Do you think you are adequately compensated in your job as a nurse?

caliotter3 · May 13, 2009

I work in the community setting (low pay) with mental health clients (low pay) for a facility located in Iowa (low pay). Put all those things together and you get a RN with an MSN (BSN required for the job) with 16 years of experience getting paid less than 40K a year in one of the highest taxed states in the union. Good think I like my job and the people I work with and for.

A CNA at one of the hospitals where I lived made $44,000 or $48,000/year, forget which. I was wondering how I could get a job like that.

Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN · May 13, 2009

As a school nurse I get paid teacher's salary, and I think I have a pretty good deal. I work 187 days per year from 7:40-3:10 (7.5 hours) and make around $47,000. I think that works out to about $33 per hour. I work M-F, no weekends or holidays EVER, and my schedule is known a year in advance so I can plan. I can opt to work summer school if I want, which is 6 weeks from 8-12 and I make approximately an extra $2,000 (net) for that. Personally I think I even have a better deal than the teachers, because I don't have papers to grade at home or after school tutoring. The vast majority of days I get out on time, and if I have to stay it might be an hour or so maybe once a week.

As far as schedule goes, I think I have the best gig nursing has to offer!

Di Deanna · Jul 6, 2009

just a sideline thought of mine. remember, these are nyc figures. :)

i see people graduating with a bachelors in business, finance, etc. & they go to work at a hedge fund..or perhaps wall street, where they easily make 90-150k to start. i used to work @ citadel & they were hiring newbies at that starting rate.

i figured, nursing school is just as challenging, if not more challenging. after ns, a new nurse must deal with life and death situations on a daily basis....or just situations that are generally critical. why is the starting wage only 58-65k for them here in nyc? that sort of baffles the heck out me to be honest.

i worked at conedison (the major utility company for nyc) and knew new people there, with their associates, who started off at almost 50k. they were responsible for taking papers and entering the data in the computer. i kid you not. it just literally baffles me.

ccjus123 · Jul 6, 2009

why is the starting wage only 58-65k for them here in nyc?

i've lived in nyc all my life 31 years and trust me i've worked at columbia university hospital and st. luke's-roosevelt hospital with nurses (on the administrative side), and their starting pay is more close to 70k. right now starting pay for city hospitals (kings county, harlem hospital, and so on) is about 65k and private hospitals like mt. sinai - 70k to start (http://www.mountsinai.org/other/health%20care%20professionals/nursing/careers/salary%20and%20benefits) , and lenox hill - 70k to start (http://www.lenoxhillhospital.org/pdf/nursing_benefits_2007.pdf). nyc private hospitals pay way more than the city hospitals, you might see a slight difference between manhattan and brooklyn hospitals but overall most of them are well over 65k to start.

LilRedRN1973 · Jul 7, 2009

I was making about $31/hour on nightshift in the ICU but then left there to work dayshift at a dialysis clinic for $28/hr. It's not horrible but what kills me is the nurse I work alongside graduated a year AFTER I did (we went to the same school) and makes $7 more an hour. I realize she has some dialysis experience, about a year, but that is a huge amount of compensation for her experience. Between the 14 hour days, assembly line attitude of the dialysis clinic, and working with an RN who makes a significant amount more than I do, yet dumps her work onto me, I'm done. Oh, and the benefits suck. I'm leaving there to work at an outpatient clinic, M-F, 8-5, no holidays, pension, great benefits (cost of insuring me, my husband, and 3 kids is around $140/month for medical/dental/vision), and will be making around $28/hr. The cost of living here is fairly high (we paid almost $300k for our 1800 sq foot home that is 40 years old and gas is around $2.75 for regular at the cheapo gas station) but there are benefits to living here as well....no state income tax, for one.

I don't think RN's are compensated for the job they do, especially floor nurses in the hospital. They work their tails off and end up in precarious situations where they are expected to care for too many patients. Also, the pay increases in our area suck....I worked with an RN who had been in the ICU for about 23 years and was making $32/hr when I started as a new grad for almost $29/hr. How is that fair???

School nursing would be a great gig, as it works out to around $33-34/hr in our state. I would be home for my 3 kids, summers off, etc. But you need a BSN in order to do school nursing in our state, so it's a no-go unless I get my BSN, which is not an option at this point in time. There are so many things wrong with the world of nursing, I don't even know where to start. But they need to start paying RN's a little more if they expect us to keep working in the conditions most of us do. I am hoping I like the job with the state because if so, it's somewhere I can continue to work, make decent money, have great benefits, and be able to retire with a pension around 55-60. Nowhere in the area hospitals will you find that kind of package. I will lose a lot of my skills, especially those I learned in the ICU, but that is the price I will pay in order to be with my kids more and less worn out at the of my workday.

HM2VikingRN, RN · Jul 7, 2009

I believe that I am adequately compensated as a first year RN. I started at enough to meet the budget for a family of 4 in MPLS. In outstate MN I would still do ok but it would be lower. IOW its location, location, location. I attribute my pay to being in a heavily unionized industry in the Twin Cities which does put a floor under our wages. A strong collective bargaining environment does protect and advance the interests of our profession in my area of the state.

nursing is a joke · Jul 7, 2009

Wanted to delet this. Look below.

nursing is a joke · Jul 7, 2009

wtbcrna said: In response to my post from page number 4

"You can choose where you work! Nursing has its' problems, but like any other job there are bad places to work and good ones. What it all comes down to in the end is it is your nursing career...not your nurse managers/hospital administrators or anyone else, you make the decision ultimately on how you will be treated/where you will work/how much you will work etc.Good Luck I hope you have a better day/shift tomorrow!

tinygeezers said:

What I want to say is we are professionals. I am a professional. I don't work for the hospital. I work for myself. I provide RN services to a hospital. I choose the hospital. I choose the unit. I choose the shift. I choose to decide if the compensation package is acceptable. I choose to analyze the working conditions to determine if they are acceptable. I choose to continue or terminate my association with a facility as I deem fit. I choose. If I don't like something, and I cannot change it, then I vote with my feet and move on. The fact that I can choose my profession and it's circumstances makes me a professional. I feel we need to be compensated better, but I am certainly not a victim

"Nursing is a joke says: The above are just some of the responses I received after I put up my post. Apparently, I got under the skin of some. Before I became a nurse I owned three restaurants, a painting company and was a chef for 20 years in Manhattan. I employed hundreds of people before I became a nurse and have gathered a retirement's worth of wealth before I became a nurse..(thank goodness I did...... because as a nurse....... there is no retirement.....just poverty for all the work you put in over 20/30 years.)

I am certainly not a victim. I am stating factual information based on my experience as a nurse. You can only be a victim if you give others permission to victimize you. It is true I can vote with my feet. And for all the reasons stated by the responder, I have used my feet scores of times due to the un professionalism of the nurses (especially nurse managers) that I have worked with. I do not allow people to abuse me....... but it seems nurses are accused of "swimming against the tide" or " not going with the flow" if you don't stand there and take the abuse. I choose to tell my manager off and then use my feet to walk out the door.

There is also this reality..... and as a former business owner I know what I'm talking about. Nurse managers know that 80% of the population depend on their paychecks week to week and would be devastated if they missed even a week's worth of pay. They use this information to intimidate nurses into doing whatever it is they want the nurse to do. Nurses who desperately need the money, do not have the luxury, that we may have, to vote with their feet and just leave. They have children to feed and rent to pay. They cannot afford nor do they have the freedom to "Vote with their feet." They cannot afford or have the freedom to " choose" what they will do next." They are stuck due to lack of funds and the need for every penny the institution is willing to give them...... which, I repeated, is a pitifully low amount considering our knowledge base and the amount of work we do. I have the luxury of voting with my feet and leaving what I find unacceptable. But I am sticking up for those who don't.

So before lecturing those of us who are warning potential nurses of the pitfalls of nursing you may want to consider that not everyone has your luxury to do as they please. I could quit nursing if I so choose. I could quit working if I so choose and never have to work again. There are many who have had, and are having the experience I have had as a nurses but are terrified of saying anything ( and rightly so) because nursing is not a democracy. You will be punished if you say the wrong thing and lose your job. And, unfortunately, whatever facility a nurse goes to............ it is the same. Overworked, underpaid, expected to be silent while those in authority abuse you..... ( and they especially like to do this publicly), expected to stay past your shift without being paid for it, keep silent when you call in sick and then are threatened with disciplinary action if you call in sick again, beg for raises you'll never get......... ad nauseam.

Those who responded to me with a lecture are speaking to a full grown man who has been all over the world several times and has owned many businesses and employed hundreds of people for over 20 years, before he became a nurse. I became a nurse because I was set financially and had the desire to go to college ( which I had not done before.) I had already spent years volunteering my time for causes I cared about while I owned my businesses. I figured why not get into a field where I can help people and still make an additional income. Being professional, to me, means not having other tell me how to "volunteer" my time. If you want me to work.......... than you PAY me for it. This is not the case in nursing. You work whether you like it or not, and you will NOT be paid for it..... and if you don't I will fire you. THAT IS THE EXPERIENCE OF TODAY'S NURSE. It is most unfortunate.

I have been around the block a few times. And, as I've stated, luckily, I placed myself in a financial position where I am set for my retirement........ and I did all this BEFORE I became a nurse. I know what being a professional is. And it is not professional to use information..... ie. 80% of the population depends on living paycheck to paycheck........ to get people to do the most outlandish things that would not be acceptable in any other line of work. Plus, as a male nurse, I am astounded at the sex discrimination against women that I witness in nursing. The male who responded to me............. well....... that sounds like a male way of dealing with what a man does not like or what a man will or will not put up with. He will leave and find something else or somewhere else to work.

Women respond differently than we do....... and put up with a lot more abuse than we do. These are my observations....... not my opinions. What is astonishing to me is that it is women discriminate against other women, in this field, and that is so alarming to me. Instead of sticking up for each other, they stab each other in the backs. My original response was to a young person who was thinking about becoming a nurse. I was letting her know the realities of what to expect when she becomes a nurse.

I realize there are many nurses who allow their pride in their work and the fact that they are proud to be nurses cloud their judgment. Many people I rub the wrong way are older nurses. I have found that when people grow up in a culture...... they do not see the flaws in the culture they have grown up in. I believe it is this way with nurses. Those who were nurses since they were very young ( 20's) think that they way nursing is..... is "normal" Well, it's not. Sometimes it takes someone who has not grown up in the culture and joined the culture when they were older......... they see the flaws. But those who have lived in the culture and think, "well that's just the way it is" will fight with me tooth and nail to justify why it is OK to haze the newcomer, work for nothing, Stay past your shift whether you like it or not..WITHOUT PAY, put up with abusive leadership or be fired............. "Hey, that's just the way it is..... it's been like this since the beginning and you can't change it now." Baloney, You can change it now...... if you're willing to put yourself front and center and demand that change take place. It's the culture's dependence on our silence, and their tactics to keep you silent....... that keeps things the same as they ever were.

I certainly don't need to be lectured on the facts of life. As a nurse, You cannot "Choose" where you work, that is an illusion............. because every new place you work is exactly the same as the last place you worked. This is my experience...... and I've worked in many genres of nursing and in many different institutions. The nursing culture does not change from one institution to the next. Nurses eat their young in one institution just as much as they do in another. So far there have been no " good places" to work as I was lectured to in response to my post. In ALL institution, the bottom line is money........ and when money is the bottom line and all decisions are made based on the bottom line........ there is no GOOD nursing institution. When money is King, no decisions are made based on what is in the best interest of the nurses or patients. All decisions are made based on the bottom line. This makes money more important than people. And since all institution operate that way....... all institutions provide substandard care for patients and put the licenses of the nurses at risk for their own benefit. I found it amusing that I was being assessed as a person who had a bad day/shift and that is why I was verbalizing what I was verbalizing. Again, another case of a nurse thinking she knows what the REAL deal is when she has no idea what she is talking about. I have also noticed that the majority of nurses suffer from same disease............. it is called, "I am a genius and everyone else is an idiot" disease. Sad really.

Di Deanna · Jul 7, 2009

why is the starting wage only 58-65k for them here in nyc?

i've lived in nyc all my life 31 years and trust me i've worked at columbia university hospital and st. luke's-roosevelt hospital with nurses (on the administrative side), and their starting pay is more close to 70k. right now starting pay for city hospitals (kings county, harlem hospital, and so on) is about 65k and private hospitals like mt. sinai - 70k to start (http://www.mountsinai.org/other/health%20care%20professionals/nursing/careers/salary%20and%20benefits) , and lenox hill - 70k to start (http://www.lenoxhillhospital.org/pdf/nursing_benefits_2007.pdf). nyc private hospitals pay way more than the city hospitals, you might see a slight difference between manhattan and brooklyn hospitals but overall most of them are well over 65k to start.

i wasn't including overtime or any sign on bonuses. i also kept in mind that not all new nurses land a job at the hospital their first time around.

however, i find it encouraging that there are still some places that pay a reasonable starting rate. i heard that a few years back the figures were more like 75-85k....for an adn graduate!

ilmbg · Jul 14, 2009

It is interesting that approximately 7/10 feel that they are grossly underpaid. And oh, how I do agree!

nursing is a joke- you have said everything that I feel- and others have also.

Unfortunately, it will remain so. The majority of nurses seem to be single mothers. As a recent poster said- would I as a single mother walk from my job, no matter how bad it is? Nope, I couldn't- as most people can't.

My life has been ruined due to nursing. I broke my neck and back- because of a 500# patient- yep the first night she was on the floor! When I told the charge person she needed to be transferred to a larger hospital where there were specialty beds, the response was: 'No! We'll lose money!'. Well, I was the first of 3 people who were hurt. I do believe that cost them a bit in Work Comp premiums!

I can no longer work due to this- and I now live a totally different lifestyle- not fun.

I have had great jobs and lousy jobs (the last one). I am in northern Wyoming, and I took a 50% cut in pay to work in a crappy place, work in dangerous conditions.

The cost of living here is higher than anywhere I have lived. The average salery here is $45,000/year for RN. Sick, really sick.