Retiring

[curioustwo]

Do school nurses have a better retirement package than hospital workers?

[bergren]

It depends on:

1. If you are treated as part of teachers contract / certified.

2. The state / district has a decent retirement

3. You qualify in the number of years served

Since most teachers start at 20 something and most nurses don't start immediately in school nursing, you need to see how many years of service it takes to get full benefits. Check with your local district - retirement packages would be open to public knowledge

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA:yeah: This is a joke, right?

[bergren]

The Teachers Retirement in Illinois is better than most industry retirements, including hospitals. In Illinois, if you are certified and on teacher's salary scale, you qualify for the benefit which is affected by the number of years served.

http://trs.illinois.gov/subsections/general/pub13.pdf

[curioustwo]

must love poodles: i don't understand...it was a sincere question.

bergren: thanks. i did look at that info. i guess the question i am asking is what do hospitals offer in terms of retirement? anyone know?

[bergren]

Typically, you cannot beat a funded pension program for government / public employees IF THE SCHOOL NURSES QUALIFY. And the public plans typically include retiree medical benefits - that is a very attractive benefit as retiree medical is getting harder and harder to find. The generousity of the public packages vary state to state, and in this economy, may change for new hires. If you are not on teacher salary scale, you may or may not be included in the teachers' retirement plan. In fact, you may not have ANY retirement benefits.

The typical for profit or non profit hospital plan is a self contribution plan with matching funds which may or may not be complemented by a pension. Unlike a government plan, if the hospital is sold, the plans can be renegotiated. Of course some hospitals are run by federal (e.g. Veteran's Administration), county or city governments, and those plans would be more like the teacher public retirement plans.

See this hospital retirement plan:

http://www.edward.org/body.cfm?id=141#retire

Retirement savings program

All eligible employees who complete one month of service may participate in Edward's Retirement Program, which is administrated by Fidelity Investments. Edward will match employee contributions dollar per dollar for the first 1% an employee contributes to their retirement and $0.50 per dollar when an employee contributes 2-6% of their annual earnings.

Employees who work 1,000 hours each calendar year may also receive a basic contribution from Edward. The basic contribution is a percentage of annual earnings and is based on years of service. Employees who are actively employed at year end will receive:

1%

2% 5-10 years of service

3% 10-15 years of service

4% 15+ years of service

You need to investigate the schools and hospitals in your state and local area.

[curioustwo]

Thanks again Bergren. That answered my question and was helpful. :)

[schoolnurse09]

In my district, we are on teacher's contracts. You would have to work 5 years to be eligible for any retirement benefit. Hospitals have probably all gone the way of the 403B or other similar investment vehicles . They are transportable to an extent. Are you new to nursing?

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

must love poodles: i don't understand...it was a sincere question.

Sorry, didn't mean to insult you...ahem, nurses in my school system get no retirement.