IN July, CM Research, through
VetsPanel, asked over 1,000
veterinary surgeons
questions related to their income, job
satisfaction, stress
levels, amongst other
topics. A total of 500
vets replied.
The average yearly
income (before tax) for
all the surveyed vets
was £43,016. Half of
the vets earned up to £38,000 with the rest earning more.
The highest yearly income was
£300,000 but that came from a vet
who declared to work 140 hours a
week! On average vets worked 47
hours a week, with 25% claiming to
work 50 or more hours a week.
This year’s incomes also seem to
have stabilised as most vets consider their financial situation
to be equal or better
than last year’s. Only a
third considers it to be
worse. It’s therefore
not a surprise then that
these vets are also the
most stressed.
Overall working
hours are long, with
the average being about 47 hours worked
per week. This, however, does increase
in some cases up to 90 hours a week
(apart from the one doing 140)! When
also taking income into account, then
the hourly pay rate is £18. There are,
however, 9% of vets who earn less
than £10 an hour – but they don’t seem to be very concerned about the
long hours.
While half of vets claimed to be
stressed, this was not due to their long
hours, but rather due to the inadequacy
of the income they received.
Inadequate
While 39% of those who were
completely unstressed said their
income was inadequate, this increased
to 76% amongst those who were very
stressed. And how much is a stress-free
work life worth a year? £85,000 is the
magic number. Earn that much and
you are almost guaranteed to be stress
free!
The high levels of stress are leading
many vets to consider leaving the
profession. Currently, about a third of
vets often think about leaving the
profession while only a quarter never
do.
Stress seems to be the main cause
of this as most of those who do think
frequently about leaving have high
levels of stress. They also work the
longest hours.
Not surprisingly, those earning over
£50,000 a year tend to never think
about leaving the profession.
For more information on this
survey, contact CM Research at
contact@cm-research.com.
