There is a gender pay gap in optometry, findings from Jobson Optical Research’s 2014 ECP Compensation Study suggest. Male optometrists responding to this study reported rather significantly higher compensations than their female counterparts. Male optometrists who are employees reported an average compensation of $114,078 compared to $100,536 for females. The 2013 compensation reported that males who are owner/partners also showed gaps; $147,374 for males and $137,171 for females.
Click HERE to purchase Jobson Optical Research’s 2014 ECP Compensation Study.
Data from Jobson Optical Research’s 2014 ECP Compensation Study shows that male owner ODs make $33,000 more than male employee ODs per year. For females the numbers are even higher. A female owner OD makes $36,000 more than a female employee OD per year.
What does that work out to over the course of a 40-year career? For the males, the employer OD will make $1.3 million more than the employee. That’s simply taking the difference times 40 years ($33,269 x 40 = $1,331,840). The female OD employer makes $1,465,400 more than the female employee ($36,635 x 40) over 40 years.
The difference in payment between the employer and the employee does not take into account what could be done with the money. Investing the difference in a modest investment using the principle of the time value of money turns a great investment strategy into an amazing difference.
Our lesson for this week is to review your investment strategies. At a minimum, you should be investing at least 10 percent of your income every year into one or more of the three investment categories: real estate, stocks and bonds and owning businesses.
Do you own your own practice? That is the first place to start. Owning your practice is owning a business. The profit your practice produces is passive income.
Do you own the building your practice sits in? That is the second place to go to. Owning your practice building is owning real estate that brings you a profit. That profit is passive income.
Do you own stocks and bonds that are worth more this year than last? If so, then that is also passive income.
When your passive income meets or exceeds your expenses, then you’ve reached financial freedom. The goal of 21st century investing is to reach financial freedom. Start today by having your financial counselor help you calculate how close (or far) you are from reaching financial freedom. Once you know this number, then you can make better strategic moves to get to financial freedom sooner rather than later.
Put a plan in place this week to get to financial freedom.
