To better understand, these labs treated techs like restaurants treat waiters. The base pay is low so waiters depend on tips to get by. In like manner, the base pay for cytotechnologists was very low, so that they depended on extras ( additional pay by the slide work which ranged from 50 cents per case to $1.25 per case) Techs, who were fortunate enough to work for a hospital or smaller lab were treated better, in that they had benefits like health care and pensions, but most independent labs could not compete with the low price of the Pap at that time. When the law changed, large labs like Cancer Screening Cervices, with over 50 cytotechs, came into full compliance. Pay went up, but since most CSS clients (who were national and international) mailed in their specimens, it became more cost effective for these clients to use local labs for cytology. CSS finally had to close its doors. However, what was even more effective was the Union, that raised the pay for Kaiser workers. Other labs had to compete for cytotechs with Kaiser, so there was an increase in pay for all cytotechs.
The increased pay for cytotechs, then made automation cost effective after Hologic lobbied the law that made the computer assisted screened liquid based slide count as .05 slide. By doing this, the labs made money by increasing the workloads of cytotechs. The rest is history. Back to square one?
This job is highly intense and stressful. The bullying and vindictiveness, fighting over crumbs that goes on is so unnecessary. What would help is professionally trained supervisors and managers who are not just lawfully qualified, but are psychologically fit and good people. The problem is that the best people do not want the job or are overlooked for obvious reasons.
