Has anyone ever renegotiated pay?

[NursingHopeful95, ADN]

I'm an RN with 3 years experience under my belt. I'm coming back from maternity leave after 5 months off. I applied to Kaiser on a whim not expecting to get in, but I did!

They're offering me almost $20 more than my current employer. This is for a part time night position. I currently work day shift. I love my job & I absolutely Love my coworkers. I'm having such a hard time thinking of leaving.

My husband and I recently purchased a townhome & with interest rates being what they are a pay increase wouldn't hurt.

I'm chemo/biotherapy certified, and studying to take the OCN exam. I'm a hard worker, and patients have expressed that multiple times to management.

My hospital is not union & I realize they won't be able to pay me Kaiser money. My husband is the one who brought up the idea of re-negotiating pay. He was able to through his employer in a different field. The Kaiser I got hired at is 40 minutes away from our house. Whereas my current employer is 10 minutes away. With gas being so expensive my husband says any extra money earned will be going towards gas. Versus, any raise I get I will be pocketing.

Has anyone been able to re-negotiate their pay? I know nights pays more & I'll be taking to my manager about going over to nights since it would work better with kids anyway, but I'm hoping to be able to get a little something extra. I just don't know how to approach it.

TIA!

[klone, MSN, RN]

As a floor nurse, no. Just never tried. As long as the current facility is not union (in which case, there is no negotiating pay - you get what the contract says you get), I would say there is no harm in trying. Let them know that you are considering a much higher paying job, and you would love to stay where you are, but with a new home purchase, it would be really hard to do so with your current pay. 

Are you prepared to walk if they can't/don't give you a raise?

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

Generally, no. You can let them know the situation,  and they may give a raise. They may not. As klone said,are you prepared to go if they don't?

[Melanie Medina]

It depends on if the job you have is high demand. Most employers unless you are a new hire won't negotiate a pay increase. What ever rules they have on raises is what is. 

[Evelyn215]

Actually yes I have and they complied. I decreased by hours at the hospital where I mainly worked and started to pick up PRN at the competing hospital. Yes PRN is normally higher pay compared to base pay. However, the competing hospital gave me an offer for full time employment at a higher rate than I was getting paid. I made my manager of the main hospital where I worked aware of this offer and explained I will have to except if they are unable to match the offer. This manager knew me well and knew that I was a good nurse and did not wish to lose me. She took it to administration and they approved. Granted it wasn't a $20 difference.

[NursingHopeful95, ADN]

Thanks for the advice and comment everyone! I am walking. I work for a smaller hospital, so obviously they can't compete with Kaiser pay. I start later this month. 

[Christina Anthony]

Yes you can and should renegotiate. Think about it. If you leave your employer will have recruit another employee that takes time and money as well as a financial incentive or a potential sign up bonus. All these possible perks to entice a new employee may very well make it worth increasing your salary and keeping and already trained and skilled Nurse rather than have to start fresh with a new hire that will need training.

[Rionoir, ADN, RN]

I've always had a pretty good work ethic, but have sadly come to realize that getting a new job is much easier to get a nice raise, get a sign-on bonus, get paid out for your PTO at the old place, etc. I just recently came back to an old employer and was able to negotiate for well above what some people who have been here many years are making. I had to fight for it, but I never would've gotten it if I was trying to negotiate while already employed here. I know this because it got around to a few people what I was making coming back and a couple of them tried to get more money (they've been here since before I worked here the first time) and were shut down. Every move I've made I've been able to get at least a couple bucks more an hour easily, plus like I say with PTO payout and sign-on bonuses... I swear changing jobs is actually pretty lucrative as long as you stay at a job long enough to get the PTO payout which is usually a year.

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

I'm part of a MECA so our increases are apart of that .

A few years ago I went to my employer and pretty much said "I would like a pay rise, I have people wanting to pay me X amount of money, can you meet this"

Worst case scenario they say no and you decide if you are happy with that or go with the one who is offering more