Comparing A Nurses' Salary

[Joe V]

According to Indeed, Registered Nurses (RNs) earn between $55,726 (< than 1 year experience) - $72,833 (10+ years of experience) per year in 2021.

Forbes reported back in 2019, that top hospital CEOs were making $1 million+. Payscale currently lists the average Hospital Chief Executive Officer salary at $153,479.

How do you feel about your salary compared to other professions?

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[SE_BSN_RN, BSN]

Teal72 said:

I'm surprised how little RN's are getting paid. As a medical assistant (9months of schooling) I left and I was making $24 per hour!I became an LVN started off at 29.50 per he and then left making $34 per hr!I started RN job at $45 per hr and that's is kind of low cause the hospital that I worked at starts nurses off at $52 per hr. I live in sacramento California!

I graduated from CC in the bay area in 2005. My starting salary back then as a new grad LVN would have been $34/hr in LTC. There's no way a RN in Sac makes $52/hr. The bay area, yes, but not Sac....although maybe as a travel nurse. that's more realistic.

[SE_BSN_RN, BSN]

Wild Irish LPN said:

well then, that is simply awesome my friend!....looks like I need to trade my Rocky Mountain home for the NoCal scene....happy for you ?

Yeah but then you'd have earthquakes. And the ocean is freezing cold!

[Wild Irish LPN, LPN]

lvn2bsoon said:

Yeah but then you'd have earthquakes. And the ocean is freezing cold!

true, but then again we have feet of snow and bitter cold come December thru February....I could handle wine country and a chilly breeze....no problem LOL....

[SE_BSN_RN, BSN]

Wild Irish LPN said:

true, but then again we have feet of snow and bitter cold come December thru February....I could handle wine country and a chilly breeze....no problem LOL....

LOLOL I KNOW!! I thought of that a lot! I've never been late b/c of the snow, thank goodness! I spent a birthday in Napa at a B&B. Ooohhh, if only I could retire and own a vineyard! Darn earthquakes. And cost of living.

[Wild Irish LPN, LPN]

lvn2bsoon said:

LOLOL I KNOW!! I thought of that a lot! I've never been late b/c of the snow, thank goodness! I spent a birthday in Napa at a B&B. Ooohhh, if only I could retire and own a vineyard! Darn earthquakes. And cost of living.

never missed a shift due to snow yet...but I have the notion we are in for epic snow this season, we have had it too good the last few years...the epic event will surely happen when I will be working, and then there is no way to get home...ride out the storm and make monster OT....it could really happen....

[HighPursuit23]

RCBR said:

I am in St Louis, MO and will start as a new grad next month @ $21.00/hr working full time in acute care for the largest health system in the region. I also got an offer from the number 2 hospital system @ 20.80/hr. I am super excited to have a job (many of my classmates have not) but the pay is depressing. Listen, $21.00/hr is good money if you went to a community college and your whole nursing education cost you $5,000.00. But people like me who went to 4 year schools had to borrow 30-40K to pay for school tuition alone. Once those student loans payment start to kick in, plus rent, car payment and other expenses, $21.00/hr is going to be barely enough. The RN pay structure needs to be changed to reflect the reality of the BSN educated RN who enters the profession with tens of thousands in students loans versus the ADN nurse who starts almost debt free.

That's exactly why I'm considering a community college instead of a private college or a university. Thanks everyone for this news feed, it's really helpful in making the decision of the NURSING PROGRAM that fits my location and budget! Thanks a million

[SE_BSN_RN, BSN]

Wild Irish LPN said:

never missed a shift due to snow yet...but I have the notion we are in for epic snow this season, we have had it too good the last few years...the epic event will surely happen when I will be working, and then there is no way to get home...ride out the storm and make monster OT....it could really happen....

I know. That's what worries me. I just need it not to snow on Tuesday. LOL

[bubblejet50]

RCBR said:

Are you for real??? Universities award bachelor degrees. Community colleges award associate degrees. They are not the same degree. Please approach reality. I cannot believe you think that 2 and 4 year educational institutions award the same degree. Are you even a nurse?

Yes I can. The content is not the same. BSN graduates have 120-130 credit hours of education versus 60-70. Sorry, but twice the credit hours IS A BETTER EDUCATION. Now, if you think all that extra education makes no practical difference, look at the research done by Aiken et al. showing that the higher the education of nurses the lower the mortality of patients.

I went through an ADN program and went on to an RN-BSN program that I am currently enrolled in. The difference in the two programs was literally only 7 nursing classes and a total of 24 credits. The rest of the degree was the normal filler gen ED classes that every bachelor candidate must take regardless what they are getting their degree in. There are no true clinicals in this program. It is not from a for profit school. I don't see much difference in the knowledge base of a new grad BSN and an ADN. The classes I have to take are about health policies and laws, pathophys (which some schools require for their ADN programs....mine did not), assessment (which most people test out dropping the credits earned to 20), 2 management classes, community health, and evidence-based nursing. But add in the extra english, stats, fine arts, foreign language, and humanities and you fill up your degree but is it really practically used in nursing? I had these classes completed before I went for my RN degree and I feel the only class that had helped was my research methods class in the psych dept that taught me APA.

In my area new grad BSN's are actually less clinically prepared than new grad ADN's. They have gone through more studies but ADN programs still focus more on clinical skills much like the old hospital programs. That does count for something. I came out of school in my last semester taking total patient care of 4 patients and having a lot of practice with IVs, catheters, drains, drips, telemetry...

I am going for my BSN since all the hospitals in my area are magnet status but I'm not sure that by saying twice the credits means a better education is exactly on target. It's a lot of filler classes in any program.

You also say that the NCLEX is not a fair tool. I agree. All you have to be is a good guesser. Doctors and dental hygienists have a clinical aspect of boards and maybe nursing needs to go to that but with the amount of nurses out there that would be a lengthy process to get into be tested. I have seen nurses, both BSN and ADN prepared, on the floor that didn't know up from down and couldn't even set up and IV pump that passed NCLEX.

Maybe the licenses need to be re-evaluated. I'm not sure what the right answer is to this problem but the girl I knew from a private 4 year university had the same knowledge base on disease processes as I did myself and we would compare our programs and honestly didn't find anything but clinical that was different.

[breaktime]

I live in the southeast and make a little over 50K per year as a relatively new nurse (been working here for 1.5 years, first job out of school). That is actually a bit lower than the other hospital systems in my immediate area but I work at the hospital I wanted to work at, on the unit I wanted, with the schedule I wanted and that matters more to me. I make the same as another nurse who started the same day as me who is a diploma nurse. She's an awesome nurse and I have no problem that we make the same amount.

That said, I can see where people are coming from when they say BSN nurses should earn more because they have a higher level of education/degree. In many jobs and professions, even if hired at the same time (sometimes even if you have less time and/or experience) and doing the same job, the person with the higher education (whatever that level may be) is paid more. I've heard (from the people who make the decisions on how much to pay their employees) various rationales for this, but the three most common are these: one is that the higher education (sometimes even if not related to the current position held) is still exactly that, more education, and is seen as another tool in the skill set of that employee; two is that the person with the higher education had the motivation and took the time to earn a higher degree and that should earn them something (I equate this one to a situation where two people can work on some system or technology with equal skill but one has a piece of paper saying they are certified to do it, and so sometimes earns more simply because they took the trouble to take the test); and three is that the person with the higher education often has more opportunities open to them and if not given some type of incentive such as higher pay, will likely leave their current position for one that either pays more simply because of their degree or requires their level of degree and happens to pay more.

I'm not saying I agree with any of these rationales, nor that I disagree for that matter. They are simply reasons I have been given over the years for why people in the same position with different levels of education might be paid different wages/salaries. Personally, as long as I make enough to not be worried about my family's financial situation, and I (most days at least ) enjoy my work, I'm satisfied (especially in this economy).

P.S. I apologize for any poor grammar or spelling, my browser is acting strange and after I was a few lines into the second paragraph I could no longer see what I was typing as the screen continually scrolls back up.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Look, here's the bottom line. Even though there are two different educational pathways to get your RN, the fact remains that they result in the EXACT same licensure with the EXACT same scope of practice. Maybe that should change. Maybe the BSN should result in a separate license with a higher scope of practice. THEN a higher pay grade would be justified. Until then....

There are two pathways to practical nursing, too. I went to a 10 month vocational school. Some LPNs go to a year and a half community college program. Do they deserve more pay than me? Of course not. A LPN is a LPN and the BON makes zero distinction.

[pattyweb]

Where are you that you are making $30k/yr? New grads around me are making at least $37k, and on nights, over $40k.

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Needless to say, once again it all depends on location & the facility. Therefore, make sure you do a little research prior accepting any job, remember the phrase "You Get What You Pay For" just saying...Aloha~