Low pay in Seattle

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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 am so glad I found this forum. We just recently moved from California to Washington and as I began to job hunt I was shocked to discover that I will have to take a huge pay cut. We live in Tacoma area and while its cheaper than Los Angeles, but not by THAT much. Car insurance costs us more here than in LA (I still cant figure that one out and no one can explain it to us). Health insurance - another hike. Every shopping trip to the grocery store leaves me wondering why am I paying almost $ 2/lb for locally grown Washington apples, when in LA I paid only .69C? While housing is cheaper on average, it again depends where you want to live. If you have kids and want to take advantage of a good public school, prepare to pay a pretty penny for your future home. Can you tell I am still getting over the sticker price on living in WA State? And I thought California was bad. :lol2:At least it was mostly sunny there. Oy. Sorry for venting.

As I search for jobs I see a lot of ads for nurses, especially in hospitals, however, they state such low starting salaries that it makes me wonder, do they pay everywhere such low rate? Does private sector pay higher than that? Should I lower my expectations? I planned on taking a cut in check, just not as much.

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Please allow me to stick my two cents worth in here. There is a secret place in WA state that is not much discussed among professionals. It is the Tri-Cities area. Especially Richland, Wa. Not many want to live here because it is a scrub desert - however. The dept of Energy is presently engaged in apporximately 15 Billion dollars worth of projects at Hanford that will last until 2024. The project wages for professionals are the hightest in the west & everyone has premier health insurance. Yet housing is cheap. The median home price is $160k. A nurse could buy a 3 bed ranch built in the '90s for about $115 in West Richland. The mortgage would be about $600 per month. Richland's Kadlec hospital keeps growing & growing with all that health insurance available. There are 3 hospitals & a V.A. clinic here & commute times average 12 minutes. The only downside is the geography - very hot is summer, few trees. but fairly mild winters.

Good Luck!

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Just for some perspective--as a nurse with 17 years experience, I have been offered a job for $25/hour in Hampton Roads Virginia--our Blue Cross has been dropped by the hospital I work for, and we are routinely getting 4 ICU patients, and our nurses being floated so we can be short-staffed. I'm moving back to Washington.......for real, just because of wages/benefits.

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From your post, sounds to me like you are in the mind set to make a location change. Those wages you quoted certainly sound low in comparison to the rent you are paying. If I were you I would consider looking for greener pastures. Just be aware that it is hard to find greener pastures sometimes without giving up some of the niceties of living in a pricy area. I made the move from the high end in Cali to what I thought was the low end, and all I found was that the wages are low end. The affordable housing is ghetto, so the only advantage was that I found a job. No longer possible in the high end area. Good luck with whatever you do to try to remedy your situation.

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

And remember, in the Western part of Washington, your property taxes, if you own a home, are going to eat you alive. If you rent, then you get to vote on taxes that property owners will pay. Our 2008 tax bill just arrived. My husband just retired and the tax bill, and this is just property tax... is 10.17% of his total yearly take home pay.

There are also very high gas taxes and state sales taxes here. We are on the brink of having our property tax bill equal or surpass our mortgage payment, and the idea of being taxed out of our home is not all that unlikely.

We are also not poor. This can and does happen to all income levels here.

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And remember, in the Western part of Washington, your property taxes, if you own a home, are going to eat you alive. If you rent, then you get to vote on taxes that property owners will pay. Our 2008 tax bill just arrived. My husband just retired and the tax bill, and this is just property tax... is 10.17% of his total yearly take home pay.

There are also very high gas taxes and state sales taxes here. We are on the brink of having our property tax bill equal or surpass our mortgage payment, and the idea of being taxed out of our home is not all that unlikely.

We are also not poor. This can and does happen to all income levels here.

I hear ya on property taxes. We are renting right now, while selling our house in Los Angeles (that's going to take a while:o). Boy, we were in for a surprise when we learned about WA state property taxes! When we started looking a few months ago we were interested in some high end (for this area) homes, but after learning that property taxes can bankrupt us we decided to look for an average house. Not happy about it, as I will have to put on hold my dreams of acreage, but I want a piece of mind and financial predictability. I am thankful to our real estate agent for pointing out that difference in taxation system between CA and WA.

And Caliotter3, you are SO right about low end wages!

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.
I hear ya on property taxes. We are renting right now, while selling our house in Los Angeles (that's going to take a while:o). Boy, we were in for a surprise when we learned about WA state property taxes! When we started looking a few months ago we were interested in some high end (for this area) homes, but after learning that property taxes can bankrupt us we decided to look for an average house. Not happy about it, as I will have to put on hold my dreams of acreage, but I want a piece of mind and financial predictability. I am thankful to our real estate agent for pointing out that difference in taxation system between CA and WA.

And Caliotter3, you are SO right about low end wages!

Just bear in mind that even an "average" house will increase 10-25% in evaluation every year. And you are taxed on that. Even if your tax rate decreases, which ours did this year, your tax payment will increase because the evaluation increases every year.

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Hi everybody!

I'll be probably moving to Seattle this June due to my husband's relocation. I've been taking care of all my papers but I'm wondering how difficult is to get a job as RN in Seattle...

I'm a Brazilian Nurse with 5 years of experience in Medical-Surgical Nursing and had my Masters in Healthcare Management in Ireland. My Masters took 2 yeas to be completed (will finish this June) and during these 2 years, I fully dedicated myself to the course (I mean, I didn't work during these 2 years, only studied).

Do you think it would be a problem to get a job?

Is there any advantage in terms of salary if you hold a Master's degree?

Thanks a lot.:nurse:

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Hmmm..... I am planning to relocate to Seattle from Cleveland.The pay would be higher but I do know that Seattle cost of living would be way more.I have a BSN and more or less 5yrs clinical experience.How much would you think would be the "fair" starting salary that I should expect when I negotiate with the nurse recruiters.I am not planning to work for agency/traveler nurse.Any inputs? Thanks :typing

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Specializes in Med-Surg;Rehab;Gerontology; Now OR.

5 years experience would probably be around $29-30/hour base salary here.

Hmmm..... I am planning to relocate to Seattle from Cleveland.The pay would be higher but I do know that Seattle cost of living would be way more.I have a BSN and more or less 5yrs clinical experience.How much would you think would be the "fair" starting salary that I should expect when I negotiate with the nurse recruiters.I am not planning to work for agency/traveler nurse.Any inputs? Thanks :typing
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Specializes in Case Manager/Administrator.

I am a native of Spokane and Linda you are correct about the nursing situation, in fact it is an employment situation for alot of blue collar workers of which nurses in the Spokane area seem to be included. Spokane has multiple hospitals some within walking distance of each other and nurses seem to be "stuck" with what they have.

I have written this before but until we as nurses band together to motivate a cause we will continue to be our own downfall.

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Specializes in Neurosciences.

The best argument we have here is that the wage is disproportionate to the cost of living. My starting salary will be approximately 4104.00/month yet the average house in King Co costs 475,00.00. Do the math. On a whim, after visiting friends in Albany, Oregon (south of Salem, north of Eugene), I looked at RN wages vs. housing costs and found that RN starting wage at the local hospital was 27/hr and a brand new 3 bedroom home cost $225,000. Yeah, Oregon has state income tax but Washington has an almost 10% sales tax so... I plan to get experience, pray the next contract (current one expires in 2009) is better and, if all else fails, consider moving in a few years...

:twocents:

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