who has taken a pay cut, willingly

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Just curious as to how many people took a pay cut to switch to a job that has better hours or is more enjoyable or closer to home?

How much of a cut did you take?

I was offered a job that would be nice, in a plastic surgeon's office but the pay cut would be $16-17 an hour. It's also further from home. So I declined.

I would happily take a pay cut of say $5 and hour, maybe 10 but no more than that.

Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

I took a pay cut from $35/hour to $29/hour when I went from dialysis to an outpatient psychiatric facility. Not to mention I went from working 5 minutes from home 3 days a week to working 35 minutes from home 5 days a week. But I HATED dialysis, I hated the fact my days off were Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. The days off between work were spent recharging from my 14 hour days. I also didn't like that I had no time to decompress from the dialysis place to my front door. My kids were all over me before I had a chance to wind down. My new job offered me a 35 minute drive home in which I could collect myself. The job was less stressful, staffing was never an issue and it offered good benefits, especially a pension/retirement.

Best part about the new job was it led to my current positon. After spending 5 years at the state run psychiatric outpatient clinic, I was offered a job as a nursing supervisor at the prison. 5 years of driving 70 miles round trip 5 days a week was getting to me. I didn't feel I had time with my youngest son. The new job offered not only a huge pay increase but it's 3 days a week, 12 hours a day and no overtime. I love the environment and some nights, I find it hard to believe I am making almost $45/hour to do this job. So the paycut I took over 5 years ago led to this job.....worth every single penny I missed out on in pay over those 5 years!

I was very hesitant to take this job as I loved my supervisor and my coworkers at the clinic. It was an extremely low stress job and I enjoyed being able to do some patient education to my clients. But I never got much quality time with my son. I wouldn't get home until close to 5:30pm, then it was time for dinner, bath and bedtime. And on the weekends, time was spent doing errands, chores, etc. I never was able to attend his classroom functions, teacher conferences, take him to school or walk him home. I hated it. This new job offers me Monday through Thursday morning off and I am able to spend so much more time with him. But it was scary and I tried to keep the money out of my decision. No money is worth your happiness. I am just glad it worked out well for me.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I felt like I took a pay cut when I went from hospital nursing to being a school nurse - but when I sat down to figure out the pay was just about the same considering I work 176 days out of they year - it is not often that I am required to stay later than my scheduled hours (7:20-3:20). Stress wise - leaving the hospital was the best thing for me - no more worrying about who was going to pick up the kids, no worrying about maybe missing one of my kids school activities, no more fighting over time off etc.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

taking a $1.75/hr paycut and losing 8 hours a paycheck to get 3 12 hour shifts so I can be home more often. 5 8 hour overnight shifts is a drag

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I took a pay cut from $35/hour to $29/hour when I went from dialysis to an outpatient psychiatric facility. Not to mention I went from working 5 minutes from home 3 days a week to working 35 minutes from home 5 days a week. But I HATED dialysis, I hated the fact my days off were Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. The days off between work were spent recharging from my 14 hour days. I also didn't like that I had no time to decompress from the dialysis place to my front door. My kids were all over me before I had a chance to wind down. My new job offered me a 35 minute drive home in which I could collect myself. The job was less stressful, staffing was never an issue and it offered good benefits, especially a pension/retirement.

Best part about the new job was it led to my current positon. After spending 5 years at the state run psychiatric outpatient clinic, I was offered a job as a nursing supervisor at the prison. 5 years of driving 70 miles round trip 5 days a week was getting to me. I didn't feel I had time with my youngest son. The new job offered not only a huge pay increase but it's 3 days a week, 12 hours a day and no overtime. I love the environment and some nights, I find it hard to believe I am making almost $45/hour to do this job. So the paycut I took over 5 years ago led to this job.....worth every single penny I missed out on in pay over those 5 years!

I was very hesitant to take this job as I loved my supervisor and my coworkers at the clinic. It was an extremely low stress job and I enjoyed being able to do some patient education to my clients. But I never got much quality time with my son. I wouldn't get home until close to 5:30pm, then it was time for dinner, bath and bedtime. And on the weekends, time was spent doing errands, chores, etc. I never was able to attend his classroom functions, teacher conferences, take him to school or walk him home. I hated it. This new job offers me Monday through Thursday morning off and I am able to spend so much more time with him. But it was scary and I tried to keep the money out of my decision. No money is worth your happiness. I am just glad it worked out well for me.

This is what I'm hoping for....I make over $45 an hour now. I'm hoping if I advance at the home care agency doing clinical supervising that I would get back up to $45 an hour. I wonder if that's even possible because I don't really know what they make. Really I just want to love my job andfeel like I'm making some kind of difference in someone's life. In my current job I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels in a negative environment. It's a tough decision because I do make a good wage.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

Wendy

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I absolutely took a pay cut when I went from hourly hospital RN to nurse manager in a private practice. I lost out on premium pay, holiday pay, night diffs, etc.....but I traded that for M-F hours, daylight only, and a better position overall. I earned less but quality of life was at stake, I was experiencing physical repercussions of the staff/charge nurse job, and I needed to make a move.

I then took ANOTHER pay cut for a job with much greater stability, much better benefits (employer-funded retirement, lower-cost and better-optioned medical insurance and MUCH more paid time off) and an overall happier life. Again, less money at take-home time but the VALUE of my package, I feel, was completely worth it.

Some people are fine with the lousy job and lousy hours but they have a lot of disposable income to buy things that make them happy. That's good for those that are good with that. For my family, though, the best option is LESS disposable income and MORE TIME with them! :D

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Took a pay cut one time when employer told me that medicaid, the source of their revenue for my case in hh, was decreasing reimbursement. I said I was ok with that because they were paying me above (not much) what the other agencies had been paying me to begin with. What I respected about the situation was that I was approached about this and we discussed it beforehand. Other agencies that did the same thing were not so receptive to their employees input.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I took a $5.50 pay cut when I went from Nursing Home Hell to Home Health.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Anesthesia.

I am losing my USAF multi-year bonus pay as CRNA in order to attend nursing PhD school full time while on active-duty. That is going to cost me 360k over 9 years. I still will have to deploy as CRNA once I finish school I just won't be eligible for the same bonus as every other military CRNA.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment