Negotiating Salary

[Peds/LD RN]

Florida Hospital nurse recruiter just reached out to me regarding a peds MS position, we scheduled the interview in the next week. During the call she mentioned an hourly pay of $27.28 an hr plus the addition complicated night shift differentials. Obviously coming from NY I thought this was low but acceptable because of what I hear going rates are in Orlando. During the call I asked for information regarding healthcare benefits. We got off the phone and she sent me a brochure via email and to my surprise costs for a family plan were about $500 a month and that doesn't even include dental and vision!!! Now I knew I would be taking a pay cut because of the cheaper cost of living but I didn't expect to be paying almost double what I pay now in NY.

is this the norm in FL?

has anyone negotiated more money or better coverage?

Really makes no sense....

thanks guys!

[labordude, BSN, RN]

Sometimes yes on the salary, never on the benefits. It all depends on how much experience you are bringing them and if the specialty is hard to hire for. Basically, a company that really wants you will try to work things out. $500 a month for family plan sounds so wrong. In all my years, I have never seen a plan that expensive for full-time employees.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Benefits are typically non-negotiable.

I once turned down a job because of the health insurance (they only offered either a $2000 deductible plan or a tiered insurance plan, neither of which worked at the time with my complex medical needs) and told them that that was why I was turning the job down. They responded by offering an extra $1/hr which would have amounted to $2080 and covered the deductible but I still got a better offer elsewhere so didn't accept their offer. Unfortunately the job I did accept cut our platinum plan options the following year so I'm stuck with a $2000 deductible plan anyway but the salary is much higher and there are other benefits (they pay for my parking which amounts to over $3500 a year) so it kind of balances out.