Budget cuts..... State nurses earn minimum wage?

[gcupid]

Balancing the budget reduced police and firefighters wages as well as some other state employees to minimum wage $7.50 an hr in Scranton, Pensylvania.... Will nurses be next and will this inevitably spread to other cities? Honestly, I would be the first nurse out of the building if wages were reduced to minimum wage..... I'd choose a career with less stress... Give me your input....

[laughing weasel]

I would be back to security at 14.50 an hour or anything but. I love nursing but will not watch the patients die from minimum wage relief nurses.

[Tragically Hip]

In Pennsylvania, a municipality must get state approval in order to successfully file for bankruptcy.

Harrisburg tried to file for chapter 9, but the court dismissed it.

[kcmylorn]

I would thing the city/municiple nurses would be the nurses in the jails and the Public health Nurses. Public health requires a BSN at least- so much for higher education in nursing $70,000 BSN education for $7.50/hr wages. Is this advanced math???

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

Most nurses don't work for government entities. We work in the private sector. Right now the minimum wage cuts in Scranton are limited to those who are paid by the government. I'm not saying the same thing couldn't happen to the rest of us, it's just not likely right now.

If it did, I wouldn't work as a nurse for minimum wage. I'd flip burgers or mop floors, but I wouldn't in a million years put myself through the stress of nursing for $8.75 an hr.

I'm not sure what min. wage is here. Please excuse my dollar amt if it is not correct.

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

Haha...I remember working as an LPN for $7.50/hr. That was after my raise from $6.50/hr and I thought I was rich!

Of course this was 20+ years ago and I would be one of the first to bail out if I had to go back to this today. Not worth the responsibility.

[missladyrn]

No way would I put up with all this stress and liability for minimum wage. I can barely put up with it now.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

My first LPN position was $4.25/hr... sure beat my nursing assistant wage of $2.85/hr.

[DoGoodThenGo]

If any city is *that* screwed up, the federal and/or state government should be allowed to take over and administer the city directly.

And forget about nurses working for minimum wage! What nurse in his right mind would work for 7.50 an hour?? What's the point? I won't get out of bed for less than 20 an hour.

In general states do *not* like for cities/local governments within their borders to file for bankruptcy. Being as that may it does happen.

Stockon, CA became the largest city in the USA to date to file bankruptcy when it did so last week.

Third Calif. city votes to declare bankruptcy

Quite honestly many local governments have been playing fast and loose with their budgets for along time now, and the roosters are now coming home.

As the old saying goes, people get the sort of government they elect. Well for years politicans were voted into office and kept there while these homes of cards were being built, now that they've started to collapse everyone is pointing fingers.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I live 2 minutes from Scranton, and yes the mayor and city council also took the pay cut...the firefighters were actually laid off earlier this year (Doherty closed several fire houses) and after 2 separate fires that took over 20 minutes to respond to he reinstated them immediately...

the city has had "distressed" status since I was in high school in 1992 - it has nothing to do with nurses as none of the hospitals in Scranton (or Lackawanna county for that matter) are county run hospitals - the 2 main hospital systems (Commonwealth Health Services and Geisinger) are both privately owned...

Scranton's money has been mishandled for decades (dating to way before the distressed status) and both the Tax Office and Scranton Parking Authority have been recently investigated...

it should also be noted that Lackawanna county is seeing a 68% tax increase this year in property taxes...my taxes went from $2300 per year to $3000 per year - and that's only because I live out side of Scranton - not within city limits

ETA - there are several large universities in Scranton that are Catholic and Jesuit owned, and they pay NO taxes at all on any of their buildings or dorms...

Evening national news had a piece on this and the reporter stated the town was possibly "looking" for ways to get non-profits who currently pay no taxes to start contributing.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I heard about this in Scranton. The mayor was wrong for what he did and I hope that he will be held in contempt of court for what he did to the fire fighters. SMH

According to the news piece one saw last night the mayor/town of Scranton was ordered by the courts several weeks ago to restore city worker's previous level of wages. The unions/those representing the affected workers are considering going to court to get an order finding mayor in contempt.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

According to the news piece one saw last night the mayor/town of Scranton was ordered by the courts several weeks ago to restore city worker's previous level of wages. The unions/those representing the affected workers are considering going to court to get an order finding mayor in contempt.

yea they're trying but the city can't secure a bond to make payroll...supposedly the city only had $5000 in its payroll account after paying the $300K for minimum wage for all city employees...

the prisons are city run, they are county, and public health is run by the state - so those nurses will be paid full salary...

the thing is in PA those workers affected can file for partial unemployment - our unemployment system will pay them a partial to equal their regular salary...