Relocating From Ny To Tampa Have Questions!!!

suzanne4, RN · Mar 7, 2006

You will find a wide change between NY and Florida.........nothing is going to come close. Remember that in NYC area, a new grad is now starting at $65,000 in average, the only other place where you are going to see that is in CA.

grannynurse FNP student · Mar 7, 2006

Anyone working as an RN in the Tampa region please respond. I will be relocating to Tampa in July and after reading about the salary of RN's in Florida I am very disapointed. Is it true that the salary is in the low 20's???
Is that the starting salary for a newly graduated Nurse?
That is so low compared to the starting salary of nurses in New York. I know the cost of living in New York is much more---- but the low 20's? The amount of money I paid to obtain my BSN after four years of college and think of how much RN's are paid in Tampa is very sad.
Someone please give me some information regarding this.
Thank you!!! =-)

Get use to making a great deal less then you did in NY. I moved down here, in 1980, went from $28/hour to $6.10/hour. And salaries have not improved that much. Going to rent, you have to compete with students from two universities, a downward trend in building apartments, an upward tend (though it has gone down some) in building new homes or purchasing older ones, lagging behind intrastructure, rising power cost. But hey, you get the sunshine for free. You just can't spend it on anything.

Grannynurse:balloons:

nursen_99 · Mar 8, 2006

I am a transplant here frm NY and MD and can tell you that that pay quote is right. I contacted just about every hospital in the area when I moved here last May and the highest base rate I could get is 21.84/hr. Another nurse that started at the same time was offerred 21.00/hr and new grads are $19 + change/hr. The only reason I got a little more is because my specialty is OB, I run specialty meds, I have a BSN, 2+ yrs experience and I can do charge. All of that for less than $22! The shift and weekend diffs are a joke...$1 more /hr for weekends and $3-5 more for nights (and that was most of the places). All in all. totaling everything, I bring home about $26.84 on nights and $27.84 on weekends, less than LPN's are making most places up north!!!! I practiced upstate NY which pays less than the NYC area but here....wow... I feel like I am volunteering and they are paying me gas $ and meals. Seriously!!

They use 'low cost of living' as an excuse but that's BS! You can hardly find a decent 3br/2.5 bath place near civilization that isn't close to 300 grand. Don't come here thinking you'll be making $. Even pool gigs pay crap. They claim it's pretty and sunny but factor in things like terrible summer heat (it's no joke... I couldn't have ever imagined it being as bad as it is), lousy schools (this is and shall remain uncontested), hurricanes, flood insurance, high homeowner's insur premiums (if you can get anyone to insure your home nowadays), high electricity bills (you go from months off ac to fliping on the heat), low pay, technologically-behind facilities and you really start kicking yourself. I knew some of what I would be in for but when you are living it, it's tough to deal with.

My husband is paid half of what he was making. We're considering this an adventure and hightailing it out of here this summer before my daughter has to step foot in the schools here. No offense to anyone. This is strictly my opinion (and that of all the 5 nurses I started with that came in from Ohio, Illinois, Maryland and NY).

Think twice......for your own sanity.

gwlillith · Mar 11, 2006

I think you should listen to all these people and run! run like the wind! They aren't kidding with all this information. It's just like they say it is. I'm 10 years critical care experience with my CCRN and they want to pay me $24/hour! HA! Looking to relocate myself. Probably away from here....Don't come down here....! You''ll be severely disappointed.