Compensation is an extremely important aspect for the overwhelming majority of people who must work for a living, including the nurses who claim to do their jobs for purely altruistic reasons. Salary surveys can empower nurses because they unearth valuable information.
As we welcome the dawn of a propitious new year that is brimming with plenty of promise and new beginnings, I wanted to bring up a topic that is influential to most people. Of course, the topic at hand is compensation.
While job satisfaction, personal gratification, altruism, achievement of individual goals, a love of science or a fondness for helping patients heal are all deeper reasons why many people might enter and/or stay in the nursing profession in the face of an increasingly challenging era in healthcare provision, it would be disingenuous to deny the significance of pay.
Salary is an important component for the vast majority of people who must work for a living, including those who claim to do their jobs for purely altruistic reasons. As much as we may love the work that we do, most of us would not continue to show up to work each day if our employers suddenly declared, "You will no longer receive a pay check every two weeks. Instead, we will repay you with compassion, compliments, gratitude and appreciation for a job well done."
To be perfectly frank, compassion does not pay the rent, gratitude will not fill the fridge with food, and caring will not prevent the utilities from being disconnected for lack of timely payment. The truth is that we all need appropriate compensation for the vital services that we render, so I wonder about the occasional person who states, "I love nursing so much that I'd do it for free!" I challenge these people to resign from their paying jobs and volunteer their nursing services for free for the remainder of their working years. Only the well-off can pull it off for an extended time.
With that having been said, informal salary surveys can be worth their weight in gold. The salary survey is a tool that benefits nurses because it gleans valuable information:
It makes us more aware of the average rates of pay for others in our profession.
It enables us to be reasonable when pursuing a fair pay rate from a potential employer.
It takes other factors into account, such as geographic variances and differences in specialties.
It regards the fact that salaries can be a tricky topic - some employees would never even dream of disclosing their pay to colleagues, and many organizations have policies in place that prohibit open discussion of wages. In other words, salary can be a very touchy subject.
If you wish to participate in the informal salary survey for 2014, please list the information in the following order:
Geographic location
Pay rate
In which area / specialty do you work?
What type of license do you have (RN or LPN)?
What type of degree and/or certification do you have?
How many years of experience do you have?
Are you full-time, part-time, or casual / per diem / PRN status?
What shift do you work?
Do you receive any shift differential?
Are you a manager or supervisor?
And if you do not want to provide any salary information, that's perfectly fine, too. Thanks!
Anyone in the Pensacola FL area? I'm a couple of months away from graduation and would like to know what the rates are locally for new grads. I'll be a RN
I am going to be a couple hours away from Pensacola but I bet the pay is comparable. The hospital I got the $20.51 offer at starts new grads in the $19 and change range. North Florida is really, really horrible in terms of salary.
Specializes in NICU, School Nursing, & Community Health.
Geographic location: NW Florida
Pay rate: salary 36,000
In which area / specialty do you work? Case management of Medically Complex Children
What type of license do you have (RN or LPN)? RN, BSN- applied to Pediatric NP school for the Fall because I can barely make ends meet with what we're paid here. As soon as I graduate, getting out of FL!
What type of degree and/or certification do you have? None right now except BLS but when I worked in the hospital I had NRP and STABLE.
How many years of experience do you have? 7 years, started in NICU as a new grad, then went to school nursing, and been in case management for 3.5 years now.
Are you full-time, part-time, or casual / per diem / PRN status? Full-time
What shift do you work? M-TH 730 AM- 6 PM, off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Paid Holidays and generous leave time.
Do you receive any shift differential? Nope and since I'm an employee of the state of FL, no raises unless voted for by legislature. Just got our first one in 8 years but had to pay into retirement now so it came out to like 20 extra bucks a paycheck
Are you a manager or supervisor? Neither And to answer the lady asking about Pensacola, 7 years ago as a new grad BSN, I was getting 17.50 an hour on days in NICU. When I left the bedside 3.5 years ago, I was making $22 an hour, days.
Pay rate....51.00 Base Pay (+3.00 for BSN, +5.00 Evening, or +6.50 Nights), Bonus pay of $250 for working extra shifts including time and a half, doubles, and double backs. My hospital also helps pay down my school loan! 10K per year...I'm truly blessed.
In which area / specialty do you work?.....Med/Surg
What type of license do you have (RN or LPN)?....RN
What type of degree and/or certification do you have? .....BSN, PHN
How many years of experience do you have? ....2
Are you full-time, part-time, or casual / per diem / PRN status?.....Part-time with fully paid benefits (dental, med, vision)
What shift do you work?.....Nights
Do you receive any shift differential?......Yes, $5.00 for evenings, 6.50 for nights
Are you a manager or supervisor?.....No, just a staff nurse :)
It will tell you the earnings of ANY University of California employee. If you don't know an employee name look by job title.
Btw Physicians = PHYSCN.
Most RNs are clinical nurse 2 (I think??).
It looks as though most full time nurses are nearing 100K. A RN friend of mine is at 132K.
It's fun to look up people. At the same time it's kind of crazy that you can look at (again) ANYone's salary at a UC (any campus, student employees are excluded).
You can very clearly see the pay difference amongst Northern, Bay Area, Southern California RN salaries.
What's interesting to me is that RNs make nearly as much as NPs, PAs, and even starting family and internal medicine doctors. I was told by a UCD resident that many doctors go to private hospitals after residency because it double the income. I've heard conflicting information about how UC RN salaries compare to other hospitals in my area (Northern CA)...
It will tell you the earnings of ANY University of California employee. If you don't know an employee name look by job title.
Btw Physicians = PHYSCN.
Most RNs are clinical nurse 2 (I think??).
It looks as though most full time nurses are nearing 100K. A RN friend of mine is at 132K.
It's fun to look up people. At the same time it's kind of crazy that you can look at (again) ANYone's salary at a UC (any campus, student employees are excluded).
You can very clearly see the pay difference amongst Northern, Bay Area, Southern California RN salaries.
What's interesting to me is that RNs make nearly as much as NPs, PAs, and even starting family and internal medicine doctors. I was told by a UCD resident that many doctors go to private hospitals after residency because it double the income. I've heard conflicting information about how UC RN salaries compare to other hospitals in my area (Northern CA)...
calivianya, BSN, RN
2,418 Posts
I am going to be a couple hours away from Pensacola but I bet the pay is comparable. The hospital I got the $20.51 offer at starts new grads in the $19 and change range. North Florida is really, really horrible in terms of salary.