pay freezes

Published

  1. Have nurses at your facility received raises in the past five years?

    • 8
      merit based pay increase
    • 5
      across the board nursing competitive increase
    • 1
      one time bonus for nurses only
    • 2
      hospital wide bonus
    • 6
      hospital wide cost of living increase

22 members have participated

I work in a 700 bed hospital system in North Carolina. Nurses have not received a merit pay increase for the last 5 years. This coincides with the arrival of our current CEO who has received a bonus and pay increase each of those years. Last year the health system announced it would no longer publish the CEO's bonus or pay increase. I can only assume they thought it bad for morale. Nurses did receive an across the board 2% increase two years ago to remain competitive. As someone who has always been an overacheiver, clinical ladder, certification, etc., it is hard to maintain the enthusiasm to go above and beyond with no reward other than personal satisfaction. During this time our maximum PTO accumulation has been cut by 100 hours and PTO accrual cut by 20% per pay period. Hospital match for our 403B was cut for one year but has been reinstated. Are other hospital systems going through the same situation? I am interested to know.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Although we haven't seen pay freezes, there might as well be with the amount of raise we're receiving- with much higher than average reviews, nurses in my department are lucky if their raise is $0.25/hr. Previously, those who were maxed out on the pay scale would receive a one-time payment equal to what their annual raise would be. That was stopped in 2008. Also stopped in 2008 were cost of living increases. The facility is nowhere near competitive, but jobs in the area are hard to come by, so most people are kind of stuck.

The most demoralizing part is reading the annual report in the local newspaper that spells out just how much the administrative people get paid in salary, benefits, and bonus. The vast majority are making nearly $750,000/year with 2 making over $1M- even though profits have been dropping for the last 5 years. Take those bonuses away from the execs and give them to the people who provide the work that keeps the hospital in business!

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Wow, and people wonder why we are union. That's insane! We ratified our contract last year (good for 3) and we have yearly step increases, increased our rate of PTO and sick accrual (the only offset was having to use 12 hours instead of 8, but it accrues faster it all equals out), and each RN got a 4% bonus at ratification and a 1% bonus based on FTE for the next two years. Management did was mess with our retirement, and insurance premiums went up a bit (again), but we are fighting the retirement change and at least with the insurance, we are still ahead money wise even with a small premium increase.

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Specializes in ICU.

I have been at my present job for 5 years now. We haven't received any kind of pay increases, cost of living, bonuses, nothing. We are supposed to get a pittance of a pay increase at our yearly evaluation, but this hospital will do anything to keep from giving that to you. Oh, you clocked in a minute late 7 months ago?!? Well, there went your pay raise!

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

I guess it's not a publicly traded company? I think they have to publish the salaries of their executives.

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No, it is a "Private, not for profit" facility. I don't know the legalities. We use to be county owned but changed to this status several years ago.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

The salaries are reportable and you will just have to look harder.

This is what the problem is all about. Cutting the little guy so the big guy lives comfortably. There is so much out of hand

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It's not a surprise. Many CEOs, CFOs, etc have no problem with taking big bonuses while the "worthless whiners" get less and less. It's frustrating! Unfortunately some areas have little competition with all of the mergers recently, which only compounds the problem.

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Any suggestions on where to look?

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Try googling the name of the facility and 990. It's a tax form that reports all of this. Because my facility is not for profit, it is public record.

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What part of NC are you in, OP?

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I'd rather not say. Need my job.

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