Pay schedules when changing union hospitals

[pwilli]

I am taking a new position at a state union hospital in Maui. My previous employment was at a union hospital in Oregon. I was on step 2 at that hospitals pay schedule ( almost 10 years experience there. How do pay schedules work? Will I start back on step one at the new job in Maui? Or will I start on the equivalent step at the new hospital for a nurse with almost ten years work experience?

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

I am taking a new position at a state union hospital in Maui. My previous employment was at a union hospital in Oregon. I was on step 2 at that hospitals pay schedule ( almost 10 years experience there. How do pay schedules work? Will I start back on step one at the new job in Maui? Or will I start on the equivalent step at the new hospital for a nurse with almost ten years work experience?

That information should be found in the contract with the Maui hospital.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Union contracts are negotiated by facility. Each facility is different in its contract language, pay scales etc. It should be clear in your hire letter at what step you will start at. Some are intent on starting all new hires at the first step. However, with 10 years of experience, you may be able to negotiate an alternate step. That may or may not work.

Bottom line, facilities within the same union are vastly different contract wise, payscale, steps, differentials....You should get a copy of the union contract after your probationary period. You also should have a good idea of the dollar amount you will be making prior to accepting the position. If that is satisfactory to you, you may have started on step 1 or step 5, you never know.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I would have thought they would have told you what the starting pay would be for the job already. The union contract generally determines pay range for new hires as well as current employees. Some unions the best ones with good contracts have steps where a person's raise is based on years experience, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the pay is only based on performance and then only for the years of the contract in weaker unions ie private hospitals usually don't have as good of benefits as public govt hospitals. Of course govt hospitals other than the VA have been disappearing and being privatized for years to save the city or county money as private industry has less generous benefits and pay usually.