what am I missing?

You'd need an hourly rate of around $32/hr to make 60k working 36hrs a week. There are definitely many places in the country that a new grad would make that, but it sounds like that's not the case in your area.

Where do you live? If you go to Salary.com and search for RN salaries in your state you can get an average Idea. I know where I am new grads with or without a BSN start out at $22-24/ hour as a base pay in hospitals. Also, a lot of hospitals will pay a shift differential of approx. 10% if you work a shift after 3pm, which brings the pay to $24-26/hour. You should also ask about weekend differential. I know at the last place I worked (3p-11p) I got 10% shift differential and then another 15% on top of that when I worked the weekend.

Hope this helps.

Where I work, new grads make $26 with an ADN, $27 with a BSN and then there's a $3.50 night differential and a $3.50 weekend differential. Definitely possible to make about $60k/year on night shift.

Thanks for the reply guys. What parts of thye country are you from?

I'm in southeastern WA state.

It all adds up. Your right, i have never made $60k, upon grad from adn program I made $25/HR. Now $40/HR plus call and it and differential.. ..my w2 for the last 2 year was over 100k. $130k in 2009. If you are hungry for knowledge and work the extra shifts are always around.

It depends on the cost of living in your area too. It isn't just what you make, it is what you spend that also really counts.

san antonio here, very low cost of living......

i think you will notice that salary is very much in line with the areas col.

in ca a nurse will make a lot more than in nc, va, wv, or sc.

here in nc 20-22 is fairly common for new grads. with experience it certainly moves up.

I don't make 60k and I've been an RN for almost 9 years. Depends on your area, for sure.

Start from bottom and then work your way up..As a new nurse I would rather work in a hospital (maybe for a lower wage than I would make at another hospital) where I would get a top training...I recently moved from one of the highest paying states for nurses to a state with the bottom nursing pay just for the sake of experience.The hospital is a teaching based facility and it is accustomed to new nursing grads,residents and etc...Yes the pay aint awsome (I'm making 21 for the first three hours of my work,and then for the rest of the evening I make 24_ but the place has a friendly attitude toward new grads,and that I think counts when you are a new nurse and just starting in this field.