The Question of Money

How does your practice pay its staff?

Today, salary is just part of most offices’ pay structure. Compensation can also encompass everything from bonuses and raises to a lot more.

Here, we dig into this topic by taking a look at industry norms and also sharing some of what your peers are doing.

The Big Picture

Licensure for opticians is required by just over 40% of states. Though most states don’t have any sort of formal apprentice program, the National Federation of Opticianry Schools is dedicated to both maintaining high standards and working to encourage the opening of more schools of opticianry.

Competitive salaries help. ZipRecruiter reports that the national average for licensed opticians is $50,190. According to Talent.com, entry-level salaries start at $31,200, with the median for more experienced staffers earning up to $64,543.

New Jersey comes out on top with licensed opticians there averaging $53,753 ($25.84 an hour). Wisconsin and Wyoming don’t fall far behind. At the bottom, West Virginia licensed opticians average $36,665 ($17.63 an hour), and Arkansas opticians make only slightly more at $39,046 annually and $18.77 hourly.

Calculating Raises

Tying compensation to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is increasingly popular. According to CNBC, “While the 2022 COLA adjustment was 5.9%, inflation data showed costs grew at a faster pace for much of last year. Now, the 8.7% COLA for 2023 is outpacing current inflation, with a 5.8% increase over the past 12 months for the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.”

Another approach is adhering to a minimum-base-pay structure. One example? Walmart announced plans in June to “invest in raises for more than 4,000 opticians, with a goal of raising the position’s average wage to more than $22.50 an hour.”

The Business of Bonuses

It’s all about sales-focused compensation at Buena Vista Optical in Chicago. “We have opted to create daily group sales tiers for everyone to reach together,” says Diana Canto-Sims, O.D. “That way, the staff encourages each other and helps close the sale for their fellow opticians. It’s a very supportive way to increase revenue.”

There are many bases for building bonuses. At Williams Group in Lincoln, NE, for example, Bess Ogden suggests considering “wellness or dependability bonuses—a monthly reward for showing up when scheduled to work.”

Tiers + Grids

Dr. Tavel, with 24 locations in Indiana, has created what general manager Kent Iglehart calls “a clear ladder and hierarchy, including an internal certification program. We’ve tried to be methodical about bringing people on at reasonable market-based numbers and to be fair across the board.” What else?

➤ EXPERIENCE. “We hire a lot of people who don’t have experience, and we call them opticians in training.”

➤ SIGNING. “We have a referral program, but we don’t do signing bonuses at the staff level. We think it’s unfair to pay new people something others who have been loyal are not getting.”

➤ TIERS. “We have a clear ladder and hierarchy that, as people attain different levels of certification, have different tenure, or are bilingual, they can earn additional money. We make it very clear how you can move through that progression.”

➤ KPIs. “Our opticians have bonus opportunities based on their key performance indicators that are based solely on their individual effort. It’s a very formal program that indicates what they have to hit to attain those bonuses, and they are paid monthly.”

➤ ATTAINMENT LEVELS. “We used to bonus everyone based on the performance of the entire office, but we found it didn’t really influence behavior, which we found surprising. Now, we do levels of functional attainment…like if you pass various levels of certification internally, you move to a different job level. We also offer additional pay based on tenure.”

While each practice’s situation and staffing structure will be different, experts agree that it’s important to follow the lead of businesses like these and make sure that a clearly defined hiring and bonus structure is in place.