Comparison of US and UK pay

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I am a RN working in the US. I am just beginning to look into the comparison of pay and cost of living. If I moved to the UK, can I expect to make more or less? Can anyone give me any information on this? Also, is the shortage of nurses in the UK comparable to the shortage we have here. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Wow Nearly three times more than you were earning in the UK that is some wage increase. When I left the UK I was an F grade and I was on a good wage and dont find the wages phenomanally larger here like you have found. I earn $35 an hour and an extra $1 at the weekend, I earn 6 hours holidays/sicktime every couple of weeks. I dont know what grade you were but you must be on a lot of money I should come work where you are. Plus we can have unpaid leave but not a large amount if we are needed and are expected to be on call to come back in needed if somebody should call in sick.

I was an f grade top of band in the UK- but I do not convert what I earn in dollers in to pounds as if you live in the states cost of living is the same- in the UK I was on 28k and have just got a job earning 60k tax is less and I do not take health benifits- we earn 7.5 pto every pay period and max of four weeks unpaid leave- if you like I can help you get a job as I would get a $1000 sign on if you took the job! but it would be a bit of a drive and I know you love L$D! see you friday! ( did I guess right!)

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Benefits are better in hospitals than other places to work. You are allassuming that your pension from work is the only pension. We,as US citizens will get social security retirement and this is based on work alaries,so usually upwards of $1200 a month plus your hospital pensions. You can defer any amount you want after a certain age-i think it's 65-you can defer 100% to your 401k. You can save up your vacation pay,where I work it's up to 600 hours. You don't have to be sick to take it,you can use it for sickness or vacation. Currently I have 200 hours and only work part time,so i will continue to draw salary for 6 months after i retire. I take short vacations and do not usually use any of my paid leave for these trips. Of course,I am healthy and have needed only a day or two here and there for many years. Travel nursing is not a good way to go if you get sick. They have to pay your rent and will expect to get reimbursed for this if you are not working. My travel nursing experiences were very good. I did travel for 6 years.

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Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
Benefits are better in hospitals than other places to work. You are allassuming that your pension from work is the only pension. We,as US citizens will get social security retirement and this is based on work alaries,so usually upwards of $1200 a month plus your hospital pensions.

the pension discussion excludes UK standard state pension - which people with sufficient NI contributions will get anyway , SERPS/S2P doesn't apply to people in the NHS pension scheme as it is a contracted out scheme ( and therefore reduces the tax /NI liability while in employment)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_pension_provision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Earnings-Related_Pension_Scheme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Second_Pension

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Pension_Scheme

You can defer any amount you want after a certain age-i think it's 65-you can defer 100% to your 401k. You can save up your vacation pay,where I work it's up to 600 hours. You don't have to be sick to take it,you can use it for sickness or vacation. Currently I have 200 hours and only work part time,so i will continue to draw salary for 6 months after i retire. I take short vacations and do not usually use any of my paid leave for these trips. Of course,I am healthy and have needed only a day or two here and there for many years.

famous last words ...

look out for that bus ...

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Specializes in ICU, midwifery, Nurse Practitioner.

famous last words ...

look out for that bus ...

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

I know a lot of the UK nurses feel I am sometimes a party pooper, and I admit I am but only sometimes:trout: but read this thread and realise it is not always about the money and some of you will not be coming over here and working in any better working conditions than you are now

https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/nurses-pathetic-212185-11.html#post2110843

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Specializes in med/surg.
I know a lot of the UK nurses feel I am sometimes a party pooper, and I admit I am but only sometimes:trout: but read this thread and realise it is not always about the money and some of you will not be coming over here and working in any better working conditions than you are now

https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/nurses-pathetic-212185-11.html#post2110843

OK but bottom line Madwife - do you regret going? You've been through some real **** too so that makes what you say on this even more interesting.

I know you like to remind us regularly that the grass is not always greener etc - & that's a good thing - but weighing everything up & bearing in mind some of the "Big Brother" stuff that's going on in the UK right now (that was not an issue when you left) do you wish you'd stayed in the UK? TRUTH NOW!!!!;)

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bottom line for me is no i wouldnt go back home. i started my contract with nurses whose sole aim in life was to make things awful for nurses who werent from the island. i then was given a charge position on nights and i worked with the same group of nurses who liked me and accepted me, so we had 18 months at the beach, just dh and i so we didnt have child issues, like finding childcare.

we came staeside last january and its been one disaster after another culminating in us being rear-ended by a young out of state college girl and we were given the citations.

we wouldnt have the quality of life or house that we have here back home, but then we wouldnt have the worry of how to pay medical bills as our insurance only covers 70% and my day surgery cost over $20,000, the er visit on the day of the crash for dh was $16,000 and they are chasing us to pay $8,000 of it as well.

and now dh has to have back surgery so financially we are crippled.

but then again, we have made best friends who are like our family who have supported us through this, not financially as they have experienced the same thing 8 months prior to us, and of course her name is madwife.

and i will tell you that she will not go back to the uk either, and she has only told you the experiences that she has had the same as i have but the difference is that we had mostly good experiences for the first 18 months, and were able to get some money saved.

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
I know a lot of the UK nurses feel I am sometimes a party pooper, and I admit I am but only sometimes:trout: but read this thread and realise it is not always about the money and some of you will not be coming over here and working in any better working conditions than you are now

https://allnurses.com/forums/f8/nurses-pathetic-212185-11.html#post2110843

I dont think people think you are a party pooper, however if you read back over your posts when things were bad for you, and the replies you gave to questions from people from the uk, you may see why people found some things you posted upsetting, as many of the things said were very negative, sometimes rightly so, especially as i believe you havent had an easy couple of years considering you have just moved.

When you are stuck in the UK, waiting desperately to go to the USA, with no end in sight, imagine how it feels to see someone constantly running down the one thing you want to achieve in life, all most of us on here want is the chance to get the otherside of the Atlantic, Greencard in hand, and work and live in the USA, for better or worse.

Remember how it was, and still is for many people on here, being messed around by our agencies, held back during I140, and now retrogression, Imagine for example that all you crave is chocolate, its the thing you want most in life, you want it so much it hurts, all you think about is chocolate, you dream about it, people ask you all the time 'when will you be getting your chocolate? will it be soon?' youve spent money trying to get chocolate and studied hard to get it, but its just out of reach, you can see it but a daft man wont let you have it, :o then on a website someone who has got chocolate is telling you that chocolate is awful, its not easy to look after, its not what you think, it will make you ill, it tatses bad, everyone elses chocolate is so much nicer than yours, that when you get your chocolate you will realise that its not as nice as you think etc etc.....

I dont deny that you must have had some really rough times in your USA experiance, i certainly cant imagine how being seriously short of money, ill, and scared in another country feels, I for one enjoy reading your journal but i would like to hear some of the nicer things that have happened to you in the USA, you seem to have made some good friends, is there anything else that has made you laugh/smile/feel glad that you did it?!?

I expect this post will be mis interpreted as a personal attack -it isnt- im just sort of trying to explain how some of us feel sometimes, if it offends then i apologise in advance.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
OK but bottom line Madwife - do you regret going? You've been through some real **** too so that makes what you say on this even more interesting.

I know you like to remind us regularly that the grass is not always greener etc - & that's a good thing - but weighing everything up & bearing in mind some of the "Big Brother" stuff that's going on in the UK right now (that was not an issue when you left) do you wish you'd stayed in the UK? TRUTH NOW!!!!;)

:lol2: The truth the real real truth now that is a tuff one mmmmmmm

I love living here, why else would I stay here. Initially it was so hard to stay I just want to run back home with my tail between my legs then I couldn't go home until I could go home with my head held high.

I suffered so hard with homesickness I thought my heart would break, I was so lonely and so sick, and we knew nobody who could help sort out the major problems we were facing-the agency abondoned us and left us high and dry.

Our money was running out, we couldnt afford the medical expences, people were rude to us-nobody and mean nobody cared or helped us!!

Then slowly things started to change a doctor helped me with the pain, we started to make friends who helped us with our child care problems, my husband started to earn a little money and my godness he worked hard cleaning windows in the 120 degree heat day in and day out.

I used to write info on here to try and help and inform others incase they faced problems so they knew there was solutions NOT to stop people coming because I would not want to stop people from coming here I only wanted to help people.

I have a wonderful life now I have inner peace now very different from what I expected, I work giving back to the community, I am fortunate to have survived my accident, we still have no money, we have lovely friends, the weather is lovely, the mountains and sceenery are breath taking. We have two beautiful dogs, a beautiful house Daves business is thriving some weeks it is slow some weeks it is good.

Everyday I live with a headache somedays it is so bad I can hardly see other days it hovers around niggling but I am happy.

So back to the question would I do it all again and the answer is YES the accident taught me a big lesson in life and that is to enjoy life and to never regret what you've done only what you've never done.

So get your ar**s over here and fight your own demons of emigration and if you need me or any of my advice hey I'll help, because believe it or not I am a funny, entertaining, daft crazy person who doesn't always take herself so seriously.:monkeydance:

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
I dont think people think you are a party pooper, however if you read back over your posts when things were bad for you, and the replies you gave to questions from people from the uk, you may see why people found some things you posted upsetting, as many of the things said were very negative, sometimes rightly so, especially as i believe you havent had an easy couple of years considering you have just moved.

When you are stuck in the UK, waiting desperately to go to the USA, with no end in sight, imagine how it feels to see someone constantly running down the one thing you want to achieve in life, all most of us on here want is the chance to get the otherside of the Atlantic, Greencard in hand, and work and live in the USA, for better or worse.

Remember how it was, and still is for many people on here, being messed around by our agencies, held back during I140, and now retrogression, Imagine for example that all you crave is chocolate, its the thing you want most in life, you want it so much it hurts, all you think about is chocolate, you dream about it, people ask you all the time 'when will you be getting your chocolate? will it be soon?' youve spent money trying to get chocolate and studied hard to get it, but its just out of reach, you can see it but a daft man wont let you have it, :o then on a website someone who has got chocolate is telling you that chocolate is awful, its not easy to look after, its not what you think, it will make you ill, it tatses bad, everyone elses chocolate is so much nicer than yours, that when you get your chocolate you will realise that its not as nice as you think etc etc.....

I dont deny that you must have had some really rough times in your USA experiance, i certainly cant imagine how being seriously short of money, ill, and scared in another country feels, I for one enjoy reading your journal but i would like to hear some of the nicer things that have happened to you in the USA, you seem to have made some good friends, is there anything else that has made you laugh/smile/feel glad that you did it?!?

I expect this post will be mis interpreted as a personal attack -it isnt- im just sort of trying to explain how some of us feel sometimes, if it offends then i apologise in advance.

You know nothing apart from my bloody headaches is awful in my life anymore. I do miss the pub :lol2: but I am going to Las Vegas in June to watch Ricky Hatton Fight and go to the after fight VIP party as my Best friend is his cousin and I shall be rubbing shoulds with the rich and famous. How about that for sumfing good lol.

I am a bit nervous about the boiling weather and have already had my air con serviced ready for summer:lol2: :angryfire me soon

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this thread has taken a life of its own which is what i like to see as we all have our own points of view,,,,,and rightly so.

i feel for all of you waiting to come here, because i do remember it well, sometimes i feel like quite the veteran as its nearly 3 years since we have come here.

but to take the thread back to the difference in the pay, to me it all depends as well on what you were earning back home as to what you will compare it to.

whether you will have a spouse who will come with you and earn good money,

mr & mrs og are in such a lucky position both being nurses and just one of them coming with a contract and mrs og being able to be a freelance rn.

we chose for my dh not to work when we first came, and of course as luck would have it, when he was fit to work it didnt last long due to the car crash.

so although i earned more we did not have his income that we had back home.

so we gave up a joint income of maybe 40,000 pounds and came for just $50,000, and i know once you start earning dollars, pounds dont matter any more, but the pound is worth nearly $2,

i was lucky to take those earnings with overtime to $90,000 and when tax time came had to pay some back to the government.

but how times have changed, its now nearly april and we havent earned a cent since january 5th, so fortunes can come and go.

we wouldnt dream of going home to the uk, and cant wait to meet all of you who are coming here, and hope that its sooner than you all think.

its times like these that you need some uk friends who understand and the support that we have had from them both here and on allnurses has been great.

and we are still having our house built with a pool, so a pool party will be when we are all able to meet up.

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Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
You know nothing apart from my bloody headaches is awful in my life anymore. I do miss the pub :lol2: but I am going to Las Vegas in June to watch Ricky Hatton Fight and go to the after fight VIP party as my Best friend is his cousin and I shall be rubbing shoulds with the rich and famous. How about that for sumfing good lol.

I am a bit nervous about the boiling weather and have already had my air con serviced ready for summer:lol2: :angryfire me soon

blimy!!

sometimes the otherside of the darkest place you have been in life, is the best place you will ever experiance in your lifetime, coming through bad times without running for it is the hardest thing anyone can do.

looks like some of the light is beginning to shine on you abit, and i for one am glad

now, to the important bit,

hows the chocolate :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

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