Nursing Pay Question?

Nurses General Nursing

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So how are some nurses making $30/hr?

I started as a new grad at $20/hr. When do I make it to $30?

Do I have to work like 10 years or do they work 1-2 years somewhere then hop around until they find a higher paying position?

I feel nursing pay varies too much. they just don't want to pay, yet cry about shortages.

Anyone have any tips?

Also I go to payscale.com it shows lowest for RN is like $45K and highest was like $90K for my area. Why am I not in that bracket and not only that I work for a major hospital, nothing small or private.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
This is a good first degree and job for a little 20 year old kid, but not for us 30+ old folks.

I got my ADN at age 32, for $6000, and started out making $60,000 immediately as a new grad. Show me another associate's degree that offers that kind of pay for a new grad.

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That is true. It can work out for some people. I have a BSN, and it certainly did not cost $6000.

They are also making many nurses go back and get a bachelors anyway.

Like I said, I respect nursing. There are plenty of morons out there that do not understand what we do.

I would just like to apply more of the science, but with nursing I don't think it will happen.

But you choose where you want to be happy, and it seems ADN is working out for you.

I have a friend he has a bachelors in computer science and he makes $75,000 from home. He said it is super laid back.

90% of the time he plays Halo or something with friends on dual monitor.

Talk about labor. This really upset me that nursing is paying us so little for pure labor and no brains. So you are wrong in ways. There are other degrees that pay as well or way better that offer great pay, great schedules and benefits and much much much less stress.

I got my ADN at age 32, for $6000, and started out making $60,000 immediately as a new grad. Show me another associate's degree that offers that kind of pay for a new grad.
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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I would just like to apply more of the science, but with nursing I don't think it will happen.

But you choose where you want to be happy, and it seems ADN is working out for you..

Well, no. I'm 4 months away from having my Master's degree. But my point is that I know of no other fields where new grads can routinely start out making $60K with only an associate's degree.

There are plenty of areas of nursing where you can apply more science.

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Specializes in CVICU.

This is a good first degree and job for a little 20 year old kid, but not for us 30+ old folks.

I can't help but feel your comment is condescending. Please correct me if you intended it otherwise. If nursing isn't a good degree/job for you, then perhaps you should have researched the profession and payrate for your area before pursuing it.

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Specializes in Pedi.
That is true. It can work out for some people. I have a BSN, and it certainly did not cost $6000.

They are also making many nurses go back and get a bachelors anyway.

Like I said, I respect nursing. There are plenty of morons out there that do not understand what we do.

I would just like to apply more of the science, but with nursing I don't think it will happen.

But you choose where you want to be happy, and it seems ADN is working out for you.

I have a friend he has a bachelors in computer science and he makes $75,000 from home. He said it is super laid back.

90% of the time he plays Halo or something with friends on dual monitor.

Talk about labor. This really upset me that nursing is paying us so little for pure labor and no brains. So you are wrong in ways. There are other degrees that pay as well or way better that offer great pay, great schedules and benefits and much much much less stress.

klone didn't say that there are not other fields that pay as well or better than nursing. Your friend in computer science has a BACHELOR'S degree. If there is such a thing as an associate's degree in computer science, he wouldn't have such a cushy job with a good salary with that degree. The comment you were responding to:

I got my ADN at age 32, for $6000, and started out making $60,000 immediately as a new grad. Show me another associate's degree that offers that kind of pay for a new grad.

I have my BSN. As a new grad, I made more money than all my friends, except for my one friend who was in finance. But then the economy tanked and everyone in her field was laid off. I make more money now, as a nurse with 7 years experience, than my mother, who has been a teacher for 40 years.

I could not disagree more with your statement that "MDs and NPs have it easy." How's that now? I make way more money than an MD my age, who is a 3rd year resident if he went straight from college to med school. And he's working 80 hours/week with 24 hr shifts making 50% less than what I make working M-F 8-4:30 with 6 weeks of paid time off. And he's probably in a TON of debt from medical school. I have never, ever wished in my years of nursing that I'd been a doctor instead. I wouldn't have anything that I have now- my house, a full passport, a new car, if I was a poor resident.

You must live in a low cost of living area. New grads in my area make close to $30/hr.

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Thank you to everyone who replied. And I apologize if I was offensive to anyone. It was not my intention. Looks like from various responses that nursing pay varies.

Experience and job hopping is a good way i suppose to get a bit more pay.

Again, thanks to all for their advice.

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

I started out as an ADN in the low $20's/hr, stayed for experience for 3.5yrs, found another job making $30's/hr. I thought it was great until I saw that the cost of my benefits had more than tripled. I really ended up taking home the same amount. I'm part time though so bennies usually cost more.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Experience and job hopping is a good way i suppose to get a bit more pay..

Be wary of job-hopping.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
klone didn't say that there are not other fields that pay as well or better than nursing. Your friend in computer science has a BACHELOR'S degree. If there is such a thing as an associate's degree in computer science, he wouldn't have such a cushy job with a good salary with that degree. The comment you were responding to:

I have my BSN. As a new grad, I made more money than all my friends, except for my one friend who was in finance. But then the economy tanked and everyone in her field was laid off. I make more money now, as a nurse with 7 years experience, than my mother, who has been a teacher for 40 years.

I could not disagree more with your statement that "MDs and NPs have it easy." How's that now? I make way more money than an MD my age, who is a 3rd year resident if he went straight from college to med school. And he's working 80 hours/week with 24 hr shifts making 50% less than what I make working M-F 8-4:30 with 6 weeks of paid time off. And he's probably in a TON of debt from medical school. I have never, ever wished in my years of nursing that I'd been a doctor instead. I wouldn't have anything that I have now- my house, a full passport, a new car, if I was a poor resident.

You must live in a low cost of living area. New grads in my area make close to $30/hr.

Well said.

In my area, new grads make the lowest $25 to $30 + base pay; then to add differentials for off shifts and weekend pay, the average is about 55,000-70,000.

There is money to be made in this business; sometimes the rate is offset due to cost of living; it also depends on the facility if they do COLA where there are consistent increases.

TBH, some nurses hustle with two jobs and come out making more; however, there may be a risk of bumping into a higher tax bracket and end up owing taxes.

Nurse can make as much money as they can, sometimes it's all about the hustle. ;)

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That is true. It can work out for some people. I have a BSN, and it certainly did not cost $6000.

They are also making many nurses go back and get a bachelors anyway.

Like I said, I respect nursing. There are plenty of morons out there that do not understand what we do.

I would just like to apply more of the science, but with nursing I don't think it will happen.

But you choose where you want to be happy, and it seems ADN is working out for you.

I have a friend he has a bachelors in computer science and he makes $75,000 from home. He said it is super laid back.

90% of the time he plays Halo or something with friends on dual monitor.

Talk about labor. This really upset me that nursing is paying us so little for pure labor and no brains. So you are wrong in ways. There are other degrees that pay as well or way better that offer great pay, great schedules and benefits and much much much less stress.

You're forgetting what a nurse is. A nurse is a necessary evil. Noone wants a nurse, but everyone needs one. The best nurses who do the best work, the most you can say of them is "They keep the hospital from losing as much money as it otherwise would".

Nurses are losers in the financial scheme of a hospital.

That is why nursing services are always the first to be harmed during any budget cut at short-sighted facilities, because they refuse to accept that unhappy nurses drop hospital reimbursement rates because of survey scores of patients.

Anyway, my point is, hospitals wish they didn't have to have us working there...but they need us to do the work.

Think of it like a plantation, if you will. Plenty of plantation owners hated slaves...but they sure did have a lot of 'em!

Except unlike slaves, who actually produced wealth, nurses just do their best to RETAIN wealth. We don't get patients to come to the hospital. We retain them.

I hope some of this is making sense, but I think you get what I'm saying. We are a money loser. The best of us just lose money slower. So of COURSE they will pay you as little as necessary to retain you in adequate numbers to meet their financial needs.

It's economics 101.

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

So much depends on where you live and where you work. At my last job, I made about $62k a year and I was very grateful for the money I made considering my job was an office job Monday-Friday, weekends and holidays off, etc. I recently switched jobs and went from $62k a year to $89k a year. While the job itself is pretty easy, the environment can be difficult. I am in a prison infirmary and the prison pays its nurses very well to come work behind the gates and barbed wires. I actually enjoy my job but could do without the political baloney and gossip mill this places seems to breed. So you can't compare apples to oranges. I am very, very grateful to have a 2 year degree that probably cost me less than $5000 and it has paid off with an annual salary of almost $90k a year. NP or MD? Nope. Not interested, never will be. I make as much as a NP in our area and I don't have to deal with the nonsense they do. MD? I could do without the horrendous medical school loans (I have a friend who is a doctor and his school loans are over $300k). I also don't care for the medical model.

I think that you really have to look at where the nurses are working, COL in that area, how much OT or shift differential they are getting, etc. Otherwise, you really ARE comparing apples to oranges.

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Specializes in Corrections.

I work in upstate NY. I passed my boards in late 2011, and an instructor landed me a job at a Home Care office where she also worked. I was offered $20...and before I even opened my mouth to accept, my instructor said "I make $21.40"! So, with no other choice, the Manager offered me $21.40. Of course, my instructor followed up by saying "Well...I've been here longer than him, so now I need a raise!"

Well played.

Anyway, I received a $1.40 raise within five seconds of working my first job.

I also did a very short stint of Private Duty Nursing, which I negotiated to $25 an hour.

In 2012 I began working full-time on a Telemetry floor at a local Hospital at $22.68 an hour, with additional shift differentials of 12-30% depending on what shift I worked. (I chose overnights due to the high differentials.) I left the Hospital about a year afterword.

Now, I work Per Diem in Corrections Nursing at a local jail. When I was hired in 2013, I made $24 an hour. We had a new contract as of January 1st 2014 with a new agency, and with that came another $4 raise. I also receive $1/$2/$2.50 shift differential, so most of my (overnight) hours are currently paid at $30.50 an hour.

I have recently taken on some additional hours at a State Prison through a Staffing Agency, and I receive $35 an hour for that.

This equates to a 57% pay increase in three years.

The money will come.

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