Interview with Gyl Kasewurm Au.D. F-AAA

AO/Beck: Good evening Dr. Kasewurm.

Kasewurm: Hi Dr. Beck.

AO/Beck: Gyl, it is a pleasure to finally speak with you. I've been very impressed with your work. Before we discuss salary issues for audiologists, I'd like to get a little information about you if you don't mind. Please tell me about your professional education and history.

Kasewurm: Sure Doug. I got my bachelor's from Andrews University and my master's from Western Michigan. My doctorate is from CMU. I received my doctorate in 2000 and was one of the first four students to graduate with an Au.D. from Central Michigan University. I started my private practice immediately after getting my master's eighteen years ago. I am also on the Board of Directors of the AAA and am a past-president of the Michigan Academy of Audiology.

AO/Beck: Can you tell me your thumbnail sketch of the Au.D. program? Was it worth the time and the money and would you do it again?

Kasewurm: Absolutely yes to both questions. I was surprised and amazed at what I had missed over the last 18 years (since earning my master's). Of course it was even more shocking to me because I tried to read the journals, attend courses and keep up with the profession, but the profession changes very quickly.

AO/Beck: I know that at CMU they have a capstone requirement which is a formal research project and that makes their program a little unique. What was your capstone topic?

Kasewurm: Mine was on audiology assistants and technicians in audiology practices. I compared the work output of practices that use technicians, with those of practices that did not employ technicians. As you know, this is a very hot topic in the profession right now.

AO/Beck: Yes it certainly is. What was the impression you walked away with after studying the topic?

Kasewurm: I think we need technicians. As audiologists and as doctors, we need to work more in professional capacities and less as techs ourselves. For instance, in a busy practice, the audiologist really should spend his or her time performing and interpreting diagnostic tests, conducting aural rehab and counseling patients. However, tasks like billing, cleaning hearing aids and teaching patients how to use dry aid kits, may be more efficiently accomplished by techs. The biggest issue may be defining what is a professional activity, and what is a technical activity.

AO/Beck: Those are great questions! I'd like to explore those with you in a few months. In the meantime, let's go ahead and explore the salary issues. First, I'd like to refer the readers to two documents, the first is the excellent summary in Audiology Today, page 40, of the January/February 2001 issue. The second is the detailed document, which I understand is available through the AAA?

Kasewurm: Yes, that's correct. The readers can contact AAA to request a copy of the Salary Survey details. Ed Sullivan handles that for AAA. Ed can be reached by phone at 1-800-AAA-2336, extension 205.

AO/Beck: The survey was enormous in scope. From reading the details, it seems to me that you contacted over 7000 audiologists, and from that, you tallied over 1600 responses.


Kasewurm: Yes, that's correct. The survey was originally distributed to attendees at the Chicago AAA conference, and from that, we received 525 responses. Then, we wanted to collect more data, so we sent the survey to the entire AAA membership in June, 2000. We requested that members only complete one survey so as to eliminate duplicate responses. In response to that, we received another 1137 responses, so the survey is based on 1662 responses from audiologists, which is a response rate of about 24 percent.

AO/Beck: Statistically, that makes the survey very powerful. I wonder if this is the largest sample size that has ever participated in a salary survey for audiology?

Kasewurm: I'm not sure but I believe it probably is. We're actually planning on repeating it and hope to have better penetration, and we'll rewrite a few of the questions to yield even more data, and more statistical power.

AO/Beck: What can you tell me about the primary findings?

Kasewurm: The bottom line is the salaries for audiologists are increasing. The average salary across the profession was determined to be $52,706. The average salary for MA/MS level practitioners was $48,000, $69,000 for Au.D. level practitioners, and an average of $88,000for those holding Ph.D. or Ed.D degrees.

AO/Beck: Gyl, what about place of employment? Did the survey indicate which positions pay the lowest and which pay the highest?

Kasewurm: Yes. It was very clear that audiologists working for ENTs earned the lowest salaries, and those in private practice and in federal government positions had the highest salaries.

AO/Beck: As a profession, I think we need to better identify the audiologist in audiology-based private practices. I think sometimes people get confused by the term private practice and they may report they are in a private practice, and that may in fact be true, but it may be an ENT private practice, through which they are employed.

Kasewurm: Yes, I think we separated those out, but you're right, we need to better identify what the respondents mean when they check the box that says private practice.

AO/Beck: It seems to me that your survey was very much in accordance with the previous ASHA surveys?

Kasewurm: Yes, we found very similar trends. ASHA reported a median salary of $44,000 in 1999 and 48,000 in 2000. So the two surveys reported highly similar findings in those respects.

AO/Beck: What can you tell me about the male to female compensation differences?

Kasewurm: Males are often found in supervisory positions and are most frequently employed in full-time positions. Additionally, a higher percentage of males have doctoral degrees. There were no significant differences on the compensation packages between males and females. Males were 20 percent of the respondents to the survey, and males typically earn about $21,000 more than the survey average, whereas females, who were some 80 percent of the respondents, typically earn about $5000.00 less than the survey average.

AO/Beck: However, can we say based on the data collected, that males and females in comparable, or equal positions actually earn different pay? Or is that not able to be determined?

Kasewurm: We really cannot say that. We didn't collect data that would yield that information. Nonetheless, it appears likely, but no, we cannot prove it based on this past survey. We hope to do this survey annually, and we will investigate this next time around.

AO/Beck: What are the primary take home messages from the survey?

Kasewurm: The first point is that upgrading the profession has indeed raised the compensation packages for audiologists. Additionally, while almost 1/4^th of our profession works for ENTs, that is also where you find the lowest salaries by some $21,000.

AO/Beck: Some other points in the raw data that I thought were very interesting include....80 percent of the respondents get paid vacation, and the average vacation is 17 days per year, 71 percent of the respondents get paid holidays, and they typically get 8 paid holidays per year, 68% of the respondents get CEU support. Did you look at how many audiologists get financial support for their doctoral studies?

Kasewurm: No, we didn't look at that specifically. We probably should include that next time.

AO/Beck: Gyl, this really is a very interesting survey and I think you've done a great job collecting data. Thanks for your time this evening and thanks for revealing what is going on in the real world!

Kasewurm: Thank you Doug, for the opportunity to present this information on Audiology Online.