Compensation Study of Vascular Surgeons in the United States

Objective: The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) partnered with Phairify, Inc, an organization with experience in physician compensation data compilation for several other medical specialties, to survey its membership and assess factors influencing vascular surgeon compensation.

Methods: The SVS Compensation Study Task Force developed a vascular surgery-specific survey between January 2023 and May 2023 including experience level, academic rank, bonuses, incentives, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, on-call pay, and other factors influencing overall reimbursement. After a soft launch on May 1, 2023, with an initial phase of SVS leadership engagement in completion, the survey was formally introduced to the SVS membership on June 14, 2023. Data were collected from May 1, 2023, to December 21, 2023. The survey was intended to focus on total compensation as well as its components. Mean compensation was analyzed based on respondent demographic characteristics.

Results: Of the 3200 active vascular surgery members of the SVS who were invited to participate in the survey, 708 (22%) completed the survey. The respondents were predominantly men (80%, 564) and white (57%, 403) with relatively equal distribution across regions of the United States. Forty-one percent (292) of vascular surgeons had an academic affiliation. Most respondents (85%, 605) work more than 50 hours per week with 13% (92) reporting working more than 80 hours. The vast majority (93%, 660/708) of vascular surgeons took first call for vascular issues at their institutions, of which 64% (422/660) were on call on average 1 in 4 weekday nights and weekends. Most respondents (80%, 545/682) were not paid for primary call separate from their salary. Although there was no difference between white and non-white respondents, the median total compensation for women was less than men ($475,500 vs. $576,000, p < 0.001). Male gender, years in practice, and being in a practice not owned or run by an academic institution were associated with higher compensation based on multivariate linear regression with ranked transfer of data to normalize values. There was no association between compensation and reported number of hours worked per week.

Conclusion: This study highlights vascular surgery specialty-specific compensation models in a variety of practice settings and career levels with greater detail beyond those seen in traditional models. These data can be a useful tool for vascular surgeons when assessing compensation plans from potential employers and may help achieve greater pay equity and workforce diversity.