SAN DIEGO—Eyes On Eyecare has released its fourth annual Optometrist Report examining salaries, attitudes, and insights from over 700 optometrists, including practice owners and employees across a range of practice settings and clinical specialties. “Our goal is to present the questions no one else is asking but everyone wants answers to,” said Matt Geller, OD, CEO of CovalentCreative, the parent company of Eyes On Eyecare. “Many indicators, including that 70 percent of respondents expect their salaries to increase in the coming year, point to positive industry growth, which bodes well for young professionals and recent grads. It’s heartening to see that eyecare practitioners are looking to the future.”

Forty-six percent of the data in the Eyes On Eyecare 2021 Optometrist Report was gleaned from young eyecare professionals (ECPs) who graduated from optometry school in the last 10 years, with 29 percent of the data from ECPs who graduated in the last five years, providing a unique perspective on the future of the profession.
 
Optometrists surveyed included 512 employed optometrists, 173 practice owners, and 23 optometry students. Out of overall respondents, 70.9 percent were female, closely reflecting the ratio of recent optometry grads.
 

Additional findings included a median salary jump from about $113,396 last year for practicing optometrists to $132,524 in 2021, while average student debt from the previous year decreased by 23.7 percent for employed optometrists and 42.6 percent for practice owners in 2021. 
 
Another eye-opening finding of the report is that based on salary data for all optometrists polled (including employed optometrists and practice owners), on average, male optometrists and practice owners make $41,700 more per year than their female counterparts when salaries are averaged by gender.
 
“Our goal is to keep our fingers on the pulse of the profession,” added Dr. Geller, “The best method to challenge and change the status quo is through knowledge, which is what we gain through our annual reports.” 
 
To obtain more specific information on the latest salaries and competitive compensation packages, eyecare professionals can explore the Eyes On Eyecare Optometrist Salary Calculator, which is regularly updated with comprehensive industry data from Eyes On Eyecare Industry Surveys.
 

The Eyes On Eyecare 2021 Optometrist Report examines additional nuanced topics, including popular optometry settings, attitudes about co-management, new eyecare innovations, the most exciting developments on the horizon, and the overall outlook about the future of the optometry industry.
 
The full report can be accessed for free at Eyes On Eyecare, which features new industry-specific content daily.
 
Eyes On Eyecare is a digital publication that focuses on providing clinical and career education to the next generation of optometrists and ophthalmologists. Eyes On Eyecare is operated by CovalentCreative, which has launched notable brands like CovalentCareers, OptometryStudents.com, and NewGradOptometry.com.