$17.00 Hr. Starting Wage For RN?

I'm graduating from Nursing school in NWA this weekend, I already have job lined up and am being paid $18.10. All of the hospitals just raised the starting wage for a new grad if you have any experience at all they are paying much more.

I agree! That does not even begin to start paying the $13,000 to $30,000 you go in debt to pay for your education. I have been considering driving to Memphis for more money when I do get my RN. It is fairly cheap to live here. But I see your point about gas, HI, etc. That could be the explanation of the nursing shortage.

Great post. That article pretty much sums it up.

I am in the Fort Smith area and starting pay for new grads is $17/$17.55 per hour plus shift differentials. This area has not really felt the crunch of the shortage of nurses nationwide but the time is coming. I am making the same as the job I left to go back to college to get my RN but the rewards are so much better and the options in my career now is 100 times more. Some things are the same costs but when you figure in commute time is less which adds up in lower fuel costs, entertainment costs less, you get more square footage in housing for the money, ect. there is a difference in wages then. Like someone said earlier, the average income in the Fort Smith/Fayetteville area is barely above poverty, 17.00 an hour is a goldmine for a new grad. Your pay can only go up from there, it is only temporary and also again if you have experience they pay you for that too. My student loans are through the hospital I work for and as long as I work for them I do not have to pay back my loan and I get a $100 credit per month of employment with them towards the loan. So in less than 3 years post graduation I will have paid off my loan for my education and on top of that employees can get education expenses paid back for higher degree achievement at the end of each completed semester. It does add up and actually I am doing as well here as my sis in Cincinnati who makes wayyy more than me.

NY's RN wage starts from $30/hr.

I was raised and educated in the Chicago area, lived in Arkansas 20 yrs and moved to western Nebraska for 12 years. I'll take Arkansas. No contest!

Hey ya'll I am a LPN in the fort smith are and I make 18.20 an hour that's sad I make more than a RN getting out of school and I have only been out of school for 5 years.

regardless of the opinions of starting pay, in the long run RNs will be able to command much more

i am an LPN and make 18.50 an hour in a LTC facility in NE arkansas and will graduate in december with my RN and where i work they are going to pay me 25/hr when i pass boards. the cost of living here is the same as NW arkansas

As a GN I started at 23 an hour. After getting my license I am making 25 in Pittsburgh. But yes, I am overworked and stressed out every shift. One bedroom here is 400.

I don't like the weather here but I guess I am not moving. I also asked about RN wages in Florida and I was told 18.... what a shame.

Corporations are really pushing it to the point of establishing inhumane conditions for living in the USA. The pay and benefits at WAL MART is a slavery. The people there work for less than cost of food and housing with no benefits.