Glen
Thanks, I agree with you but.....
The salary and benefits that you will receive are determined at your interview
with prospective employer.  You however have to have some facts and the ASCP
survey is a starting point.
To be fair to ASCP, any survey that is a national one, is always out of date.
There is no way that such a survey can be current and of course it represents
only those individuals and institutes that completed the survey.  On thing that
it does however, is to allow you to compare rates between different cities  and
states.
If I were to apply for a position in a different city, I would first look at the
web page for information about that institute, contact individuals that are NSH
members in that city and try to find out what the possible salary ranges are.
To be honest, whatever the salary ranges are there are always ways to bypass
these if you are the best applicant for the job. As there are so many unfilled
jobs it is somewhat of a sellers market and you should be  careful to ask for
what you want. You can always modify your asking providing that this does not go
below the bottom  of the range you have set in your mind. The important things
to consider beside salary here are the stability of the job, benefits, workload,
working environment etc.
Barry

Dawson, Glen" wrote:

> To all,
>
> I have read the most recent ASCP vacancy and wage survey.  What is going on?
> Who is sending in these numbers?  I have been checking into new positions
> myself and the offers which are currently out there are blowing the wage
> listings away.  This is unfortunate since we, as histotechs, cannot look to
> this most recent publication for support in asking present employers for
> better compensation.  In actuality, our current employers can now use this
> survey to say "Hey, according to this publication, you are right where you
> are supposed to be, salary-wise."  In short, don't let the survey fool you.
> Now is the time to better your lot in life, if you are willing to move on.
>
> Glen Dawson  BS, HT &