Pay Scale

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Please let me know what your base pay is in your part of the country. I live in TN and where I work our base pay is 13.00/hr. And if you are a CVICU nurse, do you get paid more for what you can do. thanks

Specializes in ICU.

I work as an ICU nurse in Southeastern Wisconsin. Starting wage for new grad is $22/hour.

I also work the weekend shift which provides an additional $8/hours.

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care.

Cleveland, OH. I work in the CVICU. When I graduated last year most hospital recruiters verbalized that RN can come in making at least $22.00/hr. I started with a little over that.

I mean is the cost of living low in TN? I made $12.50 as a secretary, but like I said, maybe the cost of living as well as the demand for nursing may be greater where I live.

It's very hard to believe they start RN's off at $13. But as I see here, I guess that is a reality.

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this thread is over 10 years old, take that into consideration when replying

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GA. new grads start from $18-22/hr base pay depending on what kind of hospital you work in, obviously the bigger hospital ICU/CCU's pay more. With shift differentials...weekends....nights... you can make up to 27/hr.

I was a tech and just graduated in May, worked in a CCU for 6 years and made 15.43 by the time I graduated. 13/hr is quite shocking to me. It must be a smaller hospital I assume.

As far as skills, it is mandatory in my dept to have certain training completed within a year of hire. The hospital provides the training. We have to complete ACLS for adults and IABP training and then by the end of the year they begin to train you on CRRT and eventually Open heart recovery. And then yearly you do your recertification on all these. They provide us with a skills day in which we are overseen by the education dept and we show competency at the bedside with certain skills. They give us like 4 months to get them completed.

Then we have skill levels 1-2-3-4 and the higher the skill the more money you are paid and the more that is expected from you to give back such as being on committees and things like that.

Other money we make is from a system called bidshift, we no longer take call days mandatory but sign up for them voluntarily on bidshift....if you are not called in and are on call the entire 12hrs then you make 4/h while you sit around at home. If you are called in then it is an automatic time and a half plus any differentials. Hope this gives you a glimpse of what we do in Georgia and by the way my hospital is 50 miles from Atlanta and we have over 5,000 employees total. Its a good size hospital and we just added a tower. Our CVICU has 17 beds with 18 overflow beds (eventually to be remodeled and all open hearts will be there with the other 17 strictly CCU) and our ICU has 38 beds.

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care.
Come on out to California! In the East Bay, I believe they start at around $45/hour

Cost of living in Cali and in NY are kinda steep. So that's expected right? I mean rent for a small apartment in many places is >$1000/mo. I don't even want to know how much it is for a gallon of milk? Gas prices...forget it! LOL

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Specializes in Cardiac Critical Care.
this thread is over 10 years old, take that into consideration when replying

Oh snap...didn't know that. Why is it still here? No thread maintenance?

Oh nevermind...well at least I can see the upward trending in nursing pay..lol.

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USD or CDN ??? Big difference

Not a big difference at all.

$1 USD = $1.04 CND

We're pretty much the same right now. We have been for a while.

http://www.xe.com/

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Well, I live in a small town on the border with Canada, and there are clinics here that specifically cater to canadian clients b/c the wait is so long for procedures and tests up there, and not just elective items either!!! all kinds of things, those that have the money up there purchase thier medical care here.

I would be curious though how the pay differs from Vancouver BC to Seattle.

I live in Vancouver. Make $33/hr (graduated in 2006) before shift differentials. Overtime is double time. I made $85,000 CDN this year. Which according to http://www.xe.com/ is $81,000 USD. Keep in mind that my overtime pay is $66/hr. Vancouver is also the most expensive city to live in in Canada, and one of the most expensive cities to live in here in North America. I rent a tiny (550 square feet) one bedroom condo for $1400/month. If I were to buy it, it would cost $350,000. And it's not even new. Seven year old buiding. You cannot buy even a crappy single family home in the city of Vancouver for less than $600,000.

Here's the link to all the wait times in our province. A surprise to most of you, I'd think. http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/waitlist/

You'd be surprised at how many Americans come to Canada for health care.

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I have 6 years experience in ER and ICU I'm making base pay in central texas about $28.60 without shift differetial or weekend pay! Moving to southern california due to army (husband) hope the pay is better.. Cost of living differences can't be forgotten though.

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Well, I know you won't believe this . . . but I'm not lying . . . in the SF Bay area, starting salary for ICU is $32 - 40/hr. At four years, with rapid advancement, $50/hr is normal. And, my hospital is just average . . . the upper end is $55-60/hr.

Believable. Here are the UCSF pay rates: http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/staffing/tpp_detail?tc=9139

other nursing pay rates:

http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/staffing/tpp_detail?titletext=&tier1=1&tier2=2&Perb=NX&subFOC=

Of course, the Bay Area is very expensive.

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O my I can not believe what I am reading here in this forum. I am a nursing student and I work at Home Depot as Supervisor making $16.00 hr. Based on what I have read so far I make more than some nurses. O, no I just can not believe this. This makes me rethink my career goals like for real. My ideal salary as a new grad nurse is $24-28.

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Specializes in CVICU.

I'm in the south suburbs of Chicago. 3 years ago, I started at $22.55/hr in the CVICU as a new grad. Now, I'm at $24.75/hour base (we have no clinical ladder at my facility) plus a $5.00 hour shift differential, and I'm a weekend program RN so I get time and a half for all the hours I work. I consider my "base" to be $42.25, although if I were to interview somewhere else that might not fly.

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