Determinants of Salary for Veterinarians Employed in the Field of Shelter Medicine in the United States.

Despite recent growth in the field of shelter medicine, there is a paucity of wage data available. Understanding determinants of salary is helpful for new graduates deciding on a career path as well as employees and employers with regard to budgeting, professional development, and negotiations. An anonymous online survey was distributed via commercial survey platform to shelter veterinarians. Salary was analyzed using multiple linear regression, Kruskall-Wallis equality-of-populations rank-test, and Conover-Iman pairwise comparison. Of the 219 unique respondents, 197 worked as shelter veterinarians, with 157 full-time and 40 part-time. Fifteen respondents worked in academia, and 7 respondents worked in shelter leadership. Full-time shelter veterinarians had a median income of $92,000 [$78,000-110,000], which is the same as the median salary reported for all veterinarians by the AVMA in 2018. Salary depended on years of shelter experience (P = .004), supervision of other veterinarians (P = .015), region (Southwest, P = .010, Mideast, P = .010, and Far West, P = .002) and size of the metropolitan area (>1 million, P = .001 and <250,000, P = .011). Part-time veterinarians had a median income of $60,000 [$44,000-84,000]. The only variable predictive of salary was hours worked, with part-time veterinarians paid a median of $48 [36-66] per hour. Academic veterinarians had a median income of $108,000 [90,000-120,000]. For academics, title (assistant professor, P <.0001 and professor, P = .001), PhD (P = .010), and master's (P= .001) predicted salary. Veterinarians working in leadership positions had a median income of $120,000 [110,000-198,000], and no variable was significant. Veterinarians employed in academia and leadership had a higher salary than veterinarians employed in the shelter. There are predictors of salary for shelter medicine veterinarians, which will help both potential employers and employees, determine reasonable salaries when budgeting, negotiating, or planning personal development.