After reading past informal survey posts on allnurses, I wanted to pose this question for 2013. The intent of this post to to give myself and others a good range of pay for nurses across the US right now based on experience and location. This will be an informal guide for me to start a masters paper on (Subject: area cost of living and nurses salary). Several years ago I believe Houston was voted for best place for a nurse with cost of living adjusted, but I think this might be changing.
Things to note while reading other's salaries:
-Generally, high paying locations relate to high cost of living (SF, NYC, etc). The reverse seems to be true as well (lower cost of living=lower pay). 65$/hr may be the norm in San Francisco, but the average 1br apartment is $2800 without parking and a house costs well over $1 million. Please take this into account. We live in a big country and cost of living varies widely (especially housing costs)
If you post, please state your:
1. State you work in
2. Years of experience
3. Specialty/unit and work setting (clinic, hospital, prison, etc)
3. Specialty/unit and work setting (clinic, hospital, prison, etc)
4. Hourly Pay (base rate) or salary
5. Differentials (if any)
6. Union?
1. North Carolina
2. 5 years
3. endoscopy(inpatient)
4. $27.09/hr
5.Differentials have just been cut. Weekend option and night pay were substantially cut. They're hoping people will want to keep their shifts anyway. I don't believe the executive pay has been cut, however. I used to get time and a half plus $6/hr to come in on call but they cut out the extra $6.
So, from what I see on this thread, CA nurses are really raking it in, and cost of living is not necessarily higher than other parts of the country with lower nursing wages. Maybe we should all move to CA (NOT!).
I am a new grad NP in NYC, private practice. Started out at $40/hr, will go up to $45 after six months. No nights or weekends, a few late evenings per week.
Cost of living === HIGH. Rent for a 1BR apartment starts at $1500. (We pay less than that for a larger apt, but we're in this apartment for years, plus it's falling apart.)
This is part of what's wrong with nursing. IMO, this is a ridiculously low wage! Float pool nurses with any amount of experience make $46+/hr at my hospital.
6. yes, we're part of the teacher's union, however, the union is useless when it comes to the nurses. About $80 in union dues is taken out of our pay each month.
Cost of living is very high. $2400/mo for mortgage. Property tax is $11k/yr for 1/4ac. Electric is 450/mo, Cable $200+/mo, Phone $200+/mo, Gas $3.93/gal. Hubby and I live paycheck to paycheck.
I currently work PRN for this employer and get a bonus of $60/12hr night shift, plus an additional bonus of $150 if I work a weekend consisting of Fri and Sat nights. Bonuses are paid quarterly. FT obviously gets benefits, plus they are paid an additional weekend differential but I don't know how much.
I purchased a 3000+ sq ft, 4 Bed, 2.5 Bath home in 2010 for $150K (not a short sale). Gas and groceries are average or slightly below. Sales tax is 6%.
It would be interesting to see what you're paying in health insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses for medical.
Last time I paid insurnce premiums was 13 months ago at the same facility and it was $30/month with no copay except for $3 on meds if I used one of the corporations facilities. I also carried $150K in optional life insurance which was about $50/month. I don't remember what I paid for disability insurance, but all together I paid approx. $100/month in insurance benefits.
RedNavy
133 Posts
Wow! LVN new grads make more here in CA! Ouch that hurts!