A Poll of actual RN wages in the U. S. for nurses working directly at the bedside

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. For primary nursing positions: How much do you actually make per hour, no shift diff

    • 13
      $10 - $15 per hour
    • 123
      $15.01 - $20 per hour
    • 200
      $20.01 - $25 per hour
    • 150
      $25.01 - $30 per hour
    • 70
      $30.01 - $35 per hour
    • 58
      $35.01 - $40 per hour
    • 22
      $40.01 - $45 per hour
    • 5
      $45.01 - $50.00 per hour
    • 13
      $50.01 or greater per hour
    • 5
      I volunteer all my time

659 members have participated

To get an overall basic view of salaries in the United States as well as a rough average of salaries please take part.

This is for nurses who perform the duties as outlined by many clinical based hospital rotations during nursing school.

This poll is not designed for case managers, nurse managers, full time charge nurses who do not take patient care assignments, etc.

This poll is also not meant to be used as way to say I really do not have it so bad and in someway cause contentment.

BrandyBSN,

That is so sad. You have spent 5 years in college to earn less than a auto worker who has better wages and better benefits. You will get what amounts to Less than $0.24 a quarter in raises and you will not even receive it until you have a year into your position.

The next year you will be looking at around $0.26 in raises per quarter.

With the annual cost of inflation you will be lucky if you break even or net an actual 1% increase in your salary.

Actually you are going to do better in the long run on wages than some of the unions who have settled for as little as a 3 or 5% annual raise though.

Example: A 15% raise over 3 years equals 5% per year.

Hang in there and maybe some day people will wise up or wake up.

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Yeah, it is rather depressing. And to make it worse, my student loan payment is 570 dollars a month for the next 10 years, which is practically an entire week's salary. I am the first in my family to complete a 4 year degree, so this SEEMS like a large amount of money. But then you factor in the house payments, other living expenses, car payment, insurance, and there is not a great deal left.

I plan to keep "hanging in here". I dont give up easy. If later on, and I continue to feel discontent, there are always other avenues to go down. All of those management classes had to be good for something :)

BrandyBSN

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wild

i agree with everything you say, but in brandy's case you have to remembers something...its hard to get higher paid jobs with NO experience.

thats what i am working on right now....getting enough experience to go to something better.

you think i like med surg? hell no....but im learning a lot. i am taking the next year and applying myself to get the most out of it.

youre absolutely right in all you say. i have a friend that cleans houses and makes more than i do.

im curious...what are you saying nurses should do?

i talk to many of my coworkers on other units. nobody is satisfied with their wages. but NOBODY does anything other than bytch.

so maybe in the whole hospital 2 nurses (including myself) are willing to do speak out. we have no backing. its futile trying to get support from other nurses.

its for this reason that i cant/wont stay a bedside nurse.

im going to get 2 years experience in and then become a free agent. (maybe less)

thats the ONLY way we are going to get paid anything that even resembles what we are worth.

i understand your passion about this subject. i get so damn angry because we LET ourselves be treated the way we are. its frustrating. but remember, not everyone is in the same place as you.

brandi...congrats on the job. learn all you can then move UP to something else.

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Brandy,

Nice to see you posting again. Congrats on the new job! :)

Linda

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Thanks Linda :) This semester has been a little over-the-top towards the end. Its over on the 18th, then I will be back on the boards in my fully-opinionated-fashion ;)

Hugs,

BrandyBSN

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Originally posted by wildtime88

I agree, time is precious not just to spend with kids but also in every aspect of life.

So as an agency nurse you can work less than you do now and make the same amount of money. This equals being able to spend more time doing anything you enjoy.

The same can be said if salaries were to be raised to an appropriate level. Instead of working full time, one could opt to work part time. You could bring in the same income and work less again using the extra time to do what ever you choose to do with it.

Agency also has the added benefit of not having to work the family/child centered holidays unless you choose to do so.

Thank GOD there are nurses like you in the field who can eloquently express these views. I agree with you that we are not compensated for our knowledge/liability. The best thing that happened to nursing salaries is when men entered the field - not because of pay discrepancies (which I haven't seen) but because men are more assertive and more likely to be leaders. Too many women make martyrs of themselves.

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Originally posted by nurs4kids

You gotta think like wildtime. He did not intend to imply you should become agency and/or spend less time with your kids. His message is simple; Until we loose that "contentment" with our conditions and salaries, we will continue to be behind. Just because I'm happy with my job and I make more than I did working fast food, should I be CONTENT with my salary??? Absolutely not! If our wages were what they should be, we'd automatically recruit more people into nursing, including all the nurses that left the field for more lucrative careers. If our wages were what they should be, we'd have enough staff that we wouldn't have to work OT AND we'd have enough money that we wouldn't have to work OT. Less or no OT means more time with the kiddies.

I agree. How would you suggest we convince management to pay us what we are worth? I have left two jobs because of poor staffing/compensation and mandatory overtime/oncall. Does it change anything? Not for the nurses willing to work under those conditions. How about pay? You can only be so hard-nosed when you really don't need the job. I'm all for unions, but for some reason these NY hospitals are antiunion. Since I only work 1-2 days a week, I don't have the energy to devote to revolution.

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Sorry, but men are not the answer as of yet to the problem. This is still a highly female dominated profession.

Men who speak out are quickly branded as either loud mouthed, uncaring, non compassionate, non caring, sexist, radical, or any number of other names.

As a man, I have negotiated deals for myself which have been highly beneficial, but I have had to stay within the acceptable boundaries of prevailing female attitudes and boundaries. I have been able to push the boundaries, but by only so far.

It is going to take a consorted effort on everyone's part to change things.

This very much like a chain in that it is only as strong as its weakest link. Nurses who are content in their surroundings be it pay, nurse to patient ratio, mandatory OT, poor benefits, general working conditions, etc.. are the weak point in the chain. In other words, they will give up and break the chain when pressure is applied leaving fragments and less of a chain to work with in order to succeed.

If you want to see change and really have it amount to something then you have to focus on the weak links and some how strengthen them. You have to either bolster their confidence and resolve, change their attitudes, or in some other way get their attention and make sure they personally understand that they are preventing change by their actions.

In other words, you have to make them accountable for not just what they are doing to themselves, but also what they are doing to you in the present and with your personal and professional future.

Individual nurses did not make the rules that put us into the mess that we live in everyday, but they did allow it to happen and continue. Each time an individual nurse says OK to something be it an added patient or to mop the floor or what ever. They set a president for someone else to say, well so and so did it, or even worse to hear, well I did it. This sets up a lot of people for the use of the old shame tactic that works very well on a lot of people who want to be team player and fit in or not considered lazy. Thus the president soon becomes the norm for all and it just continues to get worse every time someone caves in.

So if you really want to see a change for the better than you need to focus first on the ones who continue to change things for the worse.

I know that this sounds a little harsh and out of bounds in some female minds, but it is the reality.

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I chose to go casual which is the best decision I ever made! You work when you want to work and the pay is waaay better (you can even still get shift diff!) If you don't need the insurance it is the way to go.

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i think the coolest thing about working registry is the freedom. to work when one wants to. just think most things hospitals give you can purchase yourself. i know lots of us have children and i understand that completely. i just hate being a slave to a job. some of the down falls are when the census gets low you really start to feel it. you end up working in areas you may not want to work. depending who the staffer is they may try to send you to some place out of your way or where you do not want to go. for those who noticed your are taxed far more than regular time hospital. base on what your needs are registry can be for you fulltime or just occasional. i wouldn't recommend a new grad doing just for at least a year. i know there are registries that wont hire you but if you lie and say otherwise they are not going to check. they will make sure your license is current. i rather do both. :D :d :D

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Brandy, you will be making 15.83 when you graduate!!!! I make 16.23 and I've been doing my job for 10+ years..... how do ya like them odds.......oh, I have worked where I made more, but it was agency and I got tired of travelling, besides, I still have kids at home too.

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My current hourly wage is 24.75 and I have been a nurse for almost 20 years. At my hospital we use the novice to expert staging model by Benner and I have staged as an expert (5). Our top of scale is about 27.80 for stage 5. One of the nurses I work with has worked on this unit for 27 years and STILL has not reached top of scale for a level 5 RN. Yet there are nurses who have hired in with as little as 10 years experience who are making very close to what she is. Administrations can only do this because people will not talk openly about their wages. If they did, administration would have to be more equitable with raises etc. If everyone were paid based on how long they had been a nurse, you would have equity. You would also cut down on people leaving to go to another hospital because they can get more money per hour.

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