Why Are Athletic Trainer Salaries Low?

When it comes to finding and hiring Athletic Trainers, there are usually cries of "shortages" coming from everyone's mouth... except the ATs, of course. But, at the heart of the issue, it's almost always about salary and not actual shortages. 

We know shortages and salaries keep coming up, because we're reminded on a regular basis as we report news from the athletic training world.  In fact, we just saw a recent post from Andrew Hayes of Go4AT on Twitter/X.

Here's the text, in case you don't have an account: 

"Why are AT salaries so low?

1. The legacy community outreach solution which has for over 30 years underpaid athletic trainers as part of their marketing expenses for attracting new patients. 

2. The inclusion of ATs in the teacher unions and their contracts with school districts which greatly limits their earning power - due to salary banding which is primarily determined by experience.

The combination of these two is actually keeping salaries down and preventing FT hires.

How?

Specifically, a hospital can no longer afford to hire FT ATs for their outreach because they too are restricted by hospital salary banding. 

School district who had been using outreach solution of Hospital now has no healthcare provider. 

They have relied on an external resource for 5+ years. Their information base on ATs and their roles today is not adequate. 

They publish job with a salary structure that matches union template and requirements around experience which is $15-20K short of avg salary in US for Masters degree WHO is a healthcare provider, not a teacher.

We are seeing this in real time.

I see the biggest issue in the profession right now is PR. 

Or lack thereof." 

And to prove his point, we found a real-time example — in several school districts in Indiana. 

 The Western School Corporation, along with other Howard County schools including Eastern and Taylor, faces a significant challenge as their contract with Community Howard Regional Health is set to expire at the end of June.

The contract’s end means the loss of their Athletic Trainers, a therapist, and two mental health skills clinicians provided by the hospital network for years, free of charge.

Superintendent Mark DuBois expressed his disappointment, stating, “It’s a punch in the gut. We love the people we work with at Community.” The financial implications are substantial, with Western needing to find an additional $474,000 to cover these services.

Schools could renew their contracts with Community Health, but this would require them to bear the full salary costs of these positions, a financial burden they are not prepared to take on.

Eastern Superintendent Keith Richie revealed that Community Health offered a contract for $108,000 to retain their Athletic Trainer, which was not well received. Board member Jordan Buckley shared his frustration, “I just hate being held hostage to pay a salary of people who don’t work for us.”

This development is not entirely unexpected, as Kokomo School Corporation had received a similar notification earlier. However, the loss of mental health positions was unforeseen and troubling.

Community Health stated the need to restructure contracts to ensure sustainability amidst changing healthcare dynamics and new state legislation, though the exact legislative changes were not specified.

Other schools like Maconaquah and Central Indiana districts have faced similar situations, with some finding alternatives through partnerships with other health services like Optimum Performance Sports (OPS). OPS offers ATs free of charge, aligning community service with business incentives (referrals, basically.) 

Eastern had hoped to partner with OPS but found it unfeasible due to the company’s resource limitations. Zac Thiele, Executive Director of Sports Medicine for OPS, expressed regret, saying, “I feel terrible for the schools. I wish we could help more.”

Of course, many involved have blamed the "scarcity of Athletic Trainers" on changes in academic requirements (Masters degree requirements) and the broad scope of opportunities available in the field (clinical work or industrial setting opportunities.) 

So, all this talk is really is about salary. As Hayes has commented on in other posts, this is not about a shortage of Athletic Trainers, "it’s a shortage of ATs who want to work in that model for that compensation."

In West Virginia, a new House Bill (4303) would amend the Code of West Virginia to add a new section requiring the hiring of an Athletic Trainer on a full-time basis for any high school participating in organized sports. And participating schools, under the legislation, would be required to hire a minimum of one AT through funds issued directly, pulled from their annual budget, through levy monies, or COVID CARES ACT funds. But... if they try to hire with low salary ranges, they're likely going to have trouble finding candidates to fill their newly required roles. 

Check out the Times Herald for more details on the Indiana situation. And follow Andrew on Twitter/X for more insight!