Capped Salary?

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Specializes in MICU, CCU, Surgical ICU.

I'm not sure how to approach this, I recently got my evaluation at work. My evaluation was very positive. I work for a large corporate health care company in Westchester County, New York in the ICU for the last 4 years. I have 22 years experience in the ICU with my BSN. I previously was working on the West Coast in a large Trauma hospital for 16 years in a Union hospital.

I receive my merit raise, and then about a month later received a letter that said my hourly salary is now capped at $58.10 an hour. Other people have also received this letter after they have gotten their evaluations done. I am shocked, I was wondering if either people with similar experiences and their BSN would share or privately message me with their hourly salary. We rotate triage/charge without compensation. Also, are their salary caps at your hospital? We are paid $0.50 an hour more having our BSN. (That is already included in the $58.10.) HR told me that they had completed the fair market analysis of the local market. It sounds like BS to me. As you can tell, we are not Union. I think it's time to job hunt but I'm just wondering what my salary and experience are worth in the New York metro area. Thank you so much for your help.

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I have no idea how reasonable $58.10/hr is in your area/market (although I've never lived anywhere that I could even dream of making that much), but lots of healthcare employers have salary ranges for different positions that include a max/cap. My current employer posts all staff positions with a salary range, minimum to maximum, and where you are started on that scale as a new employee depends on your education, years of experience, certifications, etc. Once you've received raises that take you to the top of the scale for your position, you're not going to make any more until the organization increases the salary range for that position (I have no idea how often they recalculate the salary ranges).

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Most every position has a pay range (high and low). Once you get to the max, then that is it, you are at max.

Is there another level of RN above you, that has a higher pay grade? You will eventually get to the max amount you can make as a floor nurse.

No idea on other facilities there, but down here, that rate is unheard of.

Every facility goes through their "market evaluation", which usually screws those that have been there the longest.

Many times you can make more by leaving then coming back in a few years.

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Specializes in MICU, CCU, Surgical ICU.

There is another level- which I am already in the process of leveling up. The max on that is $1.00 more. I understand that maximum pay per position. I am frustrated that we were purchased by a larger chain 2 years ago, and the previous ICU nurses with 20 + years at this hospital in the area are making $75+hr. I appreciate they were rewarded for their loyalty,but now to be locked in so much lower seem unfair. Life sometimes forces your hand to change when you are not ready for better outcomes.

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Yes, nursing in our area has a cap. Nowhere near what you get paid, but I imagine your area is an overly expensive place to live. My mother was maxed out for many years and would get a small bonus instead of a pay raise. In speaking with her, she was able to get to the cap nursing pay a lot quicker than nurses can today. We work our butts off for maybe a .25 raise per year. No premium pay for working in ICU vs M/S. If I continued to work as an ICU nurse for 20 years, maybe I'd be maxed out, but who knows!?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

salary.com is usually pretty reliable in their pay rate surveys, and for White Plains for instance it appears you are being paid well above the mean rate for nurses in your area with similar experience, which appears closer to $52/hour at the top end.

As for the cap, every facility that I've worked at has a pay cap.

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Specializes in MICU, CCU, Surgical ICU.

Great info. Thanks

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I am frustrated that we were purchased by a larger chain 2 years ago, and the previous ICU nurses with 20 + years at this hospital in the area are making $75+hr. I appreciate they were rewarded for their loyalty,but now to be locked in so much lower seem unfair.

Yeah, that sounds on trend with being bought out by a larger hospital chain...being asked to do more for less, and with fewer resources to work with. All about the bottom line...

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Specializes in ICU.

I work at a unionized hospital in CA. We don't have a hard cap on salary per se. It's broken down by $X/hr based on years of experience with the top bracket being >/= 16 years. You continue to get annual cost of living adjustments no matter where you fall on the years of experience scale. (This was about $1/hr this year.) In addition, our contract is renegotiated every 3 years, so the cap moves up for each years of experience bracket. At this time, the highest listed pay is about $65/hr, but people can make a little more than that with the cost of living adjustments.

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Specializes in CVICU, MICU, Burn ICU.

I was talking to a recruiter this past week about salary in a different state. He told me I'd be making very close to the capped amount due to my experience. So it's a thing, capped salary. I'm sure it is also where I am now, but I'm not at the top of that range yet. And I thought it was interesting I would be at the top of someone else's range. How convenient. It wasn't really selling me on the job, to be honest -- especially when he told me what their ratios were.

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I have never heard of a hospital/health care system that did not cap nursing hourly rates. We are capped at a level FAR lower than yours. I couldn't dream of making money like that (I assume that in the NY metro area you need every penny of it).

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