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.

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.

The money will also GO. I went from $96K a year 2 years ago to $69K this year. Same floor, same hours, same shift. Don't EVER finance anything that you can't afford at your base salary is what I tell people.

Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

12 years in with just an associates degree I am very happy with what I make. You gotta investigate, negotiate and maybe move around if needed.

Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

It's going to be a lot harder to make a lot of money, with a glut of nurses all fighting for the same position.

Supply and demand.

We don't talk about wages where I work, but a new hire tried their best to weasel my rate of pay out of me. They did that by offering what THEY made an hour thinking I'd reciprocate. First of all that wasn't happening, but I was honestly shocked at the amount, and what the new nurse accepted. To clarify that poor nurse was making peanuts.

I advised them to work their year or two and then move on to another facility. Even with 3% raises yearly, which we don't get, they wouldn't top $20 an hour for years.

The other side of that little exchange with the new nurse, was that it left me feeling vulnerable.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

Location location location

Plus cost of living play into it as well

And LTC vs acute care makes a difference

As a new grad my 1st job was $22, but that was peds PD

Where I currently work the job ads state starting wage is $32 an hour for new grads.

I make a decent amount with 5 yrs experience working critical care, with shift differentials last year I made 80k

But then add cost of living

I live in a 4bed 2 bath house in a very lower middle class area, my house was built in the 50s. support a family of 5, so my kids can have a full time parent at home. I pick up overtime as much as I can and we are living paycheck to paycheck.

In other parts of the country houses is much more affordable, but wages are lower.

It's going to be a lot harder to make a lot of money, with a glut of nurses all fighting for the same position.

Supply and demand.

We don't talk about wages where I work, but a new hire tried their best to weasel my rate of pay out of me. They did that by offering what THEY made an hour thinking I'd reciprocate. First of all that wasn't happening, but I was honestly shocked at the amount, and what the new nurse accepted. To clarify that poor nurse was making peanuts.

I advised them to work their year or two and then move on to another facility. Even with 3% raises yearly, which we don't get, they wouldn't top $20 an hour for years.

The other side of that little exchange with the new nurse, was that it left me feeling vulnerable.

I see that all the time. This is why when I interviewed for a position, I asked about retention rates, lay-offs, pay-cuts, and other things more than I did "the bottom dollar". Show me what happens over a decade or two...not what happens the day I ink the sheet.

It depends on where you work, what you specialize in, and if in a hospital, whether you are staff or poole. I'm currently going back to school because LPNs were phased out of the hospitals where I live. When I worked in a hospital I started out at $11.32 (2002) an hour base rate staff. After a year, I switched to pool and made $26/hr base rate. If I was to complete my RN, they would of dropped me back to staff (required at the facility I worked) and pay $16 (2002-it's gone up) per hour and I would have to wait a year to go up to somewhere in the $30 per hour range base rate....so I would not be able to afford my mortgage for a year. It wasn't an option. Then they phased us out and I got a taste of long term care....okay, I'm ready to complete that degree.

I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but where I live the hospitals are known for paying very low if you are staff with benefits. If you absolutely need the benefits, I would suggest looking for a position elsewhere. The higher numbers that you are seeing are probably management and may be higher levels education (such as a MSN).

Specializes in Rehab; Women's and Children's.

The city where I graduated from had a hospital that paid all nurses the same wage regardless of experience. To determine how much they would pay a floor RN they took the national average. New graduate nurses were getting full time jobs right out of school and did not even have their license yet for $30.00 an hour plus benefits.

I moved away after graduation to a different location and the hospitals where I am now determine pay on experience. I started out at $23.75 an hour base pay + a shift differential of $3.00 an hour for midnight shift for a total of $27.75 an hour. I do have other benefits like an additional premium for weekends.... and as I gain experience my pay goes up. I am not complaining at all. When I finish my BSN in roughly 10 months my pay will increase again. Every year I have an anniversary (thus have another year of experience) my pay will go up. Every time I do anything to climb the clinical ladder, obtain specializations, attend special training seminars, etc. my pay will go up. As a floor RN where I am at, the base pay tops out at $39.00 an hour (not including those premiums and such). The hospital I work for is magnet status, is incredibly supportive of their nurses, and has excellent nurse to patient ratios.

I am very happy with this start into my career and I will not let the fact that my peers (at a different institution with different policies) make $2.25 an hour (equating to only $90.00 a week difference, before taxes) more than me get under my skin in the least. They got lucky. I know places that start new grads out at $22.00 an hour with no premiums or any type of benefits. Besides, when I consider their hospital is not very supportive of their nurses, has poor nurse patient ratios, no union, and are not magnet status--- then I really see in the big picture, and $2.25 an hour is not worth it to me.

The highest paying job I had before I became a nurse was $12.50 an hour, so I more than doubled my earnings, and I expect it to just keep increasing over time. I consider myself very blessed. Yes, money is important, but it is not even on my top 10 list of reasons for wanting to become a nurse.

One thing I would add...Magnet status doesn't mean anything. I worked with an RT who was also an RN. She went to a Magnet hospital from mine (non-Magnet). Told me how great it would be. Well...it wasn't. She complained incessantly about how the hospital I was at took better care of their nursing staff and didn't shuffle so much off on them. I think individual hospitals vary more than "magnet vs. non-magnet" varies.

Also, environment...

I have a friend making $10/hr more than I do at another hospital.

I wouldn't trade him jobs for that.

Specializes in Psych & Gero psych.

Here's the key....

Where you live....High cost of living area or not so much.

What hospital....Duke vs UNC health care For example...or University vs community...Single hospital or hospital system

What kind of Nursing.... Psych, Med-Surg, ER or ICU

Hours and Days....Nights VS Days, during the week or on weekends

When I started I got...

As a new grad (in 2012) it was $21.00/hr $4 shift diff and 25% for weekends.

I have since been offered other jobs with diffrent pay rates.

I got offered a job at New Hanover Regional in Willimington, NC

It would have been a $5 hr pay cut from the above pay, for a much more expensive place to live.

Then I got offered a job at Duke same day as UNC $4 hr difference and better shift diffrentials.

I now make $24.68Hr, $5 hr for nights and $10hr for weekends. SO... basically tonight Sunday I'm making $39.68 an hour.

But you may want to look up the salary survey on this sight....

It come down would you work nights? weekends? overtime? and what areas and locations?

I make 40 an hour.

Started at 32.

Max out around 41-42.

I guess it depends where you live. I'm an ER tech in Oregon and finishing up prerequisite courses for nursing school. At our hospital, which is relatively small and rural, nurses fresh out of school make a little over $34hr. Plus they get $6hr night differential. I work nights with a couple new nurses that are making over $40hr fresh out of school. Plus OT is time and a half and a very generous incentive on top of that.

Oregon is usually ranked as one of the top, if not the top, state to be a nurse. Most of our nurses make $100k or close to it. Cost of living is a little high, but certainly not the worst, and it's definitely worth it for the very high quality of living everywhere in the state. $20hr seems low for a nurse, then again, I only know about this area. If you are in a position to relocate, some areas are certainly better to be working as a nurse.

I graduated two months ago, I make $31.70 base plus night/weekend etc. Lots of factors involved in pay scale. You won't get rich doing this.

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