Highest Paid Nurses in B.C....how is this possible?

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Recently I discovered that the Vancouver Sun publishes the names, employers, and titles of all the employees working in public sectors being paid over 75,000 a year.

I was shocked to see that the top earning nurses are making upwards of 180000 a year! How is that possible considering the maximum hourly wage for nurses in B.C. (as far as I know) is 40.42? If you do a calculation, 40.42 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year should only be 82,000. Even with time and a half (or double pay) during holidays, maximum should not be more than double that number?

Also, I thought maybe these RNs are in supervisory positions or teaching positions but the positions listed does not seem to indicate that?

Here's some data taken from Vancouver Sun

Public Sector Salaries - Vancouver Sun

I haven't started a nursing career yet, so forgive me if I ask silly questions. First thing is what is the difference between nurse direct patient care and registered nurse?

Secondly, the 2 RNs on here, how can they rack up that many hours to end up with the salary they are getting? Are they working a lot of overtime hours? (aren't there laws preventing that?)

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

There are a lot of ways an RN in BC can increase their income to such levels, OT (double time) only being one of them. BC has 4 levels for the pay scale, and 9 rungs on the pay ladder. There are premiums for evenings, nights and weekends; there are also premiums for higher education ($100 a month for a baccalaureate and $125 a month for a Masters) and certifications. Nurses in supervisory positions are paid a responsibility premium. Statutory holidays attract double time and "super-stats" (Christmas Day, Labour Day and Good Friday) attract double-time-and-a-half. Another thing... the employer's portion of benefits such as pension contributions, health care coverage and RRSP contributions are taxable so they're included in the gross income on T4. So if a nurse is a Level 4 at the top of the scale ($48.75 in 2011), has a Master's degree, works only nights in a supervisory role and is a weekend worker, the hourly rate of pay could easily reach $60 an hour. Add in even 12 hours of OT a week on average and your yearly total could be close to $150-180K. I work a 0.7 FTE in Alberta, do not pick up OT, work mostly weekdays and my gross income last year was ~$74K.

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Specializes in See above.

If I had thouight that kind of wage was do-able and the cost of living was not so hard I would have STAYED in Canada!!!! Alas, I did not stay and when I was there I was not making NEARLY close to that....

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It seems that nurses in Alberta and B.C. have better union contracts than in Ontario =(. I've never heard double-time-and-a-half before.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

AB nurses are actually the highest paid in Canada, with BC a close second. In my first year of nursing, I made 85,000 (AB). That was full time. This year I work less than full time (85 percent FTE), and I'll make around 89,000. That's at the second rung of the pay scale. So as Jan says, 180,000 is feasible.

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Specializes in geriatrics.
It seems that nurses in Alberta and B.C. have better union contracts than in Ontario =(. I've never heard double-time-and-a-half before.
BC, AB, and Manitoba do have much better union contracts than ON. The ON government also froze wages for the public sector for two years. I'm not sure when ON nurses will receive their wage increase that they deserve.
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Uhm, I on overtime for the stat. My rate is 2.5x my hourly rate. Plus shift premiums.

I'm an LPN and my contract sucks.

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Shift differentials, OT, and working at extremely short-staffed work sites all contribute to those high wages. My first year nursing I made $90,000 (this was at step one in BC). It looks great on paper but I worked nearly every day for over half that year. Usually in those cases it's due to not enough nurses being available to cover shifts- I often found myself finishing my 12 hour shift only to be told that no one would be relieving me and I'd have to stay otherwise it'd be abandonment of duty.

If you work at enough different places within a health authority and don't mind working your days off as well then it's easy to reach those high numbers.

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Specializes in AC, LTC, Community, Northern Nursing.
It seems that nurses in Alberta and B.C. have better union contracts than in Ontario =(. I've never heard double-time-and-a-half before.

I work in ontario and i get double time and a half... I have worked in a few places that had it.. Usually OT on a stat holiday or two OT shifts in two days the 2nd one is 2.5x

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Look at the "sunshine list" published in ontario every year. There are many floor nurses on it, myself and many of my colleagues included.

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I work with a nurse who made over $200,000.00 last year. She is a floor nurse.

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Heck, I work part time as an LPN and I made $55k last year.

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