Relocating from PA. Yes or no?

[Mike1260]

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I are looking to move to the Fort Myers area within the next year or two and are looking at working within the Lee Memorial network. I will be a new grad in December, she has 4 years floor experience making roughly $30 an hour, and that is where we would like to be money wise, but we might be out of luck. I want honest opinions. Are jobs easy to come by? What's the pay like? What are the working conditions like? Ratios?

Thanks!

[ssczesny]

She wont be getting $30/hr I don't think. I'm making plans to move down to the tampa area and haven't found much info on this, but generally new grads may expect $22-24 and some experience may get you up to $26-28 if you're lucky and working night shift. Keep in mind, cost of living is pretty low and there's no state income tax.

Let me know if you find any more info - just sharing what I found out.

[DragonflyLady17]

I moved down from PA also. Yeah the pay rate dropped for me dramatically by 10 bucks. It really sucks but the tax cuts aint that high. Still we get pay low. New grads at some hospitals starting pay is like 20/hr. I chose dayshift and of course that is lower than nights. Honestly a pay of 30/hr is ideal if you are doing night shift and have 2 years under your belt. Good luck!