The hospital I'm at pays $7/hour less for all nurses in orientation. Since I started during the holidays, I found out there's no pay or extra PTO accrued during holiday weeks. Now I find out there's no shift differential either during orientation either. Is this common?

No, I don't believe it's common, although it doesn't matter if it is: it's what you signed on for. I think it's an odd arrangement, but if it's in writing and it's your facility's policy for ALL new hires, then....you're stuck with it.

Thanks. Yeah, I wasn't aware of it when starting and there's nothing in the manual. Was just wondering if this is common or a new trend in pay policies among hospitals.

Our nurse residents get paid less and while they do accrue sick/vacation during the residency, they can't access it for 6 months. Check your actual contract.

When I was on orientation, I received diffs. However, I did not have paid sick time/vacation until I came off of orientation: if I needed to call off sick or take a day off, I could do so but it would be unpaid. I was also not allowed to work holidays (and get that double-time rate) while on orientation.

It's like that at my hospital with one exception. Orientees can get shift differentials, but they don't work nights up until the last 1-2 days of their orientation. Most training takes place on days to cut costs.

This is an increasingly common arrangement - driven by the need to decrease labor costs. Organizations that provide benefit/PTO coverage from Day 1 are as rare as the Dodo bird. My organization still has Day 1 medical employee coverage, but the only 'time off' coverage during the first 90 days is bereavement pay... may sound odd, but we're a faith-based organization & compassion is a core value, so it makes sense to us.

I was given that same pay including differentials and holiday pay during orientation as I do now off orientation. PTO accrued after 90 days for all new hires regardless of how long you're on orientation but that was really the only difference