Am I being offered a fair pay?

Nursing Students ADN/BSN

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Hi :hug:

I am a Registered Nurse and have 3 years of ICU experience. At an interview for ICU RN position, I was much appreciated for my ICU experience but I was offered a pay rate of $24.60/hr in Austin, Texas. Is this ridiculously low pay :uhoh3: or this is the usual pay rate here :p. I used to make way more than this but that was in Australia.

Can you all lovely nursing friends guide me. Should I accept this pay and start or should wait for a better pay. So confused and upset with the pay rate.

help help help....:confused::confused::confused:

Cheers...

:cheers::nurse::bow:

Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.
I saw this pay down of nursing rates coming 3 years ago and posted up in arms about it. I was flamed and about thrown off the boards here.

It's not just nurses. For example my husband's company is paying its workers on average $2/hr less than a few years ago. So it's not some evil conspiracy against nurse. Weak economy = less money to go around for everyone.

I'm not really concerned what other industries are making. I'm just concerned about what is happening to the nurses pay. And over the past 3 years I've seen our pay go down, way down.

In the 1980's we had nursing union leaders who fought hard to bring nursing pay up from the $12/hr range and it did happen. By the year 2000 my pay had doubled- $28/hr. In 2006, nurses in my area were making $36-38/hr. I was at $37/hr Now all I am offered

(30yr of hospital bedside nursing) is $29/( and that was to keep the same job I was doing, only a different contracting agency who was out of Florida) Bull crap- That does't even cover my month bills in my state. My property taxes alone are$750/mo and I don't live in some big McMansion.

A waitress in my area can make $20/hr including tips. And that not at a fancy posh upscale restaurant. I know, My daughter is a waitress. ibet those waitresses in diners make as well if not better given how busy the diners are.

　

If we go with the philosophy, well McDonald's only pays their workers Minimum wage, the nurses should take minimum wage and be happy!! This is where this line of thinking is going to get us. And it's already happening

As long as nurses think so little of what they do and compare themselves to other industries, we will continue to make lower and lower wages. That feeds right into the hands of the corporate healthcare CEO's- their keeping their mega million paydays, don't see any pay decrease on the horizon for them scumbags.

They are driving down the cost of healthcare by driving down the cost of nursing wages. No one is looking at the top for the cost cuts

What is fair pay depends upon where you are living and working. I make twice that, but then I'm not in Austin, TX. (For which I am grateful!) Over the years and across the country, I've found that what you make and what you have to pay for housing/utilities/groceries is usually correlated -- the more I've been paid, the more I've had to pay to live. I've also found that most of the hospitals in town pay relatively the same.

ICU experience is great, but only if you're going to work in an ICU. Home care isn't going to pay more for ICU experience.

I worked in ICUs for 10 years, ERs for 2. I went into home care and made 100,000 my first year. Year 3, 183,000 and I have the w2 in a frame to prove it. Home care will not pay for your experience, but you sure as hell can put that experience to good use.

When you mention hourly pay you have to specify if you are getting benefits otherwise the comparisons are meaningless. Remove health benefits, pension deductions, disability insurance, paid vacations, sick days and all the other goodies and your hourly pay jumps at least 50%.

Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

I will state again though that like the NZD vs the USD you can't compare the Aussie dollar to the USD dollar for dollar even though that's what the exchange rate is.

The australian economy is exellent right now why leave? My sister works for the victorian goverment there and loves it especially when she can pop over here with her aussie dollars and go crazy buying all her goodies for "cheap"

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Thread closed for a cooling off period. It seems the original question has been asked and answered.

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