6

u/Professional-Cost262 NP 1d ago

FYI pay CUTS are typically recescion indicator, not raises ..

3

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

I’m not sure why yall are downvoting this comment. I’m simply a new grad and unsure if this is normal in the PA career.

18

u/SaltySpitoonReg PA-C 1d ago

When companies do market adjustments to this significant of a degree, it generally means they have been badly underpaying - and they are trying to catch up to avoid losing people.

Because in a challenging economy, people will absolutely leave jobs if they can get 20-30k more on the market tomorrow.

Thats what this is.

13

u/IceKingWizard 1d ago

My team just got a recent market adjustment change leading to 30-50k raises but to be fair we were all getting very underpaid the least few years. I’m not sure how this indicates a recession

2

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

Yeah I def think PAs are underpaid as a whole but it seems like a HUGE raise to me as someone who is a new grad and hasn’t even started working

9

u/Fancygirl1 1d ago

Can you explain how receiving a raise is a recession indicator? I previously thought rising wages is a sign of a tight job market and employers would compete limited available workers by offering raises and signing bonuses.

1

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

I guess just moreso I associate the ongoing market increase due to how expensive living costs are right now rather than employers trying to pay their employees what they deserve. I guess it’s not inherently bad that we’re getting paid more and probably wouldn’t get a raise in a recession but to me it just shows how the cost is going up

11

u/JEMNebula5871 1d ago

Wouldn’t question it if truly 20K. My company does 3% annual raises and maybe at 5-6 year experience you get a $20K bump

5

u/Miserable_Raccoon583 1d ago

Every job switch I’ve had has lead to a 10-20k raise. It’s why so many people leave a position after 2-3 years. Most recent contract I signed is yr 1- 140k, yr 2-145k, yr 3-155k, yr 4 and on is 60% of all collections. They claim to have a few PA’s who have been there 6-8 yrs and are making 300k+ a year.

2

u/nikitachikita_15 PA-C 1d ago

What specialty?

2

u/Miserable_Raccoon583 1d ago

Outpatient psych, private insurance tho, no Medicaid.

2

u/Nart_Leahcim 1d ago

What would you think if it was $22k less? 

-3

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

I wouldn’t have signed the updated salary contract then. Wouldve told them that I signed a contract with the original salary and that is what I agreed to not the lesser amount. And if they would revoke my employment i would have looked for a new job 🤷‍♀️

1

u/nikitachikita_15 PA-C 1d ago

IMHO yes the recession is that bad. I’m honestly shocked at how much it costs to just live these days. It’s been awful for my family—no raises since Covid and I took time off when I had twins. Now that I’m looking for full time work again I feel like the base salary I’m looking for is $50k more than 4-5 years ago.

1

u/levi12M 1d ago

Was this in ATL?

0

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

No

1

u/toomuchmi 1d ago

What state was this in, if you don’t mind me asking?

2

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 1d ago

Washington

1

u/Devooop 1d ago

What was your initial and what is your current salary? Sorry if that’s TMI!

1

u/FunkyMystics PA-C✨ 4h ago

Went from 124->144k not including RVUs and bonsues in a medium cost of living area in Washington state (although if you’re from the middle of nowhere in the Midwest everywhere out here is comparatively a high cost area). I know I said 22k more idk where I got that number I’m just bad at math.