Low pay in Seattle

lindarn · Jan 29, 2008

I recently got my RN license and I am in Seattle metro area. The nursing pay in Seattle is rock bottom compared to other metro cities and the living cost is as high as bay area in California. The starting pay at children's hospital in Seattle is $22.72, Evergreen in Kirkland is 23.98, Harborview/Swedish is $24. The living expense is sky high and the pay is so low. Outside Seattle area is pretty low...starts from $22 and up to $23.84 the max like in Spokane, Tricities, South Puget...I have called a lot of hospitals and talked with their HR and pretty disappointing pay scale. My friend in bay area starts minimum from $35 for new grad. The living expense is as same. Right now for 1 bedroom apartment in downtown Seattle, I am paying $1400 for rent + I have to pay utilities. If I stay in suburb of Seattle, the traffic is so bad...it is like stop and go...action throughout the freeway. I just feel WA state hospitals need to learn from California and even Oregon.
Why doesn't the nurses union aggressively protest against these low paying jobs in WA state. Why are nurses so mum??? We need more proactive nurses against this type of negligence against nurses. I am pulling my head because I have to pay $55000 of student loan + oter credit card bills and that low minimum wage supporting my family. Forget about saving!!!:sasq:

I couldn't agree more. I moved here from California, and I was appalled at how weak the nurses are here. If you think Seattle is bad, come over to Spokane. One of the biggest problems here in Spokane is that there is a high unemployment rate due to the loss of manufacturing jobs, and logging and mining jobs. Many wives are the sole support of the family. I also feel that there is wage fixing going on here big time.

The problem is that most nurses here are unionized with WSNA- Washington State Nurses Association. It is a union who is beholden to administration. They do little, if anything to include the nurses who they represent in the workings of the union, the attitudes, and are clueless and apathetic as to the real needs of the bedside nurse. As we say in Brooklyn, they are about as useful as tits on a bull. Washington is ripe for the NNOC to come in and take over as the union for nurses.

The union reps here in Spokane have allowed this to go on for years. They are very weak and are intimidated by hospital administration. There have been nothing but take aways since I was still working in a hospital. The nurses have seen their salaries eaten up with higher medical costs- like a 20% increase in the cost of medical benefits, and a "generous" pay increase of 5%! Don't spend it all in one place. They are told not to complain because there is no nursing shortage in Eastern Washington. There are three schools of nursing here in Spokane, and another one right over the border in Idaho.

As I said, it is very frustrating to sit back and here our governor talk about the "nursing shortage", and know the real reason that nurses are leaving the bedside. Tri Cities is an up and coming area of Washington, that is offering higher pay, and MUCH better benefits than Spokane is. You might try down there for a job. You might be able to get hired as an Independant Contractor. There are nurses from Spokane who work as Independant Contractors in Seattle.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

WAstateRN · Jan 30, 2008

How can we shake WSNA if they are not doing the job. There must be a way. I am new to this career but I dont want to get old without anything happening. Right now, I am not a member of WSNA...I just felt like not paying the membership. How can we bring the NNOC. We need to stand up for ourselves....nursing is hard job and all unforseen legal issues we have to carry on our shoulder.

lindarn · Jan 30, 2008

How can we shake WSNA if they are not doing the job. There must be a way. I am new to this career but I dont want to get old without anything happening. Right now, I am not a member of WSNA...I just felt like not paying the membership. How can we bring the NNOC. We need to stand up for ourselves....nursing is hard job and all unforseen legal issues we have to carry on our shoulder.

If we can get enough interest from other nurses, we can call them and request that they send someone to discuss trying to vote out WSNA. There is a time limit when you can vote out a union. It has to be with in a month before the contract expires. I am not working now, but I would be willing to help out. Where do you live? Are you in Seattle, or Spokane?

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

206bones · Jan 30, 2008

I am so disappointed in what I'm hearing about the pay scale in WA. I have to tell you that here in Metro Detroit I earned over 70K last year in home care. The cost of living here is MUCH lower than Seattle, and nurses here have the upper hand. There's a shortage ladies and gentleman...write your ticket!!

WAstateRN · Jan 30, 2008

If we can get enough interest from other nurses, we can call them and request that they send someone to discuss trying to vote out WSNA. There is a time limit when you can vote out a union. It has to be with in a month before the contract expires. I am not working now, but I would be willing to help out. Where do you live? Are you in Seattle, or Spokane?
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

The problem here is if we can get enough nurses' interest. I live in Seattle and I definitely think we should do something. Lets call all WA nurses in these forum and email friends/classmates etc. When does WSNA contract expires. Your help will be awesome. How can we recruit nurses go against WSNA. Ideas more than welcome. I am willing to do anything. We need to change the system.

barbmarie · Feb 6, 2008

I hope thats not true. I am an LPN in Seattle, working at the same nursing home for 17 years. I just came to this site tonight, looking for LPN-RN information, thinking about getting my RN after all this time. If this is true, why bother? I am already making almost $25/hr. Should I just stay where I am?

WAstateRN · Feb 6, 2008

I hope thats not true. I am an LPN in Seattle, working at the same nursing home for 17 years. I just came to this site tonight, looking for LPN-RN information, thinking about getting my RN after all this time. If this is true, why bother? I am already making almost $25/hr. Should I just stay where I am?

Apart from money issue.....education is always beneficial and you might get paid more because of your 17 yrs of experience. You can also be charge nurse with RN. The above pay scale is for new grad...Don't get discouraged though.

I still think for new grad it is no where near than compared to living expenses in Seattle.:angryfire

206bones · Feb 6, 2008

I just think it's a slap in the face to see what nurses make in WA. Do you care for your patients any less because of where you live? Do you work fewer hours? Do you spend less time on your feet? Do you use your brain any less? Does it cost you any less to go to school or maintain your license ? I was told by one recruiter "I know it's less money but look where you live!!!!" Yeah, but I can't eat mountains and trees honey, and my bills are costing me more !

fizz2Nurse · Feb 6, 2008

I recently got my RN license and I am in Seattle metro area. The nursing pay in Seattle is rock bottom compared to other metro cities and the living cost is as high as bay area in California. The starting pay at children's hospital in Seattle is $22.72, Evergreen in Kirkland is 23.98, Harborview/Swedish is $24. The living expense is sky high and the pay is so low. Outside Seattle area is pretty low...starts from $22 and up to $23.84 the max like in Spokane, Tricities, South Puget...I have called a lot of hospitals and talked with their HR and pretty disappointing pay scale. My friend in bay area starts minimum from $35 for new grad. The living expense is as same. Right now for 1 bedroom apartment in downtown Seattle, I am paying $1400 for rent + I have to pay utilities. If I stay in suburb of Seattle, the traffic is so bad...it is like stop and go...action throughout the freeway. I just feel WA state hospitals need to learn from California and even Oregon.
Why doesn't the nurses union aggressively protest against these low paying jobs in WA state. Why are nurses so mum??? We need more proactive nurses against this type of negligence against nurses. I am pulling my head because I have to pay $55000 of student loan + oter credit card bills and that low minimum wage supporting my family. Forget about saving!!!:sasq:

Why not just get your year in at a facility so you have a year experience and then go agency like so many others? Later you can go back staff at a place with more years experience to give you a higher wage if you wish.

Being responsible for yourself takes more willingness to deal with other challenges but keeps you in control. Many of the nurses that I work with in a Seatttle area hospital have done just that. One even works contract agency at the hospital she left a year ago. Yes she does more commuting and has to be somewhat flexible from contract to contract but she works typically for $35/hr plus. One non-hospital contract she works is $49/hr.

And if you wonder, I too refused to accept those wages and became a traveler. Much more rewarding and I'm not beholden to the hospital the way staff is. I work my butt off to be as good or as helpful and cooperative with other staff as I can and earn the respect of staff and prove I travel because I want to and not because I can't fit in. In turn the rewards are great.

before travel I did local PRN.

No, it's not a route for everybody, but why not consider how easy it is to do in a metropolitan area like Seattle where there are so many hospitals?

Only when hospitals finally learn that paying their staff more would actually reduce agency needs will wages increase. As long as there are sheep that work for low pay and under the dictatorship of crappy managers there will be a need for hospitals to pay agency nurses great wages to accept contracts.

Plenty of hospitals like Swedish have good "residency" or preceptorship programs to get your year of experience in and then you can choose what you want. After two years of nursing the field blows wide open with tons of opportunites.

The ball is in your court!

lindarn · Feb 6, 2008

Why not just get your year in at a facility so you have a year experience and then go agency like so many others? Later you can go back staff at a place with more years experience to give you a higher wage if you wish.
Being responsible for yourself takes more willingness to deal with other challenges but keeps you in control. Many of the nurses that I work with in a Seatttle area hospital have done just that. One even works contract agency at the hospital she left a year ago. Yes she does more commuting and has to be somewhat flexible from contract to contract but she works typically for $35/hr plus. One non-hospital contract she works is $49/hr.
And if you wonder, I too refused to accept those wages and became a traveler. Much more rewarding and I'm not beholden to the hospital the way staff is. I work my butt off to be as good or as helpful and cooperative with other staff as I can and earn the respect of staff and prove I travel because I want to and not because I can't fit in. In turn the rewards are great.
before travel I did local PRN.
No, it's not a route for everybody, but why not consider how easy it is to do in a metropolitan area like Seattle where there are so many hospitals?
Only when hospitals finally learn that paying their staff more would actually reduce agency needs will wages increase. As long as there are sheep that work for low pay and under the dictatorship of crappy managers there will be a need for hospitals to pay agency nurses great wages to accept contracts.
Plenty of hospitals like Swedish have good "residency" or preceptorship programs to get your year of experience in and then you can choose what you want. After two years of nursing the field blows wide open with tons of opportunites.
The ball is in your court!

All a contract nurse makes in Seattle is $35 an hour? Are your kidding? And have to pay you own taxes? You can make more that that as staff. Even $49 an hour is not that great, if you are an Independant Contractor. You are paying your own taxes, Malpractice Insurace, etc. They can do better that that. They are not demanding more, and they are still low paid.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

fizz2Nurse · Feb 7, 2008

I never said Independent contract and never said all.

Only $35 as an EMPLOYEE of an agency with benefits is better than $22 at the same hospital, same for the $50 rate.

As for the rate for independent contractor in Seattle, no those numbers are way too low......