The "increase minimum wage" issue.

[shermrn]

I work at a union hospital, I feel that I am paid a fair wage and am happy with my insurance plan and benefits. While I am traditionaly not a pro union person, I do see the need for unions in some situations. My primary gripe with unions is that, in my experience, they promote political issues that I disagree with. One example is the push for an increase in the minimum wage. I don't want to get into a debate about if the minimum wage should or should not be increased, I just want to see if any of you agree or disagree with the opinion I'm about to express.

For the ease of explaining what I'm thinking I'm going to just use arbitrary numbers here. Lets say minimum wage is $5.00/hr and RN pay is $20.00/hr.

The various factors in the economy have determined that an RN makes $20/hr, or that the value of the RN is worth $15 more than than that of an unskilled or minimum wage worker.

I'm thinking that if my union is pushing for the minimum wage to increase to (for example only) $14/hr, then the union should be pushing just as hard for the RN wage to also increase by 50%. If the union does not push for an equal pay increase for the RN's it represents, then isn't it diminishing the value of the RN's education/skills/knowledge. What I'm saying is it seems that to close the gap between an RN's pay and minimum wage, we are effectively earning less or our jobs have been devalued. I'm wondering if this makes sense and if anyone agrees or disagrees and why.

Unlike past politial threads I've commented in, I promise to keep civil. I'm only interested in discussion and getting some of your input.

Thanks.

[Rbeck911, BSN, RN]

I actively negotiated the salary/compensation package for my last 3 positions as an RN. These were not direct care/bedside positions as a primary responsibility, still, they were nursing positions and the compensation was negotiated.

As did I.

Negotiating a salary is not job specific but relies on the gull of the employee.

[floridanurse1983]

I'm sorry but I feel like I earned my extra pay by working my butt off and I had to pay out and take loans. I paid for my education. Both of them. It's not exactly fair that a person who didn't bother to graduate high school almost makes as much as me and didn't have to pay into student loans? I'm sorry, but that's crap. Don't like minimum wage job? Learn new skills and move up or go back to school. I didn't like my $5.25 cashier job. I worked two jobs while going to school to NOT have to work for minimum wage. I'll go work back at Burger King to make $15 an hour without the stress of holding someone's life in my hands.

[floridanurse1983]

Your wage would be raised to the new minimum at least as well! So it would actually benefit you. It would benefit others who are burned out with healthcare and provide another employment option with fair wages. What gets me is wages in general are so compressed and flat for most workers. If minimum wage had kept up with inflation it would be over $21/hr today! Think about that! How much are wages have decreased over the years. GM workers had wages worth $50/hr today. How far American workers have fallen! And how underpaid nurses are with all are education and training, only a few make $50/hr!

I support an increase to minimum wage, it is long overdue. We need to stop pushing education as the solution to the economy because it is a lie. Too many people getting college degrees, taking out debt that can never be forgiven in bankruptcy and no guarantee of getting a decent job to pay back all these student loans. We push the children and teens to believe a BA degree is required to make a living, get them to sign their life away at 18 with student loans they may not be able to pay back and in the end many end up with worthless degrees working minimum wage jobs, living at home, defaulting on student loans. Even people with nursing degrees, business, engineering can't find jobs and that doesn't include all the people who have been laid off and can no longer find a job due to age discrimination and the overabundance of job candidates to choose from.

Education is not the solution alone. We need all jobs to pay a fair, living wage with additional education as an option. Bankruptcy protections should be returned to student loans and the ability to refinance and all student loan interest should be eligible for a tax credit or deduction! I personally believe in tech training as the best solution for many people, national healthcare that levels the playing field for all and relieves the burden from companies to provide healthcare and which encourages age discrimination due to increased health costs from older workers.

I have confidence that if the minimum wage was increased, employers would give in to the pressure to raise wages for the rest of the workers. Worse case scenario, maybe I would take early retirement from nursing due to the stress and health dangers to my back and body, and work as a secretary instead knowing I'd at least have a fair wage to make a living!

Don't kid yourself you are already paying for all the underpaid minimum wage workers in the form of increased taxes to support medicaid, and food stamps and welfare for those the businesses like Walmart underpay so the Waltons can be billionaires and the CEO's can make millions!

But would it actually be raised? I know where I work, we wouldn't get anything more. Same work for same pay. Or a dime/quarter an hour raise.

[Ard123]

I think debating what effect a minimum wage increase will have on an rns relative pay against a low wage "unskilled" worker is really detracting the real issue: wage equality. Perhaps instead of asking "where will i be relative to joe shmoe who works at McDonald's", perhaps we should be asking " how can we ensure that both joe and i are able to live comfortably?" I make about 140k a year as a regular staff rn thanks to my union , and in the past it used to be great to be compared to, especially against other rns and even some physicians. But after seeing so many people not be able to make ends meet, and seeing so many rns complain about the unfair wages they are getting paid, I've changed my stance. I truly wish that everyone could enjoy the same standard of living that I do. Is that possible? Most likely not in its entirety. But can we move more towards better pay for everybody? Absolutely. But it would definitely not be possible if we compare and base our self worth on those who earn less. Perhaps we should really open a new topic that makes more sense : in an industry that spends trillions a year, why are we rns and other ancillary staff getting only a small cut of the pie, while physcians, ceos, and management consistently take the majority of the money spent on healthcare? Still not convinced? The next time you are in clinic, I dare you to ask your attending how much they make, or look it up on mgma, and tell us if you feel cheated when you find out that they make close to half a mill a year while you are struggling to break 60k. Perhaps we shouldn't look down at Joe, but rather up at the bosses.

[dedicated_2b_RN]

how do you hold anyone accountable for their job when lying and sneaking around with deals behind the public eye is a built in part of the the good old boy system ,we cant change anything and they know it, you say hold them accountable ok lets do it tell me how , show me the way please .

( not meant to be sarcastic )

[Ard123]

how do you hold anyone accountable for their job when lying and sneaking around with deals behind the public eye is a built in part of the the good old boy system ,we cant change anything and they know it, you say hold them accountable ok lets do it tell me how , show me the way please .

( not meant to be sarcastic )

t

Not to be sarcastic, if you want the change and equality: work for it

1. one needs to put in the work to educate themselves of the inequality (snoop around: mgma is a good source to find MD pay, most institutions/organizations disclose their CEO pays on their financial statements, ask- you'll be surprised what you find) 2. one needs to find other like-minded people to share this information with 3. organize a group of like minded individuals who are tired of the inequality (umm, a union?) 4. get ready to stir the pot- strikes, boycotts, petitions to your government officials, get the news involved, make viral videos that get other people to support the cause of lessening the inequality 5. negotiate for better conditions when you've pissed off enough people

How well your collective accomplishes the above steps is the best chance there is to get the pay/life you deserve. Can it happen? Yeah, the process above is exactly why I'm getting paid the way I am. If the good people of my union didn't put the in the sacrifice and work to fight for better RN pay in Northern California, I wouldn't be on this forum inspiring you to go for the same