Does your hospital have merit raises? Annual Raises?

[qt314nf]

I'm a nurse in Southern Cali and my hospital just announced this week that there will be no raises this year b/c the hospital is in the red zone and is trying to cut costs in order to make a profit and that salaries are the biggest expense. My hospital only has annual "merit" raises which means there will be no raises at all this year. This doesn't seem fair to me b/c the cost of living is going up, the cost of gas in SoCal is almost $4 a gallon. The staff is all upset, but management keeps telling us all hospitals are having the same problem. Can you speak to your hospital and how your annual raises work? Do you have merit raises? Annual raises to adjust for inflation? Any advice please???

[kimmymom]

I work in a small hospital in Central Wisconsin and we get annual raises. My first month of employment I got almost a dollar pay increase so that we would be more competitive with other employers. Maybe this will all change at some point, who knows. Gas here, too is $3.45 a gallon. Lucky for me I live 1/2 mile from the hospital!

[ggfifirn05]

Up until this year, my hospital gave across the board annual raises every July. Starting 01/01/07, they are now giving raises based on your employment anniversary date. Not really sure if they are now going to be merit based, but I doubt it, especially since we are building a brand new "state of the art" facility attached to the clinic; so it seems that all the money is going for that project. My anniversary date is July, so time will tell.

[incublissRN, BSN, RN]

I've been working at my hospital for a year and I should receive a raise soon. I think we get a 3% annual raise and a merit raise, although I don't know how much it is yet.

[gitterbug]

Welcome to the world of modern health care. Not enough profits for the big guns. There is not much you can do regarding this situation except vote with your feet and march to a new job. This situation has happened before in facilities here, some left, some stayed, but none of the nurses were happy either way. Oh yes, do not be surprised if benefits increase in cost, a freeze or slow down in hiring for open positions is imposed, and everyone gets the speech about cutting costs. Of course this will only effect the people who administration feels drains money from the facility. Administrators and physicians will still get their perks. Good luck with this, I have been there and the situation got really nasty before things got better. Nurses and other professionals left in droves after awhile because there simply was no way to justify no raises in over 2 years.