Pay Raises

[Riley3]

We were just told that we would not be getting a merit raise again this year. This is 2 years in a row for our hospital. The frustrating thing is all the other surrounding hospitals are giving there employees raises and found other ways of cutting costs during this time. One hospital (I interviewed at) said they were still giving raises but lets say you were do in January your raise didn't come into effect unitl March. So bascially you had to wait 3 months for the raise to become active. They are also not contributing to health flex dollars so now we have to pay for our health insurance. There was also something about our retirement, but to be honest I couldnt hear anymore at that point. Also when the question was asked if the upper management was getting bonus's or raises the response was "yes because that was budgeted in last year". So that means they didn't think about us worker bees when they did the budget. Our hospital is by no means small as we are one of the two largest in the area.

Is anyone else experiencing the same issues where they work? I know and I am thankful to have a job, but it seems odd that all other places are giving raises and finding other cleaver ways of cutting back. I am starting to wonder about the committment of this hospital to its employees.

[stressgal, RN]

No raise for us this year but the Hospital did cover the rise in insurance premiums. I do participate in the career ladder program and will see a couple dollars/hour increase from that. We too are running a tight unit/hospital with staffing and are taking low census on occasion. I think it has come around every couple of months or so. I'm not complaining my turn happened this past Thursday. Thanksgiving, my holiday to work and I was told to stay home.

I refuse to get too involved in what management gets monetarily. I have worked management and they can have it. I cannot think of a business that I have ever worked where management and hourly employees would see equal benefits. Just my experience.

[Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN]

Management took a pay cut, no pay raise, and no rise in health insurance.

[makes needs known]

Oh yea! We keep getting more and more responsibilities and they tell us that we're going to get that great raise by doing this extra work. We all know that if we don't do as we're are told we will probably lose our job.

[SouthernCarolinaRN]

We just got a raise back in June and Im expecting one again next year. We just had the best financial year ever believe it or not. Hope it keeps up.

[pennyaline]

It sounds like nursing in the US will be thrown back to the dark ages with this attitude. It's supply and demand and while hospitals may be spouting rubbish about recession now, they will be begging for nurses within a year or two. Always have and always will... Nurses should value themselves and their profession more than offering trite advice like "be luck you have a job." I sure wouldn't want to work in that sort of environment.

It's not about supply and demand. It's about reimbursement and the bottom line. Maybe they'll be begging for nurses in a year or two, but management remember the lessons they learned during low staffing times and my money is betting they'll just continue to monkey with nurse:patient ratios because it's a proven revenue enhancer.

As for the "trite advice": it is, however nurses who are employed need to be very grateful they have jobs and if they tell each other that there's no harm in it. The harm comes when employers tell them to be glad they're working, especially after cutting their wages, reducing hours, skipping raises and reducing benefits. THAT adds insult to injury, and that is the environment that is so hard to work in right now.

[caliotter3]

My employers don't give pay raises and don't offer health flex dollars. To be precise, they lower wages and don't offer full time work or don't offer work at all.

[86toronado, BSN, RN]

I got a pay raise, and a sign-on bonus this year. RN's where I work are union, so the pay raises are written into the contract, but my facility also gave all non-union employees 3%. Now, next town over, where my hubby works: no pay raises, took away vacation/sick time, and increased insurance premiums and parking. And they are the bigger hospital... go figure!

[Midwest4me]

lol. consider yourselves lucky. at my hospital, not only have we gotten no raises across the board for the last two years, this summer they also took away an additional 3% from all staff. oh yeah, and they no longer contribute to our 401k and they also took away the eductional reimbursement:(

but i have a job...yae for that.[/q

i agree; kind of a similar story here. we're unionized, governed by the state, have just had our pay frozen for the next 2 years and been ordered to take ulds which are"unpaid leave days"(the # of days taken is dependent upon your salary)---seems like two pay cuts to me--thankfully, our health and dental benefits are fully paid for.

on the bright side, for every employee who takes an unpaid leave day, another employee must work and therefore gets time and a half...so we can make up for the lost wages incurred by the "uld" by working an overtime shift. despite these cuts, i hear that money is still available to send managers to neighboring states for "educational training"....seems odd to me....

[Midwest4me]

i got a pay raise, and a sign-on bonus this year. rn's where i work are union, so the pay raises are written into the contract, but my facility also gave all non-union employees 3%. now, next town over, where my hubby works: no pay raises, took away vacation/sick time, and increased insurance premiums and parking. and they are the bigger hospital... go figure!

gosh, your husband's employer is harsh! they took away his vacation and sick time??? is there a union where he works? if so, did they not fight that???

[caliotter3]

gosh, your husband's employer is harsh! they took away his vacation and sick time??? is there a union where he works? if so, did they not fight that???

better to lose the vacation and the sick time than the whole bloody job.

[86toronado, BSN, RN]

gosh, your husband's employer is harsh! they took away his vacation and sick time??? is there a union where he works? if so, did they not fight that???

they didn't take away all of it... just a third. still pretty bad, though. fortunately he's the type that never uses sick time, so it didn't hurt as bad as those who like to call in once a month :)

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

Gosh we're pretty darn lucky in my neck of the woods....union contract was renewed this past January with a 4% cost of living increase and then 3% the next year plus our annual step increases. They haven't cut or increased our health insurance at all, in fact added a free CBC to our yearly physical.