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:

Wow makes me feel good about my area, we have a very low cost-of-living for the state and our hospital starts out at 26$/hr for new grads and I make 55$/hr when I work agency per diem. I'm sorry Seattle, I wouldn't live there for any amount of money though...great place to VISIT.

where do you live? just curious what it's like in other wa areas...

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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.

The main problem with Washington nurses is that most are unionized with the worthless Washington State Nurses Association. Nothing will ever change until we take drastic measures and vote in the NNOC. They have done nothing for nurses and salaries and benefits have taken a nose dive in an era of a Nursing shortage that the governor has commented on recently.

PM me and lets start a movement to get rid of WSNA and vote in NNOC throughout the state. I am convinced that there are enough nurses here that would support this. They

just need a someone to lead the charge.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washiton

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Specializes in ICU, Transplant, Dialysis..

Did you know all the major hospitals in Washington State get together to decide how much they all want to pay their nurses so they can suppress nurse salaries for the whole state?? We need to wake up and write letters and tell everyone we know!! Here is the letter I sent today. I want to encourage all of you to do the same! Feel free to copy and paste, add, modify. We need to show the politicians and those writing checks we are not idiots!

Dear Governor Gregoire (also sent to Cantwell, Murray, Pedersen, Chopp, and WSNA)

I'm a Registered Nurse with credentials in heart and lung transplant, dialysis and critical care and currently working at the University of Washington Medical Center on a intensive care unit. I was chatting with another nurse friend from out of state who was extremely surprised by the low RN wages in Washington State. He told me at UCSF (#7 on US News and World Report), nurse starting pay is $47.52, compares to $24.15 at UWMC. Even though the cost of living in San Francisco is 47% higher than Seattle according to CNN Money, their starting pay is at a whopping 78% higher than UWMC !!

On the flip side of that, lets look at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. #4 on U.S. New & World Report. According to CNN Money, the cost of living in Cleveland Ohio is 14% LESS than that of Seattle. Their starting nurse pay in 2007 was $25.00/hr with $10,000 sign-on bonus! Higher than Washington State!!

Is that why so many of my colleges are moving to a different state or leaving the nursing profession all together? If Washington State is unable to attract new nurses and keep its experienced nurses, the overall health of the state will be gravely affected.

WSNA is about to start another round of negotiation with the University Medical Center. Please show your support to the nurses and the health care system in Washington State by advocating for higher and fairer wages and working condition!

Thank you!

xxx my real name =)

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wow... i had no idea the pay was that low in washington. sucks for all my nursing friends who are staying here after graduation.

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I was looking for affordable housing (yeah, right...) in Seattle, and in 2008 the average salary in King county was over $81,000. Nurses are making way less than the average income here...

I don't qualify for low income housing, but I feel pretty low income in Seattle. Living anywhere by yourself is so overpriced!

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Why are you wasting your time with WSNA? I could have told you 20 years ago, when I moved here, that there was wage fixing going on. Its worse her in Spokane. WSNA is just as reaponsible for it as anyone, because they have been the major union here for years, and turned a blind eye to everything. Washington State nurses, who are unionized with WSNA, are trapped in the facade of having "unon security", when nothing can be further from the truth. You are trapped in a union, that is, as we say in Brooklyn, is about as useful as tits on a bull.

You are worse off than if you didn't have a union, because, if you are not represented by a union, if you have problems with work, you can go directly to an attorney to represent you. If you are represented by a worthless union like WSNA, (and most state nursing associations), you are REQUIRED to jump through administrative "hoops", (four grievances in all), before you are allowed to bring in a private attorney. And by then, which the hospital drags on as long as they can, they hope that you will just give up your grievance and quit. That is the facade of a worthless union.

I say call the NNOC and lets get the ball rolling!! I will be at the NTI in Chicago next month, so lets all plan to meet and figure out an attack strategy. We can all leave our contact information at the AllNurses booth (hotel rooms, cell phone numbers), and LETS GET WASHINGTON STATE ROCKING!!.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

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Lindarn,

I wish I could jump on to help with your cause, ditching WSNA and bringing NNOC but I am not a resident of WA state. I will be working here for a year though. I am really interested in healthcare politics, policy and management issues. I want to be politically active for nursing issues but i am a newbie...so have no foot in it.

If I can be help for anything...let me know.

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Have you considered clinic nursing? I work in a specialty clinic, we work 4 10s, no weekends, holidays or weekends. Our benefits start at 30hrs/week. I know the last 2 RNs hired started at $26 or more an hour. One was a new grad, the other 1 year of experience.

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What clinic is this? or what area of Washington, if you dont mind my asking?

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Specializes in tele, stepdown/PCU, med/surg.

I'm shocked at this thread. I'm born and raised in King County but have lived elsewhere. The Seattle area is actually known to pay to a be high paying area for nurses. I'm talking downtown hospitals in Seattle. Starting at $24-$26/hr base bay for a brand new nurse is actually right on target.

If you compare the pay here with hospitals in areas of California, New York and some other New England areas, of course the pay will be less. The cost of living in King County is horrendous yes, and we could argue that due to that fact they should payus more. However, if you just take Seattle, relative to the nation as a whole, hospitals in Seattle pay pretty good.

Zach

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Yep, Tri-Cities is a well-kept secret. I am an RN student at Columbia Basin College. The hospitals are tops. I live north of the Tri-Cities, currently making $18+/hour as an LPN. My hospital pays new RN grads $25+/hour. Sorry, but to me those wages look pretty darn good considering one year ago I was making $8/hour. Then add shift differentials to that and I can make over $55,000 a year working nights. Wow! As a single parent, that is exciting!

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Specializes in LTC, Med-Surg, IMCU/Tele, HH/CM.

I moved to WA from MN about a month ago for work.

At the big hospitals in MN such as Fairview, Abbott Northwestn, and Mayo Clinic starting pay for new grad RNs is around $25/hr.

I currently work for Porvidence, and I make $24.50 base plus there is a $2.50 differential for evenings and $4.50 for nights.

To me, before I moved, these wages seemed very similar.

Then I got here. I can hadly afford to pay my bills, the rent is twice as high as anywhere I have ever lived and the utility bills are astounding! I've never had to pay more than $10 a month for electric heat in the middle of winter, and I'm currently paying $30 when I'm never home and don't have any heat on! And I could go on forever about the cost of food. . . ugh.

But overall, I knew what I was coming here for. I like the hospital I work for, I like the environment, I love seeing the trees outside of patient's windows, and the staff are all very nice. Benefits are great too.

So for new grads in WA, the salary is comparable to other major cities in the US. Maybe not Calirofnia because Cali's kind of it's own country.

But look at some other states! Texas offered me $17 an hour. Oklahoma offered me $18. South Carolina University Med Center offered me $19. I could go on, but they were all less than what I was willing to work for.

That;s how I ended up in WA. I took the best oppertunity at the time. I don't regret it, but I do think that nurses should be more proactive about raises! I havn't lived here for long enough to know wether or not they do cost of living raises here, but if they don't it would be a good start..

Anyway if you need another voice, you've got me!

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