Raises

I haven't had a raise in 4 years.

New nurses at my facility are making about $5 more than several of the senior nurses- plus a $10,000 sign on bonus. They raised the starting pay but didn't give everyone else a raise to match. It's no wonder experienced staff are leaving in droves.

I work in a Union environment and literally fought for every pay raise to get to the top of our wage scale but I have the mechanisms to do so through our collective bargaining agreement. I saw this coming and like you considered then went to grad school and will get a substantial raise in a couple months. I've never heard of a place that pays new grads more than the nurses it already has. That has to stink & can't see it being good for morale. I'd advise you to look into working at the VA. Our pay scales are structured and the process allows for appeals if you have met the criteria for promotion. They also pay for grad school and guarantee a position that they funded. Good luck. I know its tough out there.

I've been in this business for 40 years ... and my opinion is that work environment, work happiness, good co-workers, good schedule, etc. ... outweigh small-to-moderate pay differences. If I am generally satisfied with my job, I will sacrifice a bit in pay. Being miserable is just not worth a few bucks to me. I have learned to let that principle guide my decisions on such things. At this point in life, you couldn't pay me enough to be willing to miserable all the time.

I totally agree. I have left bedside nursing for a case management position that pays well, not as much as I had been making but with a great corporate culture and a M-F schedule. Do I miss having more hands on interaction? Yes. Do I miss taking on OT when I wanted to vs. being salary? Sure. But being able to look forward to getting up and going in to me is well worth it. I've got too long to work until I retire to be unhappy :)

I've been in this business for 40 years ... and my opinion is that work environment, work happiness, good co-workers, good schedule, etc. ... outweigh small-to-moderate pay differences. If I am generally satisfied with my job, I will sacrifice a bit in pay. Being miserable is just not worth a few bucks to me. I have learned to let that principle guide my decisions on such things. At this point in life, you couldn't pay me enough to be willing to miserable all the time.

I agree with this. The last time I changed jobs, I got a $15,000 per year pay increase. But it came at a price. My benefits are not nearly what they were when I was working for a hospital and I am extremely unhappy working for a company that puts profits ahead of patients. Now I am looking to get back into a hospital (in a M-F position). I have several good prospects, the one I have a third interview for on Monday would be a minimal pay cut (like ~$1/hr) but what I told the HR woman who did my initial phone interview was that I'm sure the better benefits would more than make up for it. My health insurance has a $2000 deductible (that I am guaranteed to meet every year because of my complex medical history/need for yearly MRIs) and then a 25% coinsurance until I meet a $5000 out-of-pocket max. I've had to get a flexible spending account with the maximum federal contribution ($2550) each of the last 2 years so a job that offers health insurance with no deductible would more than make up for the small pay cut I'd be taking. And the quality of the employer would, too.

As far as the OP goes, when I was a staff nurse, our standard raises were 0-2%. $0.71/hr is almost an extra $1500/year. When I did my taxes last weekend, I noticed that my salary from 2017 was only ~$200 more than my salary in 2016 had been.

3% is a princely sum compared to what we've gotten at my LTC/rehab facility. We got 1% for a few years, 2% one year, and zero last year. That's only partly why I just got another job with a whopping increase - no, not huge bucks, but compared to what I'm getting now...

Your raise is much better than mine. But I'm happy doing the job that I am doing. Maybe one day down the road I'll be looking for something new but money isn't my greatest need right now. Most of us have been getting around 1% every year and we're a big company. I've been advocating for things like retention bonuses or stacking an extra 1 or 2 percent on the annual raise just to keep our nurses. Turnover is crazy! I've seen some of the most amazing nurses leave due to poor treatment from management and low pay. Sad really.

I am an LPN in Canada, and yes I've had gotten a raises since starting 2 years ago (not a whole lot but I'm still grateful). The union negotiates our pay scale based on either hours worked (if you're part time like me) or years since starting (if you're full time).

In 35 years of working, both nursing and not, I have found that raises barely match the cost of living.

Unless you are in a union with steps, and even then, the raises are quite minuscule after you pay the tax on the increase.

If you want an actual raise that makes any difference, you have to do something really different.

Usually go back to school.

My experience only.

Some may be dissatisfied with their union, but I think ours does a pretty good job. I think there is some data that shows the unions where I work help actually bring the pay UP for nurses in our tri-state area.

ADN or diploma nurses at our facility start around $31 and BSNs start at almost $33.

Or you could be like this guy with insane work commute:

This nurse commutes 2,6