In today’s Covid environment employers are risk averse and the steady rise of guarantees has stopped and is being reversed in many areas.
Many factors are involved in getting a desirable salary with a new job, but it’s important to negotiate the best salary right from the start. Only 57% of physicians feel they are fairly compensated for their work, according to Medscape’s Physician Compensation report.

Male physicians are more likely to negotiate for a higher salary than are women. Women physicians, when asked about their skill level with negotiating, reported a mixed range of skills; 28% of women said they were skillful or very skillful at negotiating for higher salary; 33% said they were neither skillful nor unskillful; and 39% said they were unskillful or very unskillful.

Besides salary, physicians may want to modify many other elements of an employment contract. Employers will sometimes accept a limited number of changes that will keep prospective employees happy, although it’s tougher in highly competitive markets to get them to agree to changes.