how expensive is california? CAN A NURSE MANAGE WITH HER WAGE??

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Hi Guys

Just Looking Abit Of Advice From Other Posts And Other Sources Of Information I Am Aware California Tends To Be A High Costof Living, But How Do You Really Manage?? Is It Manageable With Your Wage Or Do You All Struggle??

Could You Maybe Give Me Rough Est Of Hourly Rate. Considering Taking Up Direct Placement With A Hospital There No Specific Location Yet They Are Coming To Interview In Oct And Id Liked To Be Prepared With Some Informationthat Im Hoping You Could Possibley Give Me.

Hope To Hear From You Soon

P.S ANYONE AWARE OF A GROUP OF HOSPITALS THAT CONSIST OF ABOUT 20 TOGETHER IN THE WEST COAST AREA??

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

New grads in the Bay Area, for example, at the Santa Clara County Hospital earn $39.77 base pay. This does not include differentials which I think are $2.25 for evening shift and $3.75 for night shift.

My example is a county hospital. Here is their RNPA contract. This contract was found at the ESA website under the benefits tab for the job posting for a Clinical Nurse I.

Hmmm. Upon looking into this further I found a more updated RNPA/County of Santa Clara contract.

The differential for pm's is $4 and nocs is $7.25.

Effective November 11, 2006:

Clinical Nurse I's earn $82,729.92 - $98,074.08 annually

Clinical Nurse II's earn $79,532.96 - $103,954.24 annually

Clinical Nurse III's earn $87,709.44 - $126,366.24 annually

These are all straight base wages before any differentials and does not include the cash value of the benefits. Increases across the board become effective May 7, 2007.

Kind of weird, but Nurse I's entry level is more that Nurse II's?? I wonder why that would be?

What's also kind of weird is that at the county's ESA website (where the job postings are) there is a link to the RNPA contract that is old (the one I originally link to). But if you go to the RNPA website it's up to date. humpf.

Anyway, just wanted to correct that.

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.
Not a chance...but glad the bill was signed nonetheless

Personally, I say big whoop to the amount of money that was designated to this purpose. It's a drop in the bucket. The state, under the direction of Arnold and the Hospital Association probably spent 10 times that much trying to undo nurse/patient ratios last year.

Regarding quotas....you commonly see at least 8 patients to one RN (and one nac) here in WA as well. Pay new grads starts at 22.50 in my area.

Hi! all

I am a student nurse but will be qualified soon, I live in England but wants to work in the US because the pay is so much better. I would love to live somewhere thats sunny but if not its ok too.

Would like to live to live in a state where i could buy a nice house a nice car and live comfortable. Was thinking about California, Atlanta or New Jersey, please could you all give me some advise on where to go.

thank you

Specializes in LTC, med-surg, peds.

I have no idea why people choose to get so far off topic but this is what I think: Let's get back to talking about that super-hyphy state with the Terminator as our governor. The best state of all, California of course. All you non-Californians please stay out 'cause you're making our cost of living higher! Just kidding. But seriously, California is a beautiful state overall and I am glad I am soon to be an RN here. (PS. If you are not familiar with the term "hyphy" then you are not allowed in our state! Do your homework.)

hi! all

i am a student nurse but will be qualified soon, i live in england but wants to work in the us because the pay is so much better. i would love to live somewhere thats sunny but if not its ok too.

would like to live to live in a state where i could buy a nice house a nice car and live comfortable. was thinking about california, atlanta or new jersey, please could you all give me some advise on where to go.

thank you

hi- i do hope you find a home that fits your budget here, but assuming that you may begin with renting, here's a link to a new msn article about rent in popular u.s. cities:

http://realestate.msn.com/rentals/article.aspx?cp-documentid=797247&gt1=8479

california, atlanta and new jersey are all wonderful areas. ca has the climate of heaven (except for about 8 weeks a year of tortuously hot temps), atlanta is a gracious city but not my personal favorite due to so many hot & humid months, and new jersey is one of my favorites because of the mix of old & new (i have family there). it does have some rather volatile weather however (like england's seasonal wetness, but with loads of snow in the winter). and from what i hear, all of these places need nurses! warmest regards from your future homeland!

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

I am not familiar with the term "hyphy."

@ message #3(KLEIGH)..THAT was very helpful thank you for sharing that with us all.

I attached a wage study that I recently read from Medscape.com, "Which Pasture is Really Greener? A Research Note on Salary Studies."

I actually discoved it to a very informative article.;)

That is an interesting article. It says that when you adjust for the cost of living, real wages in California drop from #1 to #44 or from $69K a year, on average, to $46K in real wages.

But, here's the rub. They also say that the cost of living figures only apply to the major cities, not "rural" areas. Of the top 20 growing cities in the U.S., eight of them are in semi-rural towns in California where all of the development and growth has been pushing into cheaper inland areas. They don't seem to be taking into account cheaper areas of California.

For example, Texas is rated number one in real wages, and the average Dallas RN makes $56K a year. According to this cost of living calculator, if you moved to San Francisco, your COL would increase by 74 percent and you'd have to make $99K to maintain the same standard of living.

http://salary.nytimes.com/costoflivingwizard/layoutscripts/coll_start.asp

BUT ... if you moved to San Bernardino, CA (just as an example) your cost of living would only increase by 2 percent and you'd have to make $57K to maintain the same standard of living. RN's in San Bernardino make $65K a year on average so ... you'd be $8K ahead even with the additional cost of living.

So alot of it seems to depend on where you're moving from and where you're moving to. If you live in cheaper areas of California that pay good wages, you can still come out ahead, even with the higher COL.

:typing

I meant I would eventually like to be an advanced practioner. This is ONE of the main reasons a BSN is my choice for entry into the field.

True, but for others who have other degrees and are also interested in pursing advanced degrees ( CRNA, esp. for myself) , I want to start working/ get clinical experience as a RN (required for most MSN programs) and have my employer pay for my MSN degree ( such as Kaiser, they do have a Nurse Anesthesist fund, up to 10K, plus other types of loans/aid). In most cases where one already has a bachelor's degree, it makes sense to save money and time, and gain an ADN first, then jump to a MSN while you are gaining earnings and experience. ( See UCSF, Yale, Johns Hopkins, etc. There are excellenct high caliber schools that will waive your non BSN to get a MSN, as long as you get your RN) Choosing a ADN first had its benefits: faster, and economically more feasible. There are mercurical ways of obtaining higher degrees in Nursing, and it is to one's benefit to keep informed on how to acheive one's goals.

Whoops. Sorry about the typo: I meant , "Choosing to obtain an ADN first HAS its benefits.." ...which it does for some..

Try to remember that the 2 year degree's are realy 4 years if you count the preqs. I will have 130 units completed when I'm done with my ADN program. A BSN requires 120 units, I will have more education than most BSN's do, the only thing I wont have is the managment classes the BSN have.

BSNs require many more than 120 units. The minimum you need for a BA from a university is 120 units. I started doing my pre reqs right out of high school, went directly into the nursing program after two years, and am the youngest in my class. I will have 163 units when I graduate...and I'm not taking any extra classes for fun.

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