LAS VEGAS — Fresh out of college, Dr. Carlos Vareli earns $72,000 a year and pays on $75,000 in education loans.
That salary puts the Tuskeegee University alumnus in line with just 2 percent of the 1,773 2006 graduates who participated
in the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) annual salary and debt survey. When it comes to student loans, Vareli's
balance mirrors the debt of nearly 17 percent of the nation's newest DVMs. According to the study, published in the Oct. 1
issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), 45 percent of his classmates surveyed owe $100,000
or more.
Yet Vareli's good fortune doesn't end here. According to additional AVMA survey results released Oct. 15 in JAVMA, the small
animal practitioner also out-earns his female counterparts. While starting salaries and benefits rose across-the-board, they
increased more for male DVMs. The mean starting salary in 2006 for males in private practice totaled $56,772 while females
went to work for $2,000 less.
Vareli offers no explanation for the inequity: "I think I'm making more than average compensation-wise, and compared to female
graduates, that just doesn't make sense." Overlooked factors
Fast Fact (Source: American Veterinary Medical Association)
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Dr. Michael Reardon, director of admissions for Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine offers a few ideas.
Economics aside, the study, he says, fails to account for intangible factors that might offer insight on why a female graduate
might choose a job. Although the survey reports 28.1 percent of male graduates receive individual retirement account benefits
versus 22.1 percent of female graduates, women in the study might not have held out for more fringe benefits due to flexibility,
location or relationship issues.
"I think the intangibles are one of the things we wrestle with when doing these types of surveys," he says. "What are the
other reasons they took the job, outside of money? There's no reason why women can't earn what men do from an education and
competency standpoint."
Furthermore, the numbers might be skewed based on the salaries of large animal exclusive practitioners, which most often are
men and rank the highest earners with mean starting salaries of $63,351. Nearly 38 percent of the female respondents chose
employment in small animal exclusive practices — compared to 25 percent of male respondents — earning mean starting salaries
of $56,654.
Inequity explanation
Still, male respondents in small animal exclusive practice earned more than their female counterparts by roughly $3,000. Faced
with the apparent inequity, Reardon admits there appears to be some social, possibly inherent, differences between the genders.
Simply put: Men demand more, he says.
"Part of it is women seem to have a harder time asking for more professional compensation," he says. "I don't understand why
because it's a female-dominated pool of employees right now. All the women have to do is hold out for it. It's not like they're
going to find a guy to take the job; they're 85 percent of the graduating class. I just don't think they push as hard as they
can."
Another reason why the study's numbers tilt in mens' favor is more women take part in their spouses' insurance programs, forfeiting
their own and making their salary packages appear less, he adds.
Comparative findings
Dr. Don Klingborg, associate dean for public programs and director of the University of California Davis' (UC-Davis) Veterinary
Medicine Extension Department, says AVMA's results mirror results from a survey he conducted of California practitioners in
the late 1990s, which drills more in-depth than the association's report. While women in their first years out of college
earned less than men, the disparity leveled off after a decade in practice, Klingborg contends. With the number of women in
veterinary medicine statistically insignificant beyond 10 years, only the men were tracked, showing their earnings falling
after 15 years in practice.
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