The Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) has published its 2014 Salaries Survey which showed that the gender pay gap has closed from 15% last year to 10.8% this.

However, the association notes that this is still slightly higher than the gap reported for all professions in the UK, so there remains work to be done.

The survey, which is the largest of its kind and drew responses from 1,878 vets, nurses, practice managers and receptionists also found that:

• Salary packages varied from £31,150 for newly qualified vets to £69,021 for vets qualified for more than 20 years.
• Salary changes ranged from a decrease of 9.2% for those qualified for 10 years, vs newly qualified who were up 0.5% on last year, and those qualified more than 20 years, who saw an increase of a massive 11.9%.
• Hourly rates ranged from £16.30 for new graduates to £34.61 for the most experienced vets.
• Vets in small animal practice saw a 0.4% increase in media salary to £41,148.
• Equine vets salaries rose by 0.5% to a median of £43,000.
• Mixed practice vets saw an increase of 5% to £41,176.
• Large animal vets salaries increased by 7.2% to £44,142.
• Vets in industry earned £59,106, down from £69,596.
• Academic and research vets salaries were down by 15.1%
• Across the regions, salaries varied from £37,030 for Scotland and Northern Ireland, to £54,025 in London.
• The profession continues to be debt-laden with 76% of those who had a loan at graduation still carrying student loans of between a few thousand pounds to a handful of respondents who had debts of over £100,000.

Peter Brown, SPVS Treasurer and author of the report comments: "The SPVS Salaries Survey is intended as a benchmark to give some indication of what is being paid as the 'going rate' rather than to advise on what employees should be paid. Having said that, we would urge all veterinary practices to continue working to ensure that equal rates of pay are given for positions of equal status. Although the gender gap has closed up, it is still too big."

The annual SPVS Salaries Survey is free of charge to SPVS members and costs £150 for non-members. For more information, call 01926 410454 or visit www.spvs.org.uk.

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