Does your employer charge you for PTO?

[Lovethenurse2b25]

I work for an LTC facility that pretty much charges for pto. This is the first time I’ve heard of this. I actually worked for an assisted living facility for 9 years before company sold the property and we did not lose money for pto.

I'm sure your wonder what I mean by paying for pto. This companies starting wage is $35hr but if you want pto your wage will have to drop to $33.50hr. This is were it gets interesting if you want PTO and Benefits your hourly wage is $32.

With a hourly wage of $32 your annual salary would be

Gross Income$66,560.00

Take Home $53,650.46

With an hourly wage of $35 your annual salary would be

Gross Income$72,800.00

Take Home$58,040.30

The take home between the wages is a $5,000 different. I think this policy is outrages. And to top it off the benefits that they offer still come out of your check every two weeks. I feel as it they are forcing you not to want benefits and pto.

Please share your opinion on this !

[Lovethenurse2b25, ASN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN]

4 minutes ago, MunoRN said:

I've frequently heard nurses complain about not having an option, this is the first complaint I've heard because it is an option to cash-out of benefits.

It's up to the employee to ensure they are aware of the terms of job offer, and the employee can't assume a quoted hourly rate includes PTO since no state requires that PTO be provided for hourly employees.

I get that it's a bummer to think you're getting $35 an hour plus some undefined amount of benefits, but $32 with benefits for a new grad in LTC is nothing to sneeze at.

Yes $32 for a new RN grad is decent. Pay is actually $31.50 but there are other places that pay $38 and more. Also in this area of NJ many lpns start out with $29 as new grads for ltc facilities. The LPN nurses in my facility actually make more than me.

[NurseBlaq]

6 hours ago, Lovethenurse2b25 said:

Yes $32 for a new RN grad is decent. Pay is actually $31.50 but there are other places that pay $38 and more. Also in this area of NJ many lpns start out with $29 as new grads for ltc facilities. The LPN nurses in my facility actually make more than me.

I'm confused. Are you an RN? If so, you have an LPN supervisor AND make less than LPNs in that facility?

[Lovethenurse2b25, ASN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN]

56 minutes ago, NurseBlaq said:

I'm confused. Are you an RN? If so, you have an LPN supervisor AND make less than LPNs in that facility?

Yes i am an RN. The unit managers are all LPN’s. The ADON and DON are RN’s as well.

[Forest2]

On 6/10/2019 at 10:43 AM, Lovethenurse2b25 said:

I am a full time employee 40+ hrs a week. The benefits that they offer are not completely clear to me i have asked for an employee policy and procedure books weeks ago and was told there wasn’t one. From what i hear from other employee’s the benefits are expensive and not worth it. Same for PTO time no written policy to explain the details. I just know that they do not roll over at the end of the year. I just don’t understand why i would have to take a wage cut for PTO.

Pretty darn sure the law states that they have to have these and to provide them to their employees. Something is fishy in

Denmark

[MunoRN, RN]

No states require hourly employees to be provided with PTO, neither does the federal government.

Health insurance must be offered to full time employees, but the employer can require that the employee pay into the cost up to about 10% of their household income. If the employee makes $65,000 per year then the employer can charge the employee about $6000 per year for health insurance, if the employee wants to add family members to the plan then the employer can have the employee pay the full cost for adding family to their plan.

[NurseBlaq]

20 hours ago, Lovethenurse2b25 said:

Yes i am an RN. The unit managers are all LPN’s. The ADON and DON are RN’s as well.

I wouldn't be there for that alone. Not that I have a superiority complex to LPNs but that legally you're the ranking nurse and would be required to do certain tasks out of their scope of practice.

Had a job try that with me once. The LPN was charge, I was the only RN in the building on duty but that's because legally there needed to be one. I couldn't leave but everyone else could during our break. She couldn't do certain IVs but I was required to stop what I was doing to make sure patients received their IV therapy. Nope. I'm not doing that. I don't get paid to be charge, I'm held hostage, and you expect me to answer to someone else with limited abilities? It's time to go. None of that was told to me when I was hired. It was my first weekend I worked there and found all of that out on accident. I was done that day! Didn't make it through the rest of the weekend. It was a setup for failure plus I don't like being lied to, especially when my livelihood is at stake.

I'm just saying be careful with that scenario. The DON/ADON may do it now, but it'll come a time where they'll slowly pass those duties onto you.

[NewMexNurse, ADN, MSN, RN]

At my hospital, you get paid less for PTO because you get certification pay when you are on the floor. So, that is $3/hr less for PTO or education time. They don't mess with benefits though

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 6/10/2019 at 7:25 PM, klone said:

I know of no places in the US that offer maternity leave. You would likely need to move to Canada or Europe, or another place with socialized healthcare to find that.

Most places I know of offer maternity leave, they just don't pay you for it. Sure , you can take the time off, up to 12 weeks where I work but unless you have a ton of PTO/vacation/sick pay to use you're taking the time without pay and how many people can afford that?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 6/10/2019 at 8:05 PM, ThePrincessBride said:

1200? That is outrageous.

For medical, dental, vision and.disability, I pay $45 biweekly.

I'd agree with that. Heck I've been complaining pretty loudly about mine going up to $500/month for myself and my husband. I don't have kids that are young enough to add to insurance but as I recall that would have added about another $300/month which is still well under $1200.

On the other hand, where does anybody find decent coverage for $90/month? Even if it's just individual coverage that's a pretty good price!

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

18 hours ago, NurseBlaq said:

I wouldn't be there for that alone. Not that I have a superiority complex to LPNs but that legally you're the ranking nurse and would be required to do certain tasks out of their scope of practice.

Had a job try that with me once. The LPN was charge, I was the only RN in the building on duty but that's because legally there needed to be one. I couldn't leave but everyone else could during our break. She couldn't do certain IVs but I was required to stop what I was doing to make sure patients received their IV therapy. Nope. I'm not doing that. I don't get paid to be charge, I'm held hostage, and you expect me to answer to someone else with limited abilities? It's time to go. None of that was told to me when I was hired. It was my first weekend I worked there and found all of that out on accident. I was done that day! Didn't make it through the rest of the weekend. It was a setup for failure plus I don't like being lied to, especially when my livelihood is at stake.

I'm just saying be careful with that scenario. The DON/ADON may do it now, but it'll come a time where they'll slowly pass those duties onto you.

I have to agree with you on this. I live in WI and there is actually specific language in the nurse practice act that covers the expanded role of an LPN in a supervisory capacity in the LTC setting however it is also made clear that the ability of an LPN to supervise does not include supervision of clinical practice. Plus acting as supervisor does not expand the role to increase what the LPN can do as part of their clinical practice. So even with an LPN in a supervisor role there are still things that only an RN can do. I'll be darned if I'd be the only nurse in building that can do RN specific tasks while being supervised by an LPN. There's also no way I'd be willing to sign off on assessments that I didn't actually do myself. If the DON/ADON are comfortable doing that, let them do it.

[LilPeanut, MSN, RN, NP]

On 6/12/2019 at 3:47 PM, MunoRN said:

I've frequently heard nurses complain about not having an option, this is the first complaint I've heard because it is an option to cash-out of benefits.

It's up to the employee to ensure they are aware of the terms of job offer, and the employee can't assume a quoted hourly rate includes PTO since no state requires that PTO be provided for hourly employees.

I get that it's a bummer to think you're getting $35 an hour plus some undefined amount of benefits, but $32 with benefits for a new grad in LTC is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm not qualified to know what the area or going rates are.

But she requested the information, they misled her and didn't provide it. Now, she should have never taken the job, never mind starting it. But they should not be obfuscating things.

[MunoRN, RN]

On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 1:26 PM, kbrn2002 said:

I'd agree with that. Heck I've been complaining pretty loudly about mine going up to $500/month for myself and my husband. I don't have kids that are young enough to add to insurance but as I recall that would have added about another $300/month which is still well under $1200.

On the other hand, where does anybody find decent coverage for $90/month? Even if it's just individual coverage that's a pretty good price!

The employee contribution actually went down to $600 a paycheck when the ACA employer mandate kicked in, prior to that the employer (and others in the area) and had transitioned all of the insurance coverage costs to employees which was $750 a paycheck. Despite that, there were a number of nurses working part time and actually owing the hospital money every two weeks, just to be able to have group-plan health insurance.