Nurses Starting Salary

I was wondering what you started at in your first nursing job. Also, how soon can one advance? I've researched how much nurses can make based on average of 4-5 years experience. Then I read this book, written by some woman stating that nurses make an average salary of 50,000. Yet I hear or read from some posts that some people make double that.. or 70s ... 80s thou.... so which is it? I'm curious :stone

[shodobe]

I started out at $7 per hour. Mike

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

I've checked out new nurse grad jobs here in the San Diego area and they start you out at $25/hr

[RN4NICU, LPN, LVN]

I was wondering what you started at in your first nursing job. Also, how soon can one advance? I've researched how much nurses can make based on average of 4-5 years experience. Then I read this book, written by some woman stating that nurses make an average salary of 50,000. Yet I hear or read from some posts that some people make double that.. or 70s ... 80s thou.... so which is it? I'm curious :stone

There are manymanymanymanymanymany threads here about salaries. For specifics - try a search. But just to summarize: it is largely regional, which is the reason for the discrepancies you have noticed. Areas where "the shortage" is greater -- read: where it exists at all -- tend to pay more (the whole supply and demand thing). Areas with a higher cost of living tend to pay more. There is not much increase in pay for experience, most places. Not to mean that a nurse who has been a nurse for 20 years is not earning more now than at the start of that nurses career, but to mean that said nurse is probably not earning much more than new grads in the same area.

[mkaszukgirl]

I am from Tennessee, but I am working as a travel nurse in Rhode Island. You must consider the cost of living in respect to the hourly pay. Granted some places are paying more, but are you getting more for the money? In TN, the average starting pay is around $19/h. In RI, it is about $20/h. My first year out of school, which was 2002, I grossed over $40,000/yr. Now, of course it is more, because I travel, but I have a harder job with different policies, procedures, etc. Just take the dollar amount and consider it with all the facts and perspectives. Salary.com is a great website to compare areas, rates of pay, and the cost of living. Melinda

[RN4NICU, LPN, LVN]

I was going to mention salary.com, but I noticed that the OP is from Canada and I only saw stats from the US listed - I didn't know if there was a Canadian version of the site or not. The OP did not mention the location she was interested in.

I did find a table of Salaries and Wages in Canada for 2004. It lists the average hourly wage of an RN in Canada as being $27 per hour. http://www.livingin-canada.com/work-salaries-wages-canada.html

Hope that helps.

[BSN2004]

Hawaii

$24.77

thats base, then add on depending on shift and temp/regular/call-in status