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We Love What We Do, But Not What We're Paid

1/20/2015

4 Comments

 
The NATA recently released their 2014 salary survey results with some surprising figures. This survey is intended to provide data to their members in order to better negotiate with current and prospective employers. The results showed that member’s average income with a Bachelor’s degree was $49,719, up from the 2011 average income of $46,176, which if you take inflation into consideration, is only a 2.3% increase over a 3 year time span. As a young professional entering the profession, money has never been at the root of my career choice. I chose the profession of athletic training because I wanted to help individuals get back to what they love to do. But this did lead me to think about to what extent do athletic training professionals sacrifice pay to do what we love?

There are many employers that are willing to pay athletic trainers low salaries because they know there are athletic trainers who are willing to accept a lower paying salary in order to do what they enjoy or work in a particular setting. Accepting jobs that pay us for less than what we are worth ultimately hurts our profession.  It also hurts our athletic training colleagues who are searching for a job and those looking to negotiate a higher salary.  Employers not only utilize data from the NATA Salary Survey, but they also use organizational data to determine what ‘fair pay’ is within their individual organization. If we continue to accept lower paying jobs, we are not only lowering our local organizational value, but also our national value.  This hurts both the colleagues we work with every day and those athletic trainers who we may have never met.

As practicing athletic trainers, we are responsible for the growth and sustainability of our profession; not the NATA, not the BOC, and not CAATE.  All of these organizations support causes important to the profession, but ultimately the buck stops with each and every single one of us.  If we fail to make to make athletic training an appealing profession for the best and brightest aspiring professional (part of which includes salary), athletic training will fail to meet our potential in the modern healthcare community.

In 2010, Yahoo Financial listed athletic training as the 4th worst paying college degrees. This is interesting, considering that the athletic training job outlook for 2012-2022 is expected to rise by 19%, faster than average when compared to all other professions. These two data points demonstrates something we all know: money isn’t the main reason we chose to enter the profession.  However if you attend any professional meeting in athletic training, you will most certainly hear complaints that athletic trainers are underpaid and overworked. It is a great to see the average salary on the rise, but we still are not adequately compensated for our skills or time. The most critical mistake that we can make is to sell ourselves short. The next time you find yourself in the position to negotiate your salary, make sure your employer recognizes your value and set the bar high. 

-Ethan Roberts, LAT, ATC

4 Comments
cassandra henney
1/21/2015 12:23:26 am

I have been saying this for over 20 years. If we work for free, as many do covering community events, conditioning training, etc, we essentially tell people the work we do is not worth compensation. The education and experience cost us money to acquire, why shouldn't they merit compensation at a comparable rate? Why aren't our colleges and universities requiring students to do internships require them to be paid or given a stipend for the amount of work they do? This would help set the standard. And as individuals, we need to refuse to work for free, even when we love it, because ultimately YOU are setting the value of your work.

Reply
Ethan Roberts
1/22/2015 12:30:39 pm

Well put, Cassandra. Until we, as a profession, value our time and expertise, others will take advantage of us. It is important for us to advocate for ourselves and seek the compensation we deserve for the work we do. We may love what we do, but we should also be compensated comparably for the time, effort, and skill we bring to our work. I liked your comment about requiring internships to pay their interns. I agree this would be a great way to start getting the next generation of athletic trainers to understand that their time and expertise is of value and worth a lot to a community.

Reply
Mike Hopper, MS, ATC link
1/30/2015 08:49:25 am

I am so tired of seeing groups such as the NCAA requesting for Athletic Trainers to volunteer to work national events. But time and time again, you see it. Wrestling every year is looking for volunteers. NO!

Reply
Ethan Roberts
2/2/2015 07:27:37 am

Great point, Mike. It is difficult for us as a profession to advocate not working for free, when someone that is a power figure like the NCAA is calling for athletic trainers to volunteer at the same time. I understand that this change will not happen overnight, but maybe this could be a start in the right direction. Part of the issue is that athletic trainers have a natural instinct to help out whenever needed and in any way possible. Until others can see the harm they cause the profession by asking for volunteers, this issue will never be resolved. It takes individuals like you and I to advocate, not only that this is harmful to the profession, but also the reasons why.

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    We are graduate students in the Indiana State University Post-Professional Athletic Training Education Program.

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