New to San Diego RN Hourly Wage

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Ok so Im new to San Diego but not new to nursing. I've been an RN for 5years and an LPN for 8years. I have been checking the hospitals out here and trying to figure hourly what they start seasoned nurses at...... I went to an agency and he quotes me 36/hr if sent to Kaiser Permanente or Alvarado some how I get the feeling they are pulling a fast one on me....I need your thoughts and input fellow nurses. what are normal wages here?

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
Correct me if Im wrong but the facility will pay the agency a higher portion for finding or sending me. Where I'm from agency pays higher than the hospitals because there was no benefits and per diem could be spare of the moment a lot of times.

But that's not necessarily the case. I did agency work in Southern CA and per-hour earned slightly less than what a permanent employee made. There's no law saying that as an agency nurse you must be paid at a higher rate than permanent staff. The agency may be deciding to keep that extra for themselves instead of passing it along to you.

I'm not saying that working agency is necessarily a bad thing--it's flexible, you can earn quick money, there's potential for long-term contracts and you can start networking for permanent positions.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Quote from RunBabyRN

True! This was for an on-call position.

I wasn't sure what the pay difference was between northern and southern CA. I knew it was significant, but that seems like a big jump. Hm. Glad I'm up north! :)

I suppose, if you had the choice of 2 ft positions.. And just looking at money aspect.

Most new grads wouldn't care how much they get paid for that one year experience, let alone be in San diego. Im gonna assume you have family or what not and only looking for acute care positions near home up north ?

(I'm on mobile, and can't figure out how to quote properly!)

Yes, I have family tying me to NorCal. Thankfully I have enough work outside of acute care to pay the bills, and I have hospital interviews up here. I've been searching a ways from home, including some stuff in SoCal, but the market is tough.

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