Dispensing Frontiers
Offering Fair Compensation
How much should you be paying your optician?

BY LEONA MEDITZ 

To attract and keep good people on your staff, you have to offer fair and reasonable salaries. Here, I'll present some guidelines for optician salaries and some advice about when to offer a raise. (Note: These figures are based on my experience hiring for practices across the nation. Your practice situation or the economic climate in your area may call for adjustments up or down.)

CREDENTIALS, RESPONSIBILITIES, EXPERIENCE

Technically, optical staff members aren't opticians until they've either been certified as a result of passing the American Board of Opticianry (ABO) exam, or granted state licensure. Because these are accepted benchmarks of optical skill, I recommend employing at least one credentialed optician.

State licensure typically brings a higher salary than certification. ABO-certified opticians earn an average of $35,000 per year; state-licensed opticians earn an average of $40,000. However, salary should also be affected by the level of responsibility your optician carries, which may range from simply fitting and delivering glasses to managing staff members and/or product, and by the amount of experience he brings to the job. For example:

• A certified optician responsible for managing product but with no staff to manage will probably expect between $35,000 and $50,000, depending on the size of the practice and whether he's also state-licensed.
• Credentialed opticians managing one or two staff as well as product normally earn $40,000 to $50,000, depending on their management experience.
• Licensed opticians who manage five to seven staff members in addition to product earn as much as $70,000.

	ILLUSTRATION: AMY WUMMER

WHEN SHOULD YOU OFFER A RAISE?

To decide whether giving your optical staff raises is appropriate, compile a profit-and-loss statement for your optical as a stand-alone business. If optical staff compensation (including taxes and medical benefits) is greater than 20% of gross optical sales, your delivery system isn't productive enough. Instead of offering raises or adding more staff, restructure your delivery system and/or provide optical training to increase productivity.

On the other hand, if optical staff compensation is less than 20% of gross optical sales, check your productivity during the past quarter:

• If more than 5% of patients seen in the optical have registered technical complaints, your staff may need training.
• If more than 5% of patients complain about service, hire another person instead of giving the existing staff raises.
• If less than 5% of patients seen in the optical complain, and the dispensary is operating smoothly, increase staff compensation to 20% of gross optical sales. Your staff is worth every penny.

To maintain dispensary profitability, increases in base salary should occur as sales increase, so that staff compensation stays below 20%.

WHAT ABOUT BONUSES?

Opticians are accustomed to receiving commissions, or "spiffs," for selling a particular product, such as $5 for each anti-reflective coating sold. However, spiffs may motivate your optician to sell products for the spiff instead of matching products to patients' needs.

Instead, tie commissions to increases in net profit. By doing this, you're partnering with your optician to keep costs down while increasing sales, which is the true challenge for any business.

Three percent of net optical profit is a common commission. (This may mean sharing profit-and-loss numbers with your optician, but the result will be a system that's fair for both of you.)

RIGHT ON THE MONEY

By offering a fair salary with appropriate bonuses and raises, you'll help attract and keep the kind of skilled individuals your optical needs to be profitable and keep patients happy.

For more information about professional buyer training, e-mail Leona Meditz at leona@rollinm.com  or visit her new Web site at www.mmgmnt.com.