Can You Live Off A CNA's Pay? Do you?

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Can you really live off of $8.00 an hour? That's only $64 a day, $448 a week, $1792 a month. Would $1792 be enough to pay for rent, insurance, bills, taxes, gasoline, food,..etc. Have any tips for me? And if you can live off a CNA's pay, how do you do it??? I'd appreciate all answers. :) Thank You

Can you really live off of $8.00 an hour?

I couldn't. Nor could I live off the $10.25/hr I got at my first CNA job in LTC.

However, after a very difficult year and a half, I finally had enough experience for a hospital to grant me an interview. My pay increased to $15.50 plus mileage and the opportunity for a fair amount of overtime as a Home Health Aide. It is a great job while in Nursing School, very flexible.

Some of my coworkers have been doing this job for 10, 15, 20 years and make around $20 an hour with generous vacation time. From what I can see, they don't live extravagantly, but they live. One of my coworkers gets overtime just about every week, I figure he makes around $60,000 a year. I would not want to do this, but it can be done.

If I have to do this job for a spell after graduation, I can scratch out a meager existence until I pass the boards and start work as an RN.

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I find 20 an hour in a hospital hard to believe. Sorry. Maybe you are thinking of another job or heard wrong.

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I find 20 an hour in a hospital hard to believe. Sorry. Maybe you are thinking of another job or heard wrong.

In California they pay you 25 or more!!! Trust me they pay us well..in southern states its a slap in the face!! I'm scared to leave Cali !!

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In California they pay you 25 or more!!! Trust me they pay us well..in southern states its a slap in the face!! I'm scared to leave Cali !!

I am a CNA in california working at a hospital, i do not make 20 an hour. Though i have heard that bigger hospitals start at like 16 an hour

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Specializes in hospice.
In California they pay you 25 or more!!! Trust me they pay us well..in southern states its a slap in the face!! I'm scared to leave Cali !!

The cost of living and the tax burden is also much lower in states that pay less. You need to do an apples-to-apples comparison, because the difference might be almost nothing.

California is a very expensive place to live and its tax and regulatory burdens are high, further increasing costs. I was raised there but have never lived there as an adult because we just can't afford to on the jobs my husband and I could get.

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2 jobs, theres your only way to live as a CNA.

In GA, CNA's are paid $7.25 - $9.00 based on exp.

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