This one is a doozy. A nationally renowned hospital recently announced a market-based adjustment for nursing salaries. The problem is that there is a huge disparity in the size of the raises based on years of service--people with less experience are getting an enormous raise (close to 20%), whereas people with more experience are getting tiny raises (around 3%). A nurse with 5 years of experience making $31 per hour will be getting a $6 raise to make $37, whereas a nurse with 15 years of experience making $41 will get a $1.50 raise, to make $42.50. The nurses who had previously reached the max salary of $45 (after about 20 years of service) will get a $0.50 raise as a cost of living adjustment.
The hospital framed it as a great show of appreciation, but all it has done is to (understandably) piss people off even more than if there hadn't been raises at all. It seems like it would be so much more equitable to take whatever sum of money they'd be spending on the entire group of nurses and distribute it equally (I.e. everybody getting a $4.50 raise).
I have some theories about why it financially benefits the hospital to take this approach, but seriously, what a crappy move. Nurses with decades of experience are an enormous asset to the unit--they're often the ones in leadership roles, doing charge, acting as resources to newer nurses, and basically managing the unit during a crisis. If a bunch of them leave because they're offended, you end up with units that are staffed entirely by new nurses (very scary). Ultimately, it ends up harming the entire unit, including the newer nurses who are getting the higher raises. I am just in disbelief.
