Poor Pay Raises

oramar · Oct 4, 2000

Originally posted by all alone:
Our pay raises for the past 3 to 4 years have been horrible. They average 1% to 3% of our base pay. (Usually this equals out to 30 to 40 cents an hour). /B]

You should read my post, "Why I believe a long list of vacant postitions results in a good bottom line."

oramar · Oct 4, 2000

Originally posted by nursedude:
Gee all alone,

Here in Pittsburgh Pa, hospitals are closing and as a result nurses are loosing jobs. A few years back one of our larger hospitals went bankrupt for 1.3 BILLION dollars - thats right BILLION, not million... Needless to say, the nurses at that hospita all took pay cuts to keep their jobs.

At the last hospital here were I used to work, we would get about the same average raises that you mentioned- 1 to 3% BUT the cost of our health plan would increase as well and therefore our net pay was actually less than the year before...

I can't image why there is a "nursing shortage".

I have been looking around lately at the payrates in this area[Pgh] thinking maybe they have gone up since I have been out of work for 9 months. No such luck, there is no change. Here is proof, this is a link to an institution that bills it self as one of the top US childrens hospital. It's entry level hourly salary for RNs is $15.40 cents a hour. Could you imagine being 50 thousand dollars in debt due to attending a university degree program and coming out to be offered that! Why don't they slap you in the face while they are making the offer, it could not be anymore insulting. www.chp.edu/12employ/12jobnurse.htm#anchor-41681

nursedude · Oct 5, 2000

Gee all alone,

Here in Pittsburgh Pa, hospitals are closing and as a result nurses are loosing jobs. A few years back one of our larger hospitals went bankrupt for 1.3 BILLION dollars - thats right BILLION, not million... Needless to say, the nurses at that hospita all took pay cuts to keep their jobs.

At the last hospital here were I used to work, we would get about the same average raises that you mentioned- 1 to 3% BUT the cost of our health plan would increase as well and therefore our net pay was actually less than the year before...

I can't image why there is a "nursing shortage".

monica f · Oct 8, 2000

Consider yourselves lucky. In the facility that I work in the average raise is 5 cents per year! It will take 20 years to get one dollar raise. We have no cost of living increase. SAD

oramar · Oct 9, 2000

Originally posted by monica f:
Consider yourselves lucky. In the facility that I work in the average raise is 5 cents per year! It will take 20 years to get one dollar raise. We have no cost of living increase. SAD

This reminds me of that old joke,"the beating will continue until moral improves".

stephobrn · Nov 13, 2000

The hospital I work in gives raises essentially the same but we just received a raise housewide of $1.50 per hour for RN/LPN to promote retention. Also we receive an extra $10.00 an hour for any overtime we work because we are so short staffed. So, If anyone wants to move to the sunny shores of SC we have plenty of openings.

melbeme · Jan 22, 2001

we had the 10$hr for a few months it was called "Incentive pay" It still applies in the areas that are critically short. M/B, L&D,Hrob no longer recieve it. Our raise is for 1-5 but only one person on unit may get five %. Funny how my husbands cost of living is 3-5% a YEAR and then he gets a raise. No wonder a shortage. Why would people get into a job that only pays a little more then teaching also a female dominated proffesion. I wonder what this frighting shortage will do to us.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Mar 7, 2001

The general cost of living increase is 3%/year so if you are getting less than that you are getting paid less every year.

Hey, in that hospital where you get $10/h for extra time what is your base pay, and what is your usual patient load?

OBNURSEHEATHER · Mar 10, 2001

At the large hospital I work at, the norm was 1-3%, based on your yearly evaluation. However, within the first year I was there they did away with that. Now nurses get predetermined raises at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years of employment. With this policy, any nurse at this hospital will max out at 5 years, with no possibility of another raise! This was billed as an effort to retain new nurses, but came at the same time we all started getting curious about a union. The nurses who had been on my unit over 5 years got lump sums which, according to them, wasn't a very large "lump" at all! Just a couple of hundred dollars, even for the nurses who had given 30 years to that hospital. Yes, as a new nurse I really made out with this deal (over $3/hour increase for me), but the nurses with many years invested in the hospital got screwed. So basically what happened is that they gave the new nurses awsome raises, and most of us still want a union. The older nurses who were still not sure of a union got pissed off and all went and signed their union cards! So they kind of bit off their noses to spite their face. We vote the first week of April, and if the union comes in that will be great. But I've been told that if it does not, our raises can be taken from us. Can anyone tell me if this is really possible?

By the way, my hospital also offers the $10/hour incentive on short staffed days, which is practically every weekend. We do about 5,000 deliveries a year. I've been a nurse 2 years, working on this unit for 18 months. I make $19/hour (with my raise). This is great now, but when I max out in 3 and a half years (at 29) I can't imagine being content with that!

HEATHER

kewlnurse · Mar 10, 2001

I work for a union hospital and i'm hear to tell you, from what i've read on this board most places are better off without one. It will take 15 years to max out on our contract which was just ratified. The max is $25/hour!!! They annual raises are %3, %2, %2, %2,, %5 so in reality we are tkaing a 1% pay cut over the 5 years since inflation is at %3. You get step raise years 1-4, noting again till 8 years, noting till 12 years and than your last at 15 years. Do you and your fellow co workers a favor and do some investigating before you vote on a union.

bbnurse · Mar 17, 2001

I realize that 1-3% is not much of a raise. Across the board raises whether on the anniversary date or cost of living---whatever the buzz word is, just infuriates me. Every person gets that amount...the ones who break every 10 min., always have time to gossip and who never can get their work done without asking for help...or the one whose skills are still first year level and they have been around for 5 yrs...

I have trouble understanding why people think that merit raises are so bad... It's rewarding good skill and work with more money. With the annual raises, even the dead wood gets what the good worker gets. How is that fair? We reward mediocrity. We make the excellent nurse do less and less. There is no external reward for the finest care. So why is there so much protest about merit raises.

And YES, ours runs about 2-3% a year too but we also start at 14.50/hr here in the midwest.