Question regarding overtime

[Hopefulnurse1823]

So, I have a question regarding picking up overtime and the whole shift differentials thing. Is it actually true that you can potentially double your starting salary by doing that?

I ask because I’m a little bit suspicious with the whole taxes thing. I’ve never had a job that allowed for overtime so am a little bit naive.

Can you basically double your salary by picking up 20 extra hours each week?

And does this explain the huge discrepancy you see when people in the same city post their take home salary?

Any information much appreciated.

[Hopefulnurse1823]

4 minutes ago, Oldmahubbard said:

One's entire income does not go into a new tax bracket. Never did. The marginal income does.

The increments are quite gradual. It isn't like making 100k is great, but the person making 120k is a fool for paying all those taxes. It doesn't work like that.

Whether or not that is worth it to you is a very fine line.

There is not any magic point in the income bracket where working extra isn't worth it.

All that being said, I will compare working extra to earn more money to exercising more to be able to eat more calories.

At some point, exercising makes you hungrier. And working makes you want more stuff.

That is my experience and opinion only. Food for thought.

Also please look closely at your check, and see how much of the deductions are federal income tax. You might be surprised.

I do quite well, I am in the top 5% of NPs income wise, have no deductions of any kind, don't have any special secrets or the services of a CPA, yet I only paid about 17% of my income in federal taxes last year.

That’s impressive with your taxes, even more so considering you don’t have a CPA. I had a teacher friend whose aunt did his taxes and always got him about 10k in his return according to him, he didn’t quite know or was unwilling to let me know what his aunt did.

Mind clueing the rest of us into your mathematical genius?

Also liked your analogy about working out. I actually do intermittent fasting so I could eat as big a meal as I can. Now you got me worried what I’m gonna do to my salary. ?

[Oldmahubbard]

I have always done my own taxes. Used to do it with a book I would buy each year, a pencil and a calculator. Now I use one of those turbo tax e-file things.

No fancy math or subterfuge was ever involved.

I have heard urban legends about people going to a tax preparer or a friend who got them dramatic reductions they couldn't have gotten any other way.

I have also heard about Bigfoot living in the Catskills, where we are vacationing.

Just for perspective, I now pay about 17%, but back in the day when I was poor, made 40k as an RN, we paid about 11%.

But my salary has also multiplied greatly since then, and yes tax laws have changed, which benefitted me.

My point being, federal taxes are rarely onerous. The cost of family health care often is, but those are not taxes, and will be the same whether you make 50k or 200k.

[Oldmahubbard]

And all that being said, working 20 hours OT each week as a nurse would very seldom be worth it, unless here is some horrible and fairly short term, desperate financial need.

But not because of the taxes.

I did work 48 hours a week for a number of years, and it was enough.

At some point you are better off adjusting your lifestyle.

[Nunya, BSN]

Also look at how your hospital does OT if you work 12s. Where I worked you had to get 40 hours that week before OT kicked in, so the first 4 hours of an extra shift were regular pay and only 8 were OT. So everyone said you really needed to pick up another 12 the same week to see a big difference. I like how Texas Children's Hospital did it in the early 80s when I worked there. If you picked up an extra 8 or 12 you got (I think it was) a check for $100 and $125 or $150 at the end of that shift. Of course most of us didn't make that much (I think I started at $8.73/hour in 81, but if you had a trip or something big coming up you had cash right away.

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

On 8/24/2019 at 9:09 PM, Hopefulnurse1823 said:

So, I have a question regarding picking up overtime and the whole shift differentials thing. Is it actually true that you can potentially double your starting salary by doing that?

I ask because I’m a little bit suspicious with the whole taxes thing. I’ve never had a job that allowed for overtime so am a little bit naive.

Can you basically double your salary by picking up 20 extra hours each week?

And does this explain the huge discrepancy you see when people in the same city post their take home salary?

Any information much appreciated.

Depends....how many hours are you scheduled?

Some states pay overtime if you work over 8 hours in a day. Most states only pay overtime if you work over 40 hours in a week...that is ACTUAL worked hours.

Example: If you were scheduled for Labor Day off and Labor Day was an 8 hour paid holiday and you worked 35 hours that week. That is a total of 43 hours...you would NOT get paid overtime for the 3 hours over 40...because those were benefitted hours, not actual worked hours.

Ask HR how your WORK week is calculated. Many times this is different from payroll week.

Example: My last hospital staff job, the WORK week was calculated Monday through Sunday....the payroll week was calculated Sunday through Saturday. Most corporations have the dates running differently so that the work week closes before payroll runs.

[chacha82, ADN, BSN]

I worked a ton of overtime and burned out. By the time you get to the 4th 12 you are exhausted. It's not the overtime shifts, it's the shifts you have to work to earn that overtime. I have had jobs where no OT was available. My advice is to see it as a nice bonus but not to plan on working it to pay back loans, etc. Also many facilities don't allow OT until you have worked there for awhile. Picking up OT also means you might have to float, so choose wisely!

[PeakRN]

2 hours ago, chacha82 said:

Picking up OT also means you might have to float, so choose wisely!

That depends on your facility.