thm107

The stagnation is an excellent point. As for where nurses make more money, you have also raised another issue keeping nurse's salaries lower. Nurses, being women, are very often not as free as men to move to where the money is. Nurses are often 'trapped' by the circumstances of their lives. It is often difficult for a nurse who is a woman to go where market forces drive nurse salaries up.

Actually 36 hours per week, with not much overtime. (I don't do overtime in the summer, and limit myself to one or two days per month)

Why is pay so low? First off, it is not too low in many areas. RN's make above average wages when compared to all 2 and 4 year degree professions. Of course some make more-many make less. Second, the majority of RN's are women. I guarantee that if nursing were a male-dominated profession that the wages would be significantly better, for the myriad reasons which cause this to be true. I will only touch on a few of those reasons: --Nursing, and female nurses, tend to be more concerned with doing good and caring versus income, and this shows time and time again during hospital negotiations regarding nurse salaries. --Women tend (note the term TEND) to be the second income-earner, or allow their career to be less of a priority than the male in the family's career. --Nursing, being female-dominated for so long, has had a much steeper hill to climb regarding wages. Nurses accepted low pay for far to long, and many in nursing administration today were a part of those low-pay generations, so they honestly see the increases in nurse pay as wonderful and quite generous. They are, in fact, rather pleased (and rightfully so) at the advances they helped nursing gain. This has caused their fire to burn out, however, and we newer generation nurses will have to stoke that fire back up, and fight for our wages. --Nursing, while making advances, is still percieved as a 'bedpans and bedmaking' profession. People just do not understand what we do, as men are still the primary decision makers in hospitals the appreciation of our real duties is sorely lacking. As more men enter nursing, and communicate the reality of nursing to other men, this also will change. --Women have maternity leaves and are far more likely to work part time. This may seem unfair and rather insensitive, but do you want political correctness or reality? The reality is that women are NOT as dedicated to the CAREER aspect of working as men. (Of course, many are, but how many men work part time, take months off every few years to have a baby? FAR less than do women) I am an RN, and a male. I am quite proud of my profession, and will willingly admit that AS A WHOLE women are more compatible with the nursing profession than men. (Not to knock men or nursing, but it is NOT a very masculine profession-again, reality vs. political correctness) So long as this is the case nursing will ALWAYS be paid less than the responsibilities and technical expertise merit. We all knew going into nursing that we would never get rich being a nurse. It was a CHOICE to become a nurse. While I actively fight for higher wages and frankly expect better pay, I cannot reject the reality that compared to most professions nurses are NOT paid poorly. I mean, come on now, I made $65,000 last year with an associates degree from a community college! I am not exactly hurting here.