Nursing wages - differentials

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I am an Australian RN and I enjoy reading these forums very much. One thing that confuses me is the talk of differentials. Im hoping someone can explain it to me. Im guessing it is what you call your extra pay for working evenings, nights and weekends. Is this so ? If so, do get much extra for working say a sunday for example ?

Thanks in advance and to all the nurses out there, take care

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Specializes in Only the O.R. and proud of it!.

You are correct - differentials is an amount earned above base salary, usually awarded for working off-shifts or weekends.

Example at my institution in central Illinois, USA:

Weekday 7 am to 3 pm - no differential (base salary only)

weekday 3 pm to 11 pm - 10% differential ($2.00/hour cap)

weekday 11 pm to 7 am - 10% differential ($2.00/hour cap)

weekend differential (must sign contract to work 7/8 weekends) - 20% differential

weekend off-shift differential same as weekday - off-shift differential based on base salary, not weekend differential pay.

On-Call (productive) time and 1/2 of base salary when clocked in.

on-call (non-productive)- 30 min response time required - $2.00/hour (still earned when clocked in)

holiday pay and holiday productive call pay is the same at double time - hoiday starts at 11 pm the night before and continues to 11 pm the night of. I think they now make an exception for christmas eve (3 p to 11 p) which is now considered a holiday.

Hope this is not too confusing.

(It is for me, and I work here)

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Specializes in Level III cardiac/telemetry.

Thanks for this explanation! I was wondering what usual shift differential amounts were. I am interviewing for a CNA job next week and was wondering if you get an additional shift differential if you are working a weekend overnight? I know my differentials won't be as much as yours since I'm an aide right now, but I'm just curious because the position I applied for is weekends from 1830 - 0700.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Perinatal, Float.

Differentials vary as much as salary...

my current job in the San Francisco area the night differential is $10/hr but there is no weekend differential

in Portland, OR it was $5/hr for Nights

So basically a differential is above and beyond your base pay, to help fill difficult positions such as nights and help cover weekends. One place I worked gave 10% of your base pay extra to be the charge nurse for that shift.

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I work in Cleveland, OH and our shift differential is $1 more an hour and if you are charge it is $1 more an hour.

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Specializes in NICU.
Thanks for this explanation! I was wondering what usual shift differential amounts were. I am interviewing for a CNA job next week and was wondering if you get an additional shift differential if you are working a weekend overnight? I know my differentials won't be as much as yours since I'm an aide right now, but I'm just curious because the position I applied for is weekends from 1830 - 0700.

Differentials will vary greatly from one hospital to another, even in the same city. Now, CNAs usually don't get as large of a differential as nurses, in my experience, so don't be surprised if it's not as large as some of the nurses here are quoting. Our respiratory department also gets very small differentials compared to RNs.

Where I am, in a large city...

7a-3p: no differential

3p-11p: $2.75/hr more

11p-7a: $3.50/hr more

Charge nurse: $1.00/hr more

Preceptor: $1.00/hr more

Friday 11pm-Sunday 11pm: $2.00/hr more

You can add it all up, too. If you are working, for example, a Saturday night shift and you're the charge nurse, you'd be making $6.50/hr on top of your base pay. If you're working, say, 7p-7a, then for the first four hours of your shift you'd get the $2.75 differential, and then the rest of the shift would be $3.50.

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