Salary Reviews / Increases
Since the Covid pandemic salaries within the Veterinary Industry have significantly increased. An average salary now for a newly graduated Veterinary Surgeon with less than two years' experience is around £35,000 per annum. In 2023 the salary trends are still rising and one of the main reasons for this is the demand for Veterinary care and the shortage of Vets and Nurses within the whole industry. Trends are now showing that salaries are rising between 8% - 12% in 2023.
The salary range for Vets and Veterinary Nurses is large and can be dependent on many factors ranging from the amount of years' experience they have, whether the Vet small, farm, equine or mixed, post graduate qualifications, types of work experience, areas of expertise, current salaries within the practice, the package offered (such as bonus schemes, certificate funding, OOH, relocation funding etc), clinical responsibility, leadership requirements within the role, teaching or mentoring requirements in the role, overtime required, the location of the practice and whether the clinic is corporate or private. The list can go on and on.
As an example, a Vet with 5 years post qualification will earn on average a salary of £40,000 - £45,000 per annum but this could be increased dependent on post graduate qualifications such as certificates or whether they are working within a large corporate hospital practice or a small independent practice. It would also be dependent on what is expected of them within the role as well as the location of the practice. We have seen daily locum rates increase to up to £600 per day and Locum Nurse rise up to £26 - £28 per hour. This has started to come down now, but again daily and hourly rates are dependent on a range of factors similarly to permanent salaries again this is hugely due to the demand for Veterinary professionals within practice and the national shortage.
“The Society for Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) have now published the figures from their 2022/2023 salary review”.
- For all full-time vets, the median salary package has risen from £48,325 to £52,693 compared to last year (i.e., by 9 percent). This was true for most regions except London where it rose to £68,950 (by 47 percent)
- New graduate salary package has increased by 3 percent to £33,600. New grad basic salary has increased by a similar percentage to £32,000.
- For nurses, for all QVNSs, median salary package increased from £27,000 to £30,500 (by 13 percent). For student nurses this figure was 4 percent
- For locum vets, daily median rates increased by 21 percent to £425. Their hourly rates increased by 22 percent to £50. Night working locums increased by 50 percent to £750/night”.
- For Locum nurses, median daily rates increased by 38 percent to £199 and hourly rates increased by 18 percent to £23.50.
Ref: https://www.veterinary-practice.com/2023/spvs-2022-3-salary-survey-report