The College of Optometrists

Whats the going rate for 1 year post registration?

NQ's are having a hard time is it the same for the slightly more experienced?

little as possible seems to be the game fo r most employers, the loyalty of some optoms has always been a bit doubtful and perhaps that's why employers are so relectant to offer car's etc. when they could be lumbered with them.

Q is how good are you?

Poor one year qualified £26k

Avg one year qualified £28k

Excellent o y qualified £35k

Any help??

Depends where you live as well.

something needs to change here. we cant have the multiples forcing degradation of standards through time pressures while being able to threaten job security especially with all the litigation around these days.

HOW DID THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ONLY CONCERNED WITH PROFITS PROFITS PROFITS END UP HOLDING ALL THE CARDS??

It seems we all pay the price.

Because they are the majority of the employers and there is now no longer a shortage of optometrists, which put artificial pressure on the salaries the multiples had to pay to recruit in the past.

As an employer I am happy to see salaries coming down, as an employee I'm not happy at all, but then I always was two faced!

Sadly, I can't see how this is going to change, given the numbers of optometrists currently being trained. Are we going to end up going down the road of people using their optometry degree to go and get graduate jobs completely out of the area of optometry? This seems to have already happened to an extent in medicine.

It almost makes you thankful for agenda for change...(but not quite!!)

Competition is not such a bad thing. It pushes standards up. I heard that over 100 optometrists who have graduated this year have not as yet registered for the pre-reg year. I wonder why? Is their enough jobs out there for them? Has the market saturated? Or has the move to the new Pre-reg system caused a lull in supervisors taking on pre-reggies? Furthermore, and in resposne to the orgiginal question, what is the definition of a 'poor,' 'average' or 'excellent' NQ anyway? the number of specatacles prescribed?

nice to see some do's earning the same or more than some optoms.Do's work very hard and are fed up seeing optoms sitting in the test room reading the paper while most do's run around trying to get all the work done.

Ooh, Martin, that must have built up over a very long time!

Please remember - a DO who makes a mistake, orders a remake or a refund. An Optom who makes a mistake can kiss his registration goodbye.

There, now that had been building up in me for a long time too!

Lets be honest here. Theres something wrong when a DO is earning more than an optom. Yes a D.O probably makes the practice a lot of money but optometrists have a greater wealth of knowledge and more responsibility as alluded to by ttm.

personally I'd rather be helping mr x choose his frame than making important clinical decisions regarding the health (or otherwise) of mr X's eyes.

Since when, in a capitalist system did responsibilty equal higher pay, this is exactly the sort of mentality that has got the older optoms into such a mess.

Nurses dont earn much ?

Sorry but the real world has just invaded optics!!

nurses do not earn as much as doctors precisely because they do not have the same level of responsibility.

Higher levels of responsibility are almost always linked to higher levels of pay, even in a "capitalist system" because otherwise no-one would be daft enough to take on the additional responsibility.

Nicola the fact that you even ask means you aint gonna get much.

You shoudln't be asking you should be playing potential employers against each other, let them bid for you.

personally i think post 2 year qualification, open an out of town, high footfall practice. u'll be far better off. well thats the idea anyway.

too right finkle

optics has now become a retail business and has to be run like one. Just think of a locum charging high rates, is very clinical and has very poor conversion rates. He/She would not last long and quite right too. I have seen do's converting no rx change px's to a new purchase just by snagging their old specs for scratches and age. If a px takes the time to have a check then there must be an element of them wanting a new pair. i also being an employer am glad to see the trend reversing in this very competitive market.

TOTALLY AGREE WITH HAR17H, IF U ARE GOOD AT YOUR JOB U SHOULD BE REWARDED ACCORDINGLY. I HAVE NEVER EVER WORKED LESS THAN 250 W DAY AND 300-350 WK END AND HAVE NOT WORKED LESS THAN 6 DAYS A WK FROM THE LAST 13 MONTHS.

SO NEWLY QULAIFIED PEOPLE DO NOT GET TRAPPED BY THE CLEVER DIRECTORS

Sorry,

I must be missing something ljc, in a capatalist system the people who get rewarded often dont take any responsibility, what about stockbrokers or property developers.

A mate of mine runs car accessorie shops and fits car stereos he started with nothing and is now buying an 8million pound property development site.

If you get to own property and rent it out you can retire early how much responsibilty in that.

sorry but you really dont understand the economic system you are living in!

By the way ljc have you noticed that each specsavers branch is an individual ltd company, why do you think this is ?

So DP can avoid responsibility in a seriouse case agaianst any single branch!

Money and income does NOT equal responsibility

finkle,

I wonder if you are confusing "salary" with "business".

I think if SOMEONE ELSE is paying YOU, then the salary will reflect your level of responsibility, of your ability to generate sales.

If YOU are the one doing the PAYING, then whether your business is car stereo's or properety development or whatever, it's YOUR MONEY to risk as you see fit, and you get whatever rewards you can. Maybe the business will go bust, maybe it'll make a mint - up to you!

Btw, S.S. branches are limited companies because they are owned by the O.O's, D.O.'s and other optical professionals who work in them. We all pay our Insurance to be protected against serious cases, not just D.P. (no, I'm not in S.S atall!).

Whoah, my ears are ringing!

of course responsibility is related to renumeration.

Whatever other criteria you want to use i.e entry requirements etc optoms deserve to be paid more than the nq's are getting.

The problem is everyone wants to quantify an optom in terms of their commercial value. While this is important in maintaining profits, the clinical nature of eye tests and the duty of care the patient deserves mean optoms should be protected from wages falling below a ridiculous level as professional standards will suffer.

I would love to hear from all the locums who are trying to justofy their fees on clinical responsibility, ha ha.

Paid by the test doing 25 tests per day, Ihr for lunch does not leave much time per test.

The truth is in the good old days they got there heads down and went to the highest bidder ie SSavers, and they earned a fortune.

So dont be suprised when your jobs dry up.

I am sorry for the genuine locums, i guess life is not fair.

HAR17H,

I was merely interested in the jump in salary for 1 years experience! Not because i am interested for myself, but beacuse i was trying to work out if all the NQ optoms will settle for reduced salary in the knowlege that they will get better salarys in a years time.

I resent the intonation that i asked because i needed fodder to bargain with a prospective emoployer.

Anyway its an interesting subject and definitely an emotive one!