question about salary in the US

777RNThatsMe · Nov 15, 2006

5 and 6 12's is insane people! I do 3 12s and let me tell you I get tired enough that, I have nothing left in energy for my kids let alone any more! and sometimes my 3 12s are in a row; or, if they fall on a weekend it's 4 in a row - and it kills my family.

DON'T do it. To your wife; or your child.

norhubez · Nov 15, 2006

I wonder who quoted you $24/hour because that is quite low for San Diego. I was making $24/hour in Orange County (just N. of San Diego) a year ago. But remember, in CA, anything over 8 hours is time and a half (anything over 12 hours is double time). So I was actually making like $28. With COLA (cost of living adjustments) I quickly got bumped up to where my blended rate was more than $33/hour.
I would work an extra shift once a pay period and I was paying almost $1,000 a pay period in taxes. Of course I am single with no kids. But the taxes there are really high and the housing prices are high. My own apartment + utilities would have easily taken 50% of my net income. Instead of that I opted to get a roommate (where I rented a room in a house for $900/month). See, not cheap! Gas is more. Car insurance is more. Food is more. For you to take your wife and kid to Disneyland it'll cost you $189 just to get into the resort! I don't know how people afford it. I knew married couples making $120K/year and struggling. Of course this is the state where many people have 40 year mortgages.
Now I am a travel nurse and happy as can be. And just so you know, I hear TX is a great place for nurses as far as cost of living and there is no state income tax!

thanks for the insight, so i should exclude san diego now, another agency also offered nursing job in florida for 17/hour, they told me that cost of living there is quite low,one reason why salary was also down. is it true? anyone here who has gone to florida before?

by TX you mean Texas? right? really thanks for the info guys, i was really not concern about these taxes before i made these thread, hope i can get more info, these website is really informative.now i really dont have any plans of going to california, lol.

norhubez · Nov 15, 2006

5 and 6 12's is insane people! I do 3 12s and let me tell you I get tired enough that, I have nothing left in energy for my kids let alone any more! and sometimes my 3 12s are in a row; or, if they fall on a weekend it's 4 in a row - and it kills my family.
DON'T do it. To your wife; or your child.

yeah, even thinking about it really makes me tired, lol. but for some, they just have to sacrifice, i think ill be one of them someday, see im the only one earning, so i think it would be impossible for us to survive in the us with just the basic salary

norhubez · Nov 15, 2006

that is a little low for california, you should be getting paid in the 30's. why not try to apply directly to hospitals? goodluck!

yeah i heard about being hired directly but i dont know how, which one to contact,can you help me??, the only way i know to work in the us now is with the help of agencies. which we all know takes a deduction from our salary in the future as a form of payment for their services

RGN1 · Nov 15, 2006

Just replied to your other post OP. Again this wage is low for the area. I think you should give your agency the boot as they are obviously offering the lowest wages possible!

I have given you a few ideas for direct hire on your other post. Just go search the Internet!! Also check out posts by Suzanne4 etc. you can search within "Allnurses" for exactly what you want by using the search tab near the top of the page. I suggest you do that!

PMFB-RN, RN · Nov 15, 2006

5 and 6 12's is insane people!
I do 3 12s and let me tell you I get tired enough that, I have nothing left in energy for my kids let alone any more! and sometimes my 3 12s are in a row; or, if they fall on a weekend it's 4 in a row - and it kills my family.
DON'T do it. To your wife; or your child.
*** YOu should learn that different things work for different people rather than calling people you don't know insane. I find it a little disterbing that anyone would find them selves worn out after working a few shifts.
The issue to me is working tired rather than the pure number of hours worked. I get enough sleep, run every morning before work and finish my shift feeling well with energy to spare.
Medical residents work a lot more hours than I do, soldiers deployed to Iraq including nurses and docs work more hours than I do. The people who produce the food you eat likely work far more hours than I do.

TAB_RN · Nov 15, 2006

thanks for the insight, so i should exclude san diego now, another agency also offered nursing job in florida for 17/hour, they told me that cost of living there is quite low,one reason why salary was also down. is it true? anyone here who has gone to florida before?
by TX you mean Texas? right? really thanks for the info guys, i was really not concern about these taxes before i made these thread, hope i can get more info, these website is really informative.now i really dont have any plans of going to california, lol.

I lived in South Florida for 10 years (Ft. Lauderdale) and the cost of living there is NOT low. I live in Massachusetts now where the cost of living is quite high. Pay is usually relative to cost of living. You are not going to find a place that pays high, and living costs are low. For a family of three, if you make $1700.00/week you can expect about $500.00 of that taken in taxes... so now you end up with about $1,200.00 per week. Can you live off of it? I don't know. You can most likely expect at least one week of pay per month to go to rent. You are asking questions that are almost impossible to answer. Heat/electric/utilities cost quite a bit. We do not know what your debt is, or your style of living. The only thing I can tell you is that where ever you live, the pay will be relative to the cost of living.

Alexsys · Nov 15, 2006

5 and 6 12's is insane people!
I do 3 12s and let me tell you I get tired enough that, I have nothing left in energy for my kids let alone any more! and sometimes my 3 12s are in a row; or, if they fall on a weekend it's 4 in a row - and it kills my family.
DON'T do it. To your wife; or your child.
*** YOu should learn that different things work for different people rather than calling people you don't know insane. I find it a little disterbing that anyone would find them selves worn out after working a few shifts.
The issue to me is working tired rather than the pure number of hours worked. I get enough sleep, run every morning before work and finish my shift feeling well with energy to spare.
Medical residents work a lot more hours than I do, soldiers deployed to Iraq including nurses and docs work more hours than I do. The people who produce the food you eat likely work far more hours than I do.
That poster did not call any other poster insane. As you you can see in the quote, the poster stated that the idea of working six 12 hour shifts is insane. Three 12 hours shifts CAN wear someone out depending on what type of unit they work on and what real life is like when they leave work. Everyone is diferent. I work in ICU/MICU and for some nurses, that is tiring, but I can do it all week long. I can go up to five shifts in a week, but not more than that. I do have a life too.
That was what the poster was trying to say

sweety 2 · Nov 15, 2006

You got that right. MED ERRORS!!!

Kyrshamarks, BSN, RN · Nov 15, 2006

$24.00 an hour in California is very low even for recruitment agency wage. $17 an hour is also too low for Florida. In Texas $24.00 an hour would work and allow you to have your wife stay at home an put money aside for education for your daughter. Also working 6 12's a week is not undoable nor is it dangerous if you are capable of doing it. To blatantly say it is dangerous for anyone to do it is quite wrong. I worked for many years doing that exact thing. Your body gets used to it and your mental accuity does not go down. Not all nurses are created equal in stamina.

PMFB-RN, RN · Nov 16, 2006

That poster did not call any other poster insane. As you you can see in the quote, the poster stated that the idea of working six 12 hour shifts is insane. Three 12 hours shifts CAN wear someone out depending on what type of unit they work on and what real life is like when they leave work. Everyone is diferent.
*** Yes, exactly That's why it is wrong to tell others what hours they work is insane. To me the idea of working 6 12s for a while to reduce the amount of debt one will graduate from CRNA school with seems perfectly logical.
I work in ICU/MICU and for some nurses, that is tiring, but I can do it all week long. I can go up to five shifts in a week, but not more than that. I do have a life too.
That was what the poster was trying to say
*** Lots of people do what they need to do. They should not be told what they are doing is insane. Think about navy nurses on ships or army nurse deployed to the middle east where they work 12 hour shifts every day. They do what they need to do. I have a friend who worked 90 hours a week for months (not a nurse) to pay family medical bills. When I was in the infantry we stayed awake for days at a time and were all carrying loaded guns and hand grenades!

777RNThatsMe · Nov 16, 2006

I would not want a nurse taking care of me that works 6 days 12 hours per day. NO WAY!!!!

I second that!!!