[suzanne4]

Thanks for sharing this, my point exactly. Where there are higher salaries, there are usually higher costs associated with living there as well. And we do see this in the US.

And Happy Holidays to you.

[jonRNMD]

Originally Posted by suzanne4

Thanks for sharing this, my point exactly. Where there are higher salaries, there are usually higher costs associated with living there as well. And we do see this in the US.

And Happy Holidays to you.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to YOU too

[chocokitten]

to OP-
I would not be surprised. COL is HIGH in Cali.

Originally Posted by tridil2000

i am always surprised that nurses get all excited over $32 an hour! hello!!! you're worth MORE!!!! who are you comparing yourselves to to think that's good money?... cashiers? lab techs?? unit clerks??

compare yourselves to physicians, speech therapists, cpas, lawyers, business leaders, teachers, and all educated professionals. you'll soon see $32 per hour is cheap. if we could bill per procedure etc, we'd be paid more in the range of $50 - $75 an hour.... our true worth and proportionate to what we do for our patients!

(back to the bsn min req to support my opinion... but that's another old beaten thread)

ditto. It ****** me off that my husband could make $80k/yr in tech support with no college degree and I make $50k/yr with 5 years experience AND I keep people ALIVE

[Ventjock]

[quote=chocokitten;2606372]to OP-
I would not be surprised. COL is HIGH in Cali.

ditto. It ****** me off that my husband could make $80k/yr in tech support with no college degree and I make $50k/yr with 5 years experience AND I keep people ALIVE [/QUOTE]

my friend is 24 and only completed around 20 college credit hrs. he dropped out and got a job as an apprentice iron worker. this past year as a journeyman ironworker he made over $80K.

[BumblebeeRN]

Originally Posted by nurse2be2008

It's probably true since California is one of the states with the highest nursing salaries. I hear that it's because the cost of living up there is pretty high.

we have a very high cost of living here in miami, and we still do not get paid enough!

for a new grad. $22.53/hr for day shift
an apartment to rent cost over $800 + fees for a 1/1

[TAB_RN]

Originally Posted by IampattyRN

we have a very high cost of living here in miami, and we still do not get paid enough!

for a new grad. $22.53/hr for day shift
an apartment to rent cost over $800 + fees for a 1/1

I paid $750.00/mo for rent in Massachusetts in 1988 before I moved to South Florida (which I lived for 8 years). That price didn't even include my electric. The cost of living in Massachusetts (Boston) is probably double what you are paying, for a studio apt., so as you can see, the cost of living may be high to you, but that is probably because you are comparing it to your pay. But I believe it is all relative. High cost, higher pay. I now again live in Massachusetts. The cost of living is still ridiculous here, but I do love living here.

[caringnursenj]

If it were true, I wouldn't be surprised.....given the high cost of living in CA. If you convert $32 to Philippine Peso that would be around P1280 an hour right now…but sadly you are also spending in US dollars, and whatever you earn is most likely calibrated to the cost of living in the area where you live in the US.

[traumahawk99]

if you're going to work day shift three days a week, you'll probably make in the
40's. if you go to nights, then it's pretty wide open. i've been a nurse for 2 years, and my best paycheck for 2 weeks was over $8,300, for working 13 out of 14 nights in a row (7p to 7a).

so in short order, if you work nights and work 72 to 84 hours a week, you can indeed make quite a bit. and i think you can do that in most large metropolitan areas. the question becomes whether you'll live long enought to enjoy it .

i can't see myself doing this for more than another couple of years. i'm really thinking of working hard for 6 months of the year and taking the next 6 months off.
how many careers can you do that with, plus get to travel?

despite all the complaining that goes on in nursing, this really isn't so bad .

[Daly City RN]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I know this thread was begun quite sometime ago, but I can tell you that in our large acute care hospital here in San Francisco, Calif., RN's starting salary in 2008 is around $40/hr. for those RN's with no experience. It goes much higher for experienced RN's.

After six months of probationary period, an RN can work as many OT hours as he/she wants.

At the top tier of our hospital's staff RN pay level, assuming you work the 7pm-7am shift you can earn as much as $67/hr. that includes the 20% night shift differential. (There are even higher RN salaries in some of the SF hospitals I heard about.)

RN's in our hospital get paid double-time-and-a-half when working on a legal paid holiday. That is a little over $1,000 for ONE 12-hour night shift work for some RN's with enough seniority. Don't believe this? Google RN salaries in the SF Bay Area's acute care hospitals.

Benefits for RN's is great. Health insurance programs cost from zero to a few dollars per pay period. There is visual and dental insurance as well. Add paid vacation time off (number of days depending on the length of service), paid holiday off, paid educational leave, paid floating holiday, paid longevity day off, generous sick leave, etc.

Sure the job is hard and very stressful, but the recently implemented state of California mandated staffing ratio of 1 nurse to a maximum of 5 patients in Med-Surg, units has made the life of nurses that much better.

The cost of living here in California is astronomical compared to other regions of the country and the rest of the globe for that matter. If you are an RN in an acute care hospital in any major city in California you can lead a comfortable life, and possibly even better than the typical middle class American family.

Thankfully nurses in major California cities are now better compensated for all the hard work we do. Is the pay high enough now to ease the nursing shortage? Only time can tell.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[ONC-RN]

Yep it's true. I'm in LA and at 6-7% raise a year with a night time differential you can quickly be at 40$ an hour. Not to mention time and half overtime you pick up.