Do nurses and surgical technologists get inflation increases when working in a hospital?

[Logan2]

I am doing my prerequisites for surgical technology (nursing kind of scares me) with hopes of becoming a first assistant after 3 years and am wondering if these professions recieve inflation increases? I saw a cst post that she has been in the field for 10 years and still makes 20$/hr. I have a side business which helps pay the bills but I am aware rn's make alot more than cst's do... I just don't think I would be fit as well for nursing as I would as a cst. This is off topic but I have assisted oral surgeons and loved it; I am hoping I will like being in hospital ORs as well.

If hospital lpn's/cst's don't get inflation increases is it worth going into? I found a thread that said rn's do get inflation increases which is great!

Thank you.

[SquishyRN, BSN, RN]

Depends on the hospital/facility, not the profession. Union facilities are more likely to have annual increases, but some non-union facilities do too.

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

I am doing my prerequisites for surgical technology (nursing kind of scares me) with hopes of becoming a first assistant after 3 years and am wondering if these professions recieve inflation increases?

In my state, you can't be a first assist without being a nurse. However, you can be a private scrub.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Inflation increases? Heck, I haven't gotten one of those since 2007. Ever since the economy tanked in 2008, raises are either small or nonexistent at my facility- to the point that the $0.13 raise I last got was more of an insult than anything else. Call pay has been at $2/hour for the last 20 years. You can't tell me that $2 means the same now as it did in 1996 to basically put your life on hold and be tied to the hospital for however long you're on call.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Nursing is notorious for "salary compression". This means that new grads may receive more than their non-nursing colleagues, but salaries maxx out within 5 years. It is not unusual for average annual "merit" raises (based on performance) to be 2%, which does not ever keep up with in cost of living increases. The very common result? Nurses with >5 years of experience discover than new grads are being hired with higher starting salaries..... srsly. Across the board COL increases are as rare as perfect HCAHPS scores. Usually only occurs when there has been some catastrophic event - such as successful class-action suit for artificial wage compression (AKA, price-fixing) among competing hospitals.

In order to have a better salary/career trajectory in nursing, we need to take steps to advance our careers through advanced degrees that will qualify us for higher level positions. Sometimes, that isn't even enough as the competition can be fierce for those 'better' jobs.