Help me understand pay scales, please.

Christie RN2006 · Dec 2, 2007

Where I work you get paid by the hour. On those nights/days that you have to work over you will get paid for that extra time. I get overtime pay for anything over 40 hours. I also get a night differential which is an extra 3 dollars an hour. We also have scheduled weekend, unscheduled weekend, charge, and stat pager differentials. Part time employees get holiday pay, but full time employees have to use their PTO hours if they want holiday pay (which I am bitter about...) We also have free parking. We get a cost of living raise every year (it isn't very much) and we have different "steps" that we climb for our bigger raises. I can't remember exactly how the steps system works, I just know that you cap out pretty quickly Every hospital is a little bit different, so make sure you ask about all the different things.

ORSmurf · Dec 2, 2007

I would suggest calling your Human Resources person to ask all those questions. It might vary depending on your hospital/employer.

Where I work, you get a yearly "step" raise, and usually a cost of living increase also (keeping in mind, both are usually pretty small, only about 3% or so). We get paid OT for over 10hrs in a day or over 40hrs in a week (I work 10hr shifts).

GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN · Dec 2, 2007

Where I work the E 3-11, N, and PM get shift diff AM people get screwed even tho 4hrs of their shift is on the eve end they get no eve diff, but the PM people get it all as nite diff which is higher than eve say you work PM's extra 4/hr and if its on a weekend add an extra 3.50 an hr or so above your base pay ,days get weekend diff only, d/e w/e is sat and sun, N/PM w/e is fri and sat . PTO is given to everyone at base pay.Holiday time is time and a half, so if your base is 30/hr, and you work N/w/e your making 37.50/hr, if its also a holiday your making 56.25/hr. Hope that helps, BTW, we only get preapproved OT working extra time over the end of your shift pays straight time, If you work36 hrs that's what they pay you you do get full time benies w/ 36 hr position

clhRN2b2010 · Dec 3, 2007

That's helpful. I'll take additional insight also.

I am just beginning school, but was playing with numbers, hoping I could make enough to support our family after school so DH can advance his ed also. Looking at straight base pay is discouraging, but hearing about opportunities for additional comp. is good.

KeyMaster · Dec 3, 2007

So, how many of y'all get cost of living raises? Do you get merit raises also? We haven't had a COL raise in years, and management is told to keep the average merit raise for the department at 3%. You basically have to donate a kidney to earn enough points to get a Level I eval. You can bust your butt all year; work full time + pleanty of OT, take call, be on a hospital committee, & get positive letters from patients for your file, but unless your manager marks you as "consistantly goes above & beyond expected performance" in EVERY SECTION (eval is 7 pages long) you are still concidered "Average" - average raise is 2.5% to 3%. The last time we got a COL raise it was 2% across the board, but no merit raise that year. Everybody got a Distinguished evaluation then!