RN pay and benefits in Az

[NYnurseatheart]

Hello,

I am a NY nurse who has 17+ years nursing experience and am interested in relocating to a warmer climate. Can some of you give me an idea what to expect for a salary range, benefits (like cost of family insurance, vacation time, shift differentials, etc), and retirement plan (if offered). I realize that it is hard to get a job in today's economy, but we do not plan on moving for a year or so, which gives me time to polish a resume. My field is ER or ICU. Thanks!!

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

If you have 17 years experience it may not be that difficult. The market is no where near what it used to be, but experience still means a lot. I'm guessing on a range, but with 17 years as an RN you might be around $35-40/hour base pay (I know this is a broad range, but it does vary and some people can negotiate better than others). Shift differential can be anywhere from a couple dollars/hour to 16% increase for night shift.... Some places offer weekend differential (it was only 75cents/hour at my last job, some offer better) and others don't offer a weekend diff because is expected that everyone works every other weekend (or their fair share of them). Most of the hospital benefits are still pretty good out here. I believe generally if you use your facilities system it is often 100% covered in many places out here. I know that recently Banner (our big hospital conglomerate out here) recently increased the cost of benefits for part-time staff to the point that many of them were forced to go full-time in order to afford the benefits. Retirement varies from organization to organization. Most have decent 401Ks. I think the only place that still has a pension is County (governement) and their retirement is awesome!!! I'm not sure how long that will last though with the economic state of our state government... Mayo may have a pension, but I'm not sure....

Hope I'm not leading you astray with my estimate of pay. Anyone else have any thoughts or input?

[MsBruiser]

Mayo has a pension. Pay ranges tend to be from $27.00-$44.00 (top of scale). Benefits depend on where you work. If you go to bannerhealth.com you can find their employee manuals with benefits, vacation, insurance costs, etc. At Mayo family insurance is about $90.00 a month, vacation starts at 5 weeks a year (includes sick/personal time), there is a pension. But remember - AZ is a right to work state. No unions - very different from NY. I call it the Sunshine tax - the price you pay for warm weather...