LOW pay in South East FL.

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Hey all!

First I wanted to say I love this message board! There are so many people who post good advise, and I have really learned a lot!

I am currently an LPN perusing my RN. I am not currently working as an LPN while I am in school but the pay really sucks here in SE FLA! When I did have a job, the pay was only $16/ hour! Out in CA I was making $25/HR at my first ever LPN job. Now I hear that things are much worse. There are so many of these fly-by-night LPN schools that have popped up saturating the market, so much supply and not enough demand. So companies know they can pay even less. I heard the average LPN (new hire) in SE FLA makes like $12-13 an hour!

RN pay is not so great here either from what I understand. I would probably make less than what I did as an LPN in California. I really do not think that nursing pay at least here is not what is used to be, and nursing jobs are no longer that easy to find. I am considering (strongly) moving back up north where I grew up where as I understand the job market is better, both opportunity and pay wise. I am going to post in a lot more detail about that plan in a different section. Anyway my current professor said in order to find a job when we graduate as an RN, we really need to look to Vero Beach and North.

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Specializes in Research.

RN pay is not so great here either from what I understand. I would probably make less than what I did as an LPN in California.

You are correct. Sorry to offer a bleak outlook, but I haven't heard of anywhere in central Florida paying more than $24/hr to start as a new grad RN. I would believe it is that way in most of the SE US. There's a reason it is almost impossible to get a new nurse job in CA, they have the highest pay in the country and state mandated patient ratios. All of which leads to an influx of nursing programs churning out graduates. Good luck.

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Yes I agree complexly. Five years ago, things ere quite different as there was more of a nursing shortage in CA and in the rest of the country, it was easier to get a well paying nursing job. I got one with not much effort at a good teaching hospital, right out of school. Now at most of the hospitals that my community college works with there is a hiring freeze. Not to say there are no jobs, but far fewer. I have come to realize from research on here and elsewhere that pay for lack of a better word sucks here which is why I am contemplating moving back up north where I grew up actually. (Mass.) Yes I know cost of living is higher and they may have similar problems with the market for nursing jobs being saturated, but pay is much better there. Also Spanish is practically a requirement for many jobs here, at least the postings I have come across for LPN work. I'm sure that is not the case there.

Anyways that is much easier said than done as I am happily married (no kids... yet), and my wife's entire family lives here. Not an impossible obstacle but challenging to say the least. I dont hate Florida, in fact unlike most people I actually love the heat, and go to the beach a lot as well. We get paid more in sunshine than actual dollars though, and I am tired of living paycheck to paycheck. Also I miss the change in seasons, and MASS feels more like home to me. FL is very transient. We have had countless friends move, come and go. Anyways I am getting off topic. Thanks for your input, I love this site!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, ER, Peds ER-CPEN.

I left SW FL almost 2 years ago for my home state of MI, in Dec when I hit my 2 yr I will break the 30$ barrier, a goal in FL that seemed impossible, after 4 yrs with the same facility my RN base was still 20$, had we stayed the it most likely would still be the same, give or take a dollar maybe, the differentials helped a little but made it so night shift couldn't afford to take vacation or switch to days.

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If you are willing to work in LTC, the pay is higher. I live in SE Fl and the LPNs I know make $18-$22.

The $22 was a new grad rate.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses.com

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My co-workers sister just got hired at Jackson Memorial Hospital, as an RN with her ASN, at 15 dollars an hour... unbelievable...

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My co-workers sister just got hired at Jackson Memorial Hospital as an RN with her ASN, at 15 dollars an hour... unbelievable...[/quote']

Say what nah!?? Smh. Insane.

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Yeah that is bad! That is why I am looking to move back up North.

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As a fairly inexperienced LPN, a job is hard to come by here in Florida (have only worked in methadone clinic, in GA). In Florida it is extremely competitive when it comes to nursing because we have so many. I know RNs with experience that are working for about $16/hr at UM hospital and wish to live paycheck to paycheck. Sad thing is that in my younger years, I made $15/hr at a call center, with just a diploma.

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In response to PHAINT:

Not to sound condescending, but are you sure everyone understood your co-worker's sister correctly? I graduated with my RN, ASN July 2012 and 4 or 5 of my classmates got hired at Jackson for $24 plus differentials... I have never heard of a nursing job in S Florida (I live in Miami) pay less than $22. The CNAs around here make about $13-$15... There has to be a miscommunication somewhere; perhaps she didn't take an RN position, but something like a PCT or ER Tech?

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Specializes in OB.

I agree. $15 for an RN is WAY too low. Scrub Techs make more than that.

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In response to PHAINT:

Not to sound condescending, but are you sure everyone understood your co-worker's sister correctly? I graduated with my RN, ASN July 2012 and 4 or 5 of my classmates got hired at Jackson for $24 plus differentials... I have never heard of a nursing job in S Florida (I live in Miami) pay less than $22. The CNAs around here make about $13-$15... There has to be a miscommunication somewhere; perhaps she didn't take an RN position, but something like a PCT or ER Tech?

It's true. A friend of mine said someone she knows just got hired with a pay of $18. RN as well. :( I'm in Fort Lauderdale. I forgot what hospital. I'll ask when I see her again.

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