The hospital I work ( GR, Michigan) at has RN wages ranging from $21-$30 per hour not including shift premiums and incentive pay. I talked with a couple of RNs with 4-7 years experience and they said they only make a buck or so more than the starting wage. The starting rate for new grads increases at a greater rate than increases for experienced RNs. So in a nut shell RNs never make it to the top wage. I guess I figure after 5-10 years it should be based on skill and not necessarily years on the job. I mean this isn't factory work where years mean everything.
What is everyone's thoughts on wages on experienced RNs? How long should it take to get to the middle point and the max wage? Assuming that the person is a good skilled RN with a good attitude.
I've worked in other fields and it seems to me that in order to get top wage a person must be willing to move around to other companies to get it.
off topic a bit... i find this is true for a lot of people who worked in previous careers prior to nursing.
older generations wonder why younger generations (which includes myself) are not loyal to companies! this thread is also an example of nursing being no different then any other career field.
for example, i worked for a company where i was one of the top earners in my department. without me, the department would have been in the red (i calculated my contribution vs the actual budget since my supervisor allowed me to see it!) anyway, i requested to leave the department or receive a promotion within the department and i was denied several times. on the other hand, people of lesser value to the company quit and returned with a promotion and bonus!
i threatened to do the same and was told by the executive director "you have to do what you have to do." well i quit and the executive director had a fit. he blew up at me in front of everyone and acted like he had no idea why i would want to leave. after i left both my former supervisor and the executive director were fired within two years for low job performance/production. now i am making plans to return because i am being given just about everything i requested before and more!
it sounds silly, but in my case it worked! and so, if i do not receive the opportunities and promotions i wish to have in my first company working as a rn, i will not stay. i'm thinking about me and my career, which improves the lives (financial security) of my family who i give 100% of my loyalty, period! if a company wants any form of loyalty from me, my bosses will have to either meet my demands completely or make concessions. giving me nothing, as was the case with my former employers, will not work.
I'm an EA now and have been in Accounting in one of my prior lives, and find the situation of companies paying "new" people more than "old" people quite prevalent. Always amazes me......people leave and come back and will make more money than when they left even if it is for a short period of time. Something to learn from that.....
I was in this same boat. I was with the same employer for 2.5 years and had acquired a number of certifications in my specialty. They went to hire a new person, same amount of years as a nurse but no experience in this area, for $2 more an hour than me. I asked for a raise and was denied so I found a new job making $3/hr more than my previous. Only issue is now I am that new person being paid more than some of the nurses that have been in my new department for 3+ years.
Hope I don't drift too far off topic here. I am very satisfied with choosing nursing as a second career, but this issue of compensation is one the relatively few things I find very frustrating about the field. After working in environments where initiative and quantifiable contributions were directly rewarded, the compensation and promotion scale of the nursing world seems very inefficient and limiting. On the one hand, I get what management is up against-less and less money coming in due to insurance and medicare strong arming leaves them in a position of needing to not give out any more money than is absolutely necessary. Moreover, once a nurse hits an hourly rate that begins to exceed agency rates, what do you do? I don't like that reality, but I accept it's part of the problem.
On the flip side of that though, there is no quantification and reward for the kind of nursing initiative that cuts length of stay and saves thousands and thousands of dollars. Catching a critical value before it becomes a code because the rhythm strip looked funny, sending off urine to the lab and catching a UTI no one is treating. ETC. Everyone here knows that good care can do volumes to ease suffering and cut costs, but at best it seems to me like that good care simply makes the monthly loss less severe and as such, nurses don't get a cut of what they directly save the hospital. In my hospital, I am fortunate to work in an environment where the attending's respect the nurses and drill that same attitude into residents. Without a doubt, I feel appreciated for what I do and as a newer nurse I have no complaints about how much I make.........yet. In the bigger picture though, I wish the nursing contribution was quantified a little better. I really don't want to have to move around to make better money, but it seems to me that this is inevitable until nursing is quantified as more than a room charge.
It sounds like loyalty does not pay off at some facility. I guess if I was in an area that this occured, I would take a job at a facility right out of school that I may not necessarly want to stay at for the long term. I would get my experience in and they apply at the hospital that I really wanted to work at. That way I would end up making more money at the hospital I ultimetly wanted.
I_am_Julia
226 Posts
very smart person.
off topic a bit... i find this is true for a lot of people who worked in previous careers prior to nursing.