Negotiating a Bay Area RN Salary

U.S.A. California

Published

Reaching out to Bay Area Nurses!

I've recently landed a labor/delivery full time evening shift position at an east bay unionized hospital and will be re-locating from an east coast city. I will be negotiating my salary for the first time, and I am getting mixed information about salaries/hourly pay. I have over one year of experience as an RN.

My question is: What should I ask for? I was told that starting hourly day shift rates for newer nurses is $50-60 hourly. What are people making out there?

Appreciate any insight!

:-)

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

Hate to burst your bubble but unionized jobs in California are a set salary. You will be unable to negotiate your salary. You will simply be hired at a set rate usually set by your years experience, and receive yearly to bi-yearly raises as you remain at the hospital system longer. The plus side is the bay area is the highest base salary in the US. You will likely start high 50s to low 60s base pay.

Good luck with the job, it is not an easy place to get a job so congrats to you.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.
Hate to burst your bubble but unionized jobs in California are a set salary. You will be unable to negotiate your salary. You will simply be hired at a set rate usually set by your years experience, and receive yearly to bi-yearly raises as you remain at the hospital system longer. The plus side is the bay area is the highest base salary in the US. You will likely start high 50s to low 60s base pay.

Good luck with the job, it is not an easy place to get a job so congrats to you.

Exactly this. There is little to no room for negotiation. It all has to do with union contracts and labor negotiations. Salaries are based on grids, not negotiations.

Congratulations on the new job! This is a tough market, so that's a huge feat!

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