Raises-how often do you get them?

MNlpn · Apr 16, 2006

Our hospital is union. So we get a pay raise every year. Our contract runs for 3 years. So when the contract expires, we negotiate for pay raises etc. IE: if they agree to a 12% raise, they divide it out over the 3yrs, so 4% each year. Might not be much, but every little bit helps

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 16, 2006

All employees are evaluated annually. Most of us get raises from 0 to 4%. I've only heard of a few undeserving who didn't get a raise, most get 3% for meeting job requirements. I did get a 4% last year. We also got a "market adjustment" raise because other hospitals in the area got a raise.

What your hospital is doing is outrageous and will only bite them in the butt because it shows they disrepect RNs. 15 per 100 employees getting a raise is not an incentive to do well, it's an insult.

Fonenurse · Apr 16, 2006

Here in the UK we have our cost of living increase negotiated annually by the unions - in the NHS we are on a single pay scale called Agenda for Change. We also get an incremental rise each year based on performance - we have to show we are improving - by way of a portfolio of evidence. It's a new system, so I don't know how it will pan out yet - but it seems much fairer than what you describe...

shodobe · Apr 16, 2006

If you belong to a union, as one poster stated, it is divided up over the length of the contract. Where I work that is then divided over the year. For example if the contract calls for 15% over 3 years which is 5% a year then that is divided over the year at 2%, 2% and 1%. So you get a little raise 3 times a year. It all adds up over the life of the contract.

Jennerizer, ASN, RN · Apr 16, 2006

We get raises once a year....usually 2-4%, but this year my raise was $1.20/hr....which ended up being somehwere closer to a 7% raise. We didn't get a bonus this year though.

Sheri257 · Apr 16, 2006

All employees are evaluated annually. Most of us get raises from 0 to 4%. I've only heard of a few undeserving who didn't get a raise, most get 3% for meeting job requirements.

Funny that you mention this. I'm currently working as a student extern at a non-union hospital where the RN's were all abuzz this week because a lot of them barely fell short on the evaluation scoring system to get the full 4 percent raise. They were pretty PO'd because they only got the three percent raise ... and barely missed the full four.

I'm not sure how it works but, apparently alot of them missed the full raise by only .01 points in the evaluation scoring ... or something like that ... and they felt the whole process was rigged against them.

I don't know if any of them will leave but, I'm pretty sure they could do better elsewhere since there are so many nursing jobs in SoCal. Kinda makes you wonder what employers are thinking when they upset the RN's like that.

As for not giving most RN's any real raise at all ... well, that's nuts.

:typing

Sheri257 · Apr 16, 2006

I'm suspicious that the PCT's and HUC's got raises because a 3-4% increase is a lot less to pay out for them than it would be for us RN's.
The rest of us got $750-$1000 one time pay-outs only.

The average Houston RN makes $58,000 a year so, assuming that's what a typical RN makes at your facility ... the $1,000 payout would only be a 1.7 percent bonus. If the payout was $750 then, that's only a 1.2 percent bonus. Based on the other figures posted here where 3-4 percent annual RN raises seems to be the norm ... it sounds like you're definitely being short changed. Especially since it's only a one time payout and not a permanent increase.

:typing

luvmy2angels · Apr 16, 2006

I will get one when my 6 month porbabtionary period is over and then once a year thereafter on my anniversary date.

sharann, BSN, RN · Apr 16, 2006

Last raise was 3 years ago, but it was big because I was being severly underpaid (new grad rate for 3 years!).

We are now coming up on a hospitalwide raise period. We are being made to do Self evals and then 2 peer evals and then they will look at the overall. I dislike this because if I score myself a "1" I only meet expectations but a "2" exceeds it. How do you exceed expectations on something like a care plan which is done the same every time?

I will be screwed no matter what. We are not union in case you had not guessed...

RN34TX · Apr 17, 2006

All employees are evaluated annually. Most of us get raises from 0 to 4%. I've only heard of a few undeserving who didn't get a raise, most get 3% for meeting job requirements. I did get a 4% last year. We also got a "market adjustment" raise because other hospitals in the area got a raise.
What your hospital is doing is outrageous and will only bite them in the butt because it shows they disrepect RNs. 15 per 100 employees getting a raise is not an incentive to do well, it's an insult.

How you are describing the way your facility gives increases is exactly what I'm used to, even in non-union Texas.

In Dallas, I could easily count on 3-4% per year with "market adjustment" increases on top of it when other hospitals were paying more than where I was working.

There have been "town meetings" held on a number of days at work because many nurses wrote to administration expressing severe dissatisfaction with the pay increase practices.

No one in my unit has quit over this as of yet but my partner's med/surg unit has already lost 4 seasoned vets who sought better opportunities up in Houston after the short changed raises were given.

I hear discussion about it and how people are quitting almost every time I bring a patient up to the floors.

I have yet to attend a meeting but what I've heard from others who have attended is that administration was completely surprised and floored that we are all so dissatisfied.

BTW, I received an excellent evaluation. It was so good that I was pretty sure that I'd make the 15% cut. Many of my co-workers thought that their evals were great as well but didn't make it.

Thank you for the info.

I was beginning to think that the glory days of getting regular raises was over but apparantly not.

RN34TX · Apr 17, 2006

The average Houston RN makes $58,000 a year so, assuming that's what a typical RN makes at your facility ... the $1,000 payout would only be a 1.7 percent bonus. If the payout was $750 then, that's only a 1.2 percent bonus. Based on the other figures posted here where 3-4 percent annual RN raises seems to be the norm ... it sounds like you're definitely being short changed. Especially since it's only a one time payout and not a permanent increase.
:typing

I did some number crunching about those one time bonuses as well and came to the same conclusion.

My facility actually pays less than the average Houston hospital. We are an hour drive out of Houston.

I took the job knowing this because I wanted to live on the gulf and they pay 100% books and tuition up front for BSN or MSN programs with no reimbursement to tangle with like most other facilities.

No hospital in Houston offered this to me when I was job hunting but their pay was a little higher.

I think that's the problem with living in a one hospital town. No competition.

Many of us dread the thought of commuting to Houston so we stay here.

The only other two hospitals that are 30 miles or so from my area are HCA facilitites and I'm not big on working for them.

I was ok with taking a lower paying job assuming that I'd be getting regular annual increases like I'd always gotten at every other place I've worked.

I had no idea that I'd end up making only a couple dollars an hour more than I made as an LVN in Dallas.

Thank you all for your input.