Charge Nurse reduce in pay to give Super's a raise!

pugmum · Jan 20, 2006

All the charge nurses got this e-mail: We are sorry but we are decreasing the charge pay by 50 cents an hour to be able to keep the house supervisors salaries in line. Can you believe it? Although I do like doing charge now & again, the lousy $1.00 an hour is not my incentive, very little money for alot of responsibility!

Huh??? :confused: Are they even allowed to do that? I would be tempted to tell them I wouldn't do charge again, the money couln't buy enough Tylenol or Advil to fix my migraine! Jeepers, that is so unfair!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2006

If someone attempts to take a dime of pay away from me, I would no longer work as a charge nurse. The added responsibilities, in my opinion, deserve some type of added compensition.

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Jan 20, 2006

I am sorry to read this. Seems like the extra responsibility is not that worthy to them?

Hope they change their minds. Good luck

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 20, 2006

They took away our charge nurse pay when we went pay for skills. A couple of years later they added .75/hr charge pay because the nurse retention committee suggested it does make a difference in nurse satisfaction.

Obviously where you work, they aren't interested much in nurse satisfaction. Bean counters don't realize that it's cheaper to keep nurses satisfied. Seriously, how much money are they going to save by taking .50/hr away, vs. the anger, loss of satisfaction, loyalty, etc.?

funnygirl_rn2 · Jan 20, 2006

Obviously where you work, they aren't interested much in nurse satisfaction. Bean counters don't realize that it's cheaper to keep nurses satisfied. Seriously, how much money are they going to save by taking .50/hr away, vs. the anger, loss of satisfaction, loyalty, etc.?

Tweety...that is absolutely correct! Where I do agency, this SNF will no longer pay staff RN's a different pay than LPN's. They said they couldn't afford it, and if you were an RN who was hired on prior to that change, that nurse could keep her/his original hourly wage. However, if you were a new RN just getting hired, then due to the new wage change, an RN will receive the same exact pay that an LPN will get.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2006

If someone attempts to take a dime of pay away from me, I would no longer work as a charge nurse. The added responsibilities, in my opinion, deserve some type of added compensition.

Exactly. Anything can happen, our patients are MORE acute, not less, our responsibilities as resource person, staffing coordinator, and bedside nurse (some of our charges have to take patients as well!) are GREATER than ever, so why should our paycheck not reflect that? :confused:

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Jan 20, 2006

Wow - that really sucks! Why the heck should anyone do it then. That seems so ridiculous a way to conduct the business.

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Jan 20, 2006

That sucks. I would refuse charge duties. I cant believe they actually admitted WHAT thery were going to do w/ the money they took away from you!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jan 20, 2006

Penny wise, Pound foolish....

grinnurse, RN · Jan 20, 2006

Wow! An extra dollar or 50 cents for charge-------No Way!! Our charges get 3.00$ (still not enough IMO) for all the hassle they go through!! Maybe it should be suggested that they reduce Upper Managements salaries to compensate the charges to keep their pay in line!! Bet they'd go for that huh???? NOT!!

llg, PhD, RN · Jan 20, 2006

Not only is it stupid for the reasons everyone else has said ... but I am also amazed at the political incompetence of the e-mail wording. By telling you that they are giving the charge nurse money to the supervisors, they are pitting one group of nurses against each other. How stupid is that? ... or ... Perhaps they are purposely trying to cause friction between the charge nurses and the supervisors.

If they didn't want to cause friction between the 2 groups, they would not have told you where the money was going. They would have simply said that they had done a "comprehensive salary review of all positions and that new salaries for each position had been established. Your new compensation will be: _____" ..... and then privately told the supervisors to keep their mouths shut about their raise.

The fact that they chose to communicate as they did tells me that they are either trying to stir up friction between the 2 groups of nurses (divide and conquer) OR they are incompetent. Either way, I wouldn't want to work for them.

llg