Midwives in Ontario are reasonably well-paid, and get paid somewhere between a salaried family physician and a nurse. We also have to pay professional fees of about 4k/year. I would estimate that the average full-time midwife here earns about 75k (less experienced midwives with the same caseload make 55K and more experienced midwives about 90k. AMost midwives in Ontario have been practicing fewer than 5 years.
Most weeks I would estimate that I work 50-80 hours a week (not including on-call time, I am just counting actual work time), with a few 110+hrs/weeks a year, and a couple 30+ hour weeks a year. When our professional association did research into the average work of a full-time midwife vs. pay it was less than 4 bucks per hour. We got a raise, so now it is more like 5 bucks an hour, after 11 years of no raises. I am self-employed so I have expenses that are write-offs, and that helps my take home pay. I also take off 8 weeks a year vacation (unpaid) and 10 weekends a year. I look after 38-45 women a year as their main midwife, and another 40 as their second midwife. I go to about 2 births per week, and run a full-time clinic. There is a lot of non-clinical work that I do as a midwife (hospital comittees, volunteer programs, outreach, public education, business admin, and tons of paperwork and billing stuff. It adds about 10 hours a week to my clinical work mentioned above.
It was very hard to get a mortgage as a self-employed person. At 34 and 40 we just bought our first, and very modest, home. I live in a urban/semi-urban area and houses sell for 230k-400k. Everything is expensive and we watch our money very carefully.
I think that relative to other people, like those in the retail sector, I make great money. Compared to others who are primary care providers, we earn pennies. One OB I worked with pulled in over 500k a year, and had his office and admin paid for by the hospital that he worked in. he had a house in Bermuda, and lived in a mansion. I would guess that most OBs around here take home 200K+ after expenses.
In all, I have a roof over my head, can feed and clothe my kids, and eat out once in awhile. I am satisfied with that. We don't take vacations (ok, one big road trip in 10 years), purchase modest things, and need to watch our money very carefully. I feel like I earn every penny, and would feel better compensated with a higher income. I feel like my work deserves more, but when I think of people who are starving and working their tails off full-time or more, and can't feed their kids, I feel like a shcmuck for thinking I need more.
That is my perspective.
Most weeks I would estimate that I work 50-80 hours a week (not including on-call time, I am just counting actual work time), with a few 110+hrs/weeks a year, and a couple 30+ hour weeks a year. When our professional association did research into the average work of a full-time midwife vs. pay it was less than 4 bucks per hour. We got a raise, so now it is more like 5 bucks an hour, after 11 years of no raises. I am self-employed so I have expenses that are write-offs, and that helps my take home pay. I also take off 8 weeks a year vacation (unpaid) and 10 weekends a year. I look after 38-45 women a year as their main midwife, and another 40 as their second midwife. I go to about 2 births per week, and run a full-time clinic. There is a lot of non-clinical work that I do as a midwife (hospital comittees, volunteer programs, outreach, public education, business admin, and tons of paperwork and billing stuff. It adds about 10 hours a week to my clinical work mentioned above.
It was very hard to get a mortgage as a self-employed person. At 34 and 40 we just bought our first, and very modest, home. I live in a urban/semi-urban area and houses sell for 230k-400k. Everything is expensive and we watch our money very carefully.
I think that relative to other people, like those in the retail sector, I make great money. Compared to others who are primary care providers, we earn pennies. One OB I worked with pulled in over 500k a year, and had his office and admin paid for by the hospital that he worked in. he had a house in Bermuda, and lived in a mansion. I would guess that most OBs around here take home 200K+ after expenses.
In all, I have a roof over my head, can feed and clothe my kids, and eat out once in awhile. I am satisfied with that. We don't take vacations (ok, one big road trip in 10 years), purchase modest things, and need to watch our money very carefully. I feel like I earn every penny, and would feel better compensated with a higher income. I feel like my work deserves more, but when I think of people who are starving and working their tails off full-time or more, and can't feed their kids, I feel like a shcmuck for thinking I need more.
That is my perspective.
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