Houston: St. Lukes vs Ben Taub (pros and cons)

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Hello all, I was wondering if anybody worked at St. Lukes and Ben Taub in Houston? I would like to know the pros and cons of working at each of these places.

Other questions I'm wondering:

Do you know if you get the 1.0 FTE or 0.9 FTE as a new grad? And are there any bonuses you can earn? Which has the best float pool policy and how does OT work? How does PTO work too?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Are you considering job opportunities with both organizations? Congratulations!! I don't have policy specifics, but I'm sure that there are some 'insiders' here on AN who can help you out with that.

Everybody has different rules for their PTO plans, but generally, this includes all paid time off, including sick days, holidays and vacation accrual. A bit of advice - If you're dealing with PTO rather than a specifically designated accrual for sick time, be sure to go easy on your PTO for a while in order to store up a PTO 'cushion' that would be sufficient to take you through an episode of the flue or similar illness. It sucks to run out of PTO and have to deal with loss of wages in addition to being sick.

But as far as OT goes, everyone in the US has to abide by FEDERAL wage and hour laws. OT kicks in after 40 hours each week for hourly (non-exempt) workers ... the rate must be 1 1/2 times your normal hourly wage... that doesn't mean just the baseline. OT calculation has to include the other amounts such as differentials for night shift, weekend, etc. So, the HR folks have to engage in some pretty complicated ongoing calculations to 'top off' salary to make sure that it accurately reflects 'normal' wage.

One big difference between those two facilities.... BT is part of the Harris County System. Working for a "public" (tax supported) organization means that your salary is closely tied to politics. Whenever budget increases are needed to support salary increases, it becomes a HUGE political deal - and there are the periodic budget "rollbacks" driven by whacko politicians trying to gain favor with the voters.

Congrats & best wishes on launching your career!

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