Raising minimum wage ..RN Salaries increase?

[Dformola]

I am trying to wrap my head around ,raising the minimum wage /nursing salaries .In my area CNA 11/hour ,Lpn 17/hour,Rn 25hour .

Recently they mandate RNs to have a 4 year degree ,which costs between 40-200 k.

If minimum wage increases to 15 hr ..this would force an increase..How can you pay McDonald's workers more ..when CNA's are

doing backbreaking work ,nightshift ,leaving thier families on weakends and holidays ? This would force a increase all the way up .I do worry though ..that this will make staffing short /and healthcare insurance prices to rise .

[Mini2544, ASN, RN]

Seattle area here, living in the world of the $15 minimum wage. I make about 60% more than my previous job in another state. Jobs are definitely not scarce here which I feel shows that argument does not fly. My electric bill? $17. Food? Same cost. Gas? About $3/gallon. The housing is more expensive but not due to gouging. The demand is so high and the supply low because they can't build fast enough and there is one housing unit for every 3 jobs available. 85,000 people didn't move here last year because it sucks here. Transit is awesome. Crime not bad. Climate wonderful. Not enough people to fill all of the jobs of any type. Much happier workers in general.

Seattle Minimum Wage Policy Cost Workers Money, Study Says

There are about 10 other articles that back this up. Doesn't really sound like it's working out as planned.

[Mini2544, ASN, RN]

I wish the United States would treat education like a public health issue, as many European nations do. Democracies are strengthened by an educated populace. If we had the sense to fund public universities with tax dollars and make them essentially tuition-free, we'd eliminate the burden of student debt for the next generation. That and raising the minimum wage would go a long way toward a stronger economy and, frankly, a healthier, happier nation.

Many states offer a version of this for 2 year institutions. As long as a state could do this and not raise taxes on their citizens exponentially it would be great. I just don't think federal govt should be involved what so ever. Just put a few requirements like if they do receive "free" education than they have to stay in that state for x number of years. GPA requirements etc.

[nehneh14]

I earned my BSN in 1980. My first job as an RN earned me $6.85/hr. Right now, I'm making just over $27.00/hr. When inflation and cost of living are figured in, I'm not making that much more than when I started!

I started at $14.25 in 1992. I make under double that now. My husband on the other hand, who works in the finance industry, has had his salary increase by hundreds of thousands of dollars during the same period of time. It's crazy making.

[RegularNurse]

You are being paid market value for your work.

Compensation isn't about being nice or fair. Employers want to pay the least amount possible in the form of raw wages and benefits for labor. As a staff nurse, you have little bargaining power. Do you actively generate revenue for the organization? Is nursing an exclusive field requiring tremendous knowledge to be minimally qualified for?

At best, nursing limits billing losses from things like central line infections, falls etc.

There are 3.5 million nurses, hardly an exclusive club to be in. Nursing has commoditized itself. You can go from BS in psych to an NP in 3 years or less now. These are just the realities of the free market. I'm sure many accountants don't feel great about people paying their taxes by taking a picture of their W2.

[MunoRN, RN]

Seattle Minimum Wage Policy Cost Workers Money, Study Says

There are about 10 other articles that back this up. Doesn't really sound like it's working out as planned.

There aren't actually 10 other studies that agree with the findings of this particular study, this study is an outlier in the full body of studies on the subject, which is likely because it included no control group to determine if changes in the number of hours worked and total low wage jobs were the result of the change in minimum or due to normal fluctuations. As it turns out, when a similar study with a control group was used, there was no decrease in total earnings or in the workforce, other studies with adequate design found the same results.

[MunoRN, RN]

All of what you said is true. However we do not live in a socialistic society. That is not how our Govt is designed, or wasn't supposed to be at least. Our social programs are out of control and don't make sense anymore. They were never designed to be life long, but to help out monetarily to those who are in need. However that's an entire different topic. I think it's insane that some in this country want to villainze the wealthy and successful. "Let's raise taxes on the rich to pay for the poor." That is a socialist train of thought and it is disturbing. We will always have income inequality and to try to close that gap through taxing top earners is a slippery slope.

I take it you mean more communist than socialist, but the main purpose of raising the minimum wage is to avoid transitioning to more of a communist socialism type of workforce economy. Currently, the majority of those receiving public assistance work. A defining aspect of communist socialism is that workers basic subsistence living is paid for by the government rather than employers, which is where we are currently at.

Raising the minimum wage to keep up with what a basic subsistence living costs is how we ensure that these costs are the burden of taxpayers through government support programs. In a true free market, employers must pay the full cost of their employees, and those who would get stuck with the bill if the don't (taxpayers) are free to say that employers must carry their own weight.

[Butterfly_Effect]

All of what you said is true. However we do not live in a socialistic society. That is not how our Govt is designed, or wasn't supposed to be at least. Our social programs are out of control and don't make sense anymore. They were never designed to be life long, but to help out monetarily to those who are in need. However that's an entire different topic. I think it's insane that some in this country want to villainze the wealthy and successful. "Let's raise taxes on the rich to pay for the poor." That is a socialist train of thought and it is disturbing. We will always have income inequality and to try to close that gap through taxing top earners is a slippery slope.

Yes, we have always lived in a collaborative mixture of socialism and capitalism. However, our government likes to cherry-pick where our funding should go for certain programs, i.e. corporate welfare, and recently $1.5 trillion dollars on a plane in the military that doesn't work (I love the people who serve in the military, but they are also being poorly treated by our government while private contractors take the majority of funds).

This is not about punishing the rich, or even saying it's awful to be rich. This is about corruption, which leads back to the beginning of my thread. When 99% of this country owns 60% of the wealth -- there's something wrong. Look at the taxes for the top income brackets for the IRS in the 50's and 60's, they were higher than they are now. Besides the fact that there were more brackets (which makes much more sense). So, what you're saying is "disturbing" already happened in the 50's and 60's, and this produced an extremely educated and wealthy middle class. Why not go back to it? U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1862-213 (Nominal and Inflation-Adjusted Brackets) - Tax Foundation

[Vicki17, BSN]

My local McDonalds just installed 2 touch screens. So you are not far off and the increases haven't even happened yet.

[Derekorz2000]

You are being paid market value for your work.

Compensation isn't about being nice or fair. Employers want to pay the least amount possible in the form of raw wages and benefits for labor. As a staff nurse, you have little bargaining power. Do you actively generate revenue for the organization? Is nursing an exclusive field requiring tremendous knowledge to be minimally qualified for?

At best, nursing limits billing losses from things like central line infections, falls etc.

There are 3.5 million nurses, hardly an exclusive club to be in. Nursing has commoditized itself. You can go from BS in psych to an NP in 3 years or less now. These are just the realities of the free market. I'm sure many accountants don't feel great about people paying their taxes by taking a picture of their W2.

This. I couldn't have said it better. I see quite a few comments from people proclaiming their pay isn't "fair." That isn't how it works. You are paid based on your skill set, what the market determines your value is, and how much you can leverage that. Why do you think CEO's make so much money? Because many companies will actively seek out a CEO and it's pretty much a battle of leveraging. If three companies are wanting the same man to be CEO, whomever pays him the highest will win.

[Purple_roses]

Because the majority of hospital systems are all about the $$$$, even the "non-profit" ones, they would likely just hire less ancillary staff because of the higher wage requirement. Thisnin turn, adds more workload to the nurses. Or they start making higher staffing ratios for nurses, which is both unsafe and makes more work for the nurses. Either way, nursing gets screwed. I can imagine it would be like this in many other professions as well.

If this happens, I will simply revolt and go back to working retail for $15 an hour. My retail days were some of the most stress-free days at a job that I actually enjoyed most of the time. I'll take that for $15 over even shorter-staffed and underpaid hospital work any day. I figured out how to live frugally and survive off of $9.50 and I'll do it again if hospitals decide to make life a living hell!

[bathrobemom, LPN]

I couldn't agree more. Whether minimum wage increases to $15 an hour or not, CNAs already are not making enough money for the work they do. In some areas they're only making $9 an hour! I've seen fast food places offering $12- $13 an hour. Some factories start at $13-$17 an hour. So why the heck would anyone pay to take a CNA class and then care for grumpy people that pee, poop, bleed, snot, hit, bite, scream, and complain and/or threaten to call State on them for every little thing?

Staffing is short in many places, probably everywhere. Why the heck aren't we paying CNAs more money? It makes no sense to me.

I agree -if we increase their pay, then we'd have to increase what nurses make. Say a CNA makes $15/hour then who would want to be an LPN at $17/hour?

Why are aides and nurses paid so little anyway? Yes, we don't go to school for a long time, but we are educated and licensed to take care of people. One mistake can kill someone. We have a lot of responsibility.

We need to stop telling women that if they want to make more money they need to seek jobs that are typically a "man's job". Why can't "women's jobs" be well paying? Who's going to work all the "women's jobs" if we all go to "men's jobs"? It's also time for women to stop being martyrs and accept payment for what they're worth. Maybe this job is a calling, but we still have to take care of ourselves, our families, and pay our bills. My mortgage company doesn't care that I'm a nurse. We should all be fighting for better pay. Maybe then we wouldn't be short staffed every single day. (Just 6 out of 7 instead of 7 out of 7)

[xuale01, BSN, RN]

It is so expensive to have the nursing BSN education is US compare to the salary. One should work for several thousand hours to pay for the tuition fee.