CPO Salary discernment

CPO Salary discernment

Peter Gelinas, CPO

Dear David M. Puckett, CPO,
 
Thank you very much for this timely piece! I'm planning a return to practice
after a family leave for 3 years! Reasons affecting my leave included the
birth of a third preschool aged child, lapses in personal health complicated by
job related stress and industry hygiene, excess on-call without flextime, and
 a spouse earning about 130% of my salary in 40 hours! At this time, I'm
faced with the complex formulations in discerning my proper salary level for
specific regions.
 
I recently found information to cross-reference this with. AOPA's web site
under Employment Opportunities posts the 2004 AOPA Operating Performance &
Compensation Report For an ABC-Certified orthotist/prosthetist, the average
salary is $91,452 (average of 15 years experience). I formulated this with The
average salary for a non-certified, licensed orthotist / prosthetist is
$56,040 (average of seven years experience) ... and another factor of my years of
experiences (11 years practicing board eligible prosthetist orthotist, 9
years practice with a CO and 5-6 years in practicing with a CPO) Are you still
with me? I then took the combined average of these two indicators (15 yrs. + 7
yrs. / half = 10.5 yrs. experience) and ($91,452 + $56,040 / half = $73,746)
suggesting that there scientific study might value my 11 years experiences
to be marketable at $73,746/yr.
I received an oandp.com-Listserve post of responses to the CPO Position:
Hours and Salary survey. Though the 9/4/06 L-Serve post <Email Address Redacted>
(mailto:<Email Address Redacted>) wasn't scientific, I deduced an avg. of
$77,143 /yr. out of 7 comparable CPO non-management reports. I've decided that his
findings averaged with my deductions from AOPA yield $75,444 / yr. for a CPO
with 5+ years of certified(CPO) experience working about 45 hours on salary.
 
Formulation isn’t cut and dried of course. Many factors must be weighed to
determine ones salary within a range. An average doesn't tell all.
* There’s regional cost of living, I.e., full serve reg. gas is lowest at
$2.52 / gal here in NJ! … But housing costs are slightly high. Heating costs
are moderate…
Monster.com has a tool for comparing regional costs of living.
* Annual cost of living increases should be applied to salaries to track
inflation. In macroeconomics I learned that inflation averaged 7 to 8% / yr.
last century. In the P&O industry, I'd guess that cost of living increases
average 2% per year if that. This difference may partly explain our nations
enablement of skyrocketing, outlandish CEO salaries with bonuses. (and why my
wife's nursing union is on strike.) Even bankers offer 5% APR/APY on CD rates....
only slightly less than the inflation rate and profoundly less than some
self obsessed CEO's bulging growth rates!
* CPO salaries should be higher for more hours burned on the road and for
typically high stress factors and hazards of the field, i.e., airborne
particulates.
* Key Performance Indicators (KPI) can't be ignored, I.e., Accounts billable
/ collectibles in bottom line dollars generated, relative to percentage
prosthetic vs. orthotic patient load. Sounds contrary to patient care, but
business is business, and it influences progress at all levels.
* Existance of an incentive plan.
* Level of state of the art training acquired and utilized.
* Specialist or general practitioner. My spouse earns significantly more
than I in 40 hours as a pediatric ICU nurse. Presumably, a CPO who is regional
myoelectric specialist would be at the high end of our pay scales.
* Number of years of practice cumulative as Board Eligible, Certified and or
Licensed.
* On call duties with a pager? Carrying a pager should incur compensation
even when one isn't called to duty.
* Specific benefits, especially paid vacation time, and potential to earn
greater benefits over time.
* Hours per week expected to work vs. actual hours worked.
Our time is worth what we and others think it is worth. Keeping a balance of
personal time against work demands is what makes a CPO's job worth it or
not. You are free to quote me on these thoughts. Good luck to all and thanks
again for sharing your posts!
Peter D. Gelinas, CPO, LPO



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