Hourly wage with "normal" hours (South)

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Specializes in Critical Care.

RN start around 20/hr in SC. A couple systems top out at about 65k per year.

Same here for NP's and PA's too... they are salaried starting around 60k something/year so they can run all the poor souls into the ground with as many hours as they can get out of them. There needs to be some protection for the mid levels hours.

Medicare has a formula to adjust payment in relation to local wages. A university hospital also gets more funds for being. a teaching hospital . So it is unfair to say that all hospitals get paid the same.

PMFB-RN, RN

5,351 Posts

Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Medicare has a formula to adjust payment in relation to local wages. A university hospital also gets more funds for being. a teaching hospital . So it is unfair to say that all hospitals get paid the same.

*** Ok thank you for correcting me. I was told by our VP of patient care services that all hospitals in our state recieved the same amount of money for the same services. I thought it would be the same in the country. And who knows if she knew what she was talking about.

So if nurses wages are increased the hospital will be paid more. Is that right? I assume there would be a lag between the increase in wages for an area and the increased payment to the hospital but it wouldn't put as much burden on the hospital as I was lead to believe.

Caffeine_IV

1,198 Posts

Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

I don't want to imagine how much I would have to work to make that here in SC.

oldeddieboy

24 Posts

Only if there's a strip club called, "in a hospital down south." Last I heard only RNs down south making that money on dayshifts are working at the Cheetah.
:roflmao:

Judging by the comments, it seems like $60-70k ($32-$38/hr) is more realistic for the highest paid nurses with lots of experience and normal working hours. Not really wealthy, but still pretty good. Teachers top out at around $46k with a bachelor degree and 30 yrs experience. Not sure which is job is harder.

llg, PhD, RN

13,469 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
:roflmao:

Judging by the comments, it seems like $60-70k ($32-$38/hr) is more realistic for the highest paid nurses with lots of experience and normal working hours. Not really wealthy, but still pretty good. Teachers top out at around $46k with a bachelor degree and 30 yrs experience. Not sure which is job is harder.

But don't forget ... many teachers are state employers, with better benefits and pension plans than most nurses. My sister and I make a good comparison as we are only 1.5 years apart in age. I am a nurse with a PhD in nursing, working for a hospital. She only has a Master's Degree and taught 2nd grade in a small town public school.

Her school district paid for her Master's Degree while I paid for most of my graduate education scrounging around for grants, student loans, and using up most of my savings. She was shocked 2 or 3 years ago when they asked the teachers to pay a $10 co-pay when seeing a doctor. She had never had a co-pay before. She was able to retire while still in her early 50's (after 30 total years of employment) with a state pension guaranteeing her 60% of her final salary for life -- adjusted annually for inflation. She also will get Social Security (though it will be reduced because of the state pension). If she lives past 82, she will collect the pension for longer than she actually worked, giving her over 1.6 years of salary for every year she worked. She is also still able to get her health insurance through the school district at the group rate even though she is retired.

So ... while I always brought home more cash in my paycheck as a nurse ... her great benefits and life-long guaranteed state pension will make her the "winner" when you calculate it out as compensation for the number of hours actually worked -- assuming she doesn't die young. She is in her late 50's now, playing golf 4 days a week and going to out to lunch a lot. She and husband (also a retired teacher/school administrator) spend 3 months each winter in Florida in a gaited golf community. They'll be leaving for a Carribean cruise in 2 weeks. etc. etc. etc. I plan to work until my mid-60's because I won't have a pension or any source of good health insurance until Medicare kicks unless I get it through an employer.

Not every public school teach had as good a contract as my sister ... but don't let their "low salaries" fool you. A lot of teachers are doing better than they let on --once you figure in those benefits and pensions. And oh, let's not forget ... she never had to work during the summer. That's how she got so good at golf. She used her summers to take 1 or 2 classes at a time for her Master's (100% paid for by the school district.)

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN

4 Articles; 7,907 Posts

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I'm curious to know if $100,000 is possible without working nights, weekends or crazy amounts of overtime...

Honestly, NOT in the Southern US. Definitely not as a regular RN--even with many years of experience a dayshift M-F only salary isn't going to creep up that high. If you were an APRN/NP, then 100k could be possible, but not really likely. Salaries in the South are low across the board.

Where I lived, RN salaries in the hospitals started around $20-24 hour for day shift. Even with years of experience, most topped out in the $30s/hr. Non-hospital salaries were frequently lower.

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