$200,000 salary as a RN, it's true

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I'm a NP who works in the Stockton/Sacramento area. One of my boating buddies is a RN at Kaiser. He has been there 10 years and is a charge nurse on a med/surg floor. I didn't believe it until he showed me but he does make a base of $200k a year. With overtime he clears a little of $350,000. This is due to Kaiser in Northern California being unionized. He lives in Modesto which is a low cost of living area but the contracts for the union are tied in with San Francisco which leads to high hourly wages. At retirement he is guaranteed at least $110k annually for life and lifetime medical benefits with any medical insurer he chooses whether it is Kaiser or not. I read the contract and couldn't believe what I was reading but there it was.

SO as a NP it makes me want to jump to Kaiser but......if I was to start at Kaiser with 10 years of NP experience under my belt I still wouldn't be making as much as my friend.

Disturbing??? Maybe....I'm happy for him. It just lets me know that there really are those rare RNs who make more than NPs....way, way more and more than most primary care MDs working on the floor. It makes you wonder if this model is sustainable.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

No part of California is a low cost of living or affordable lol.

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LOL true, but you can still get a decent house in Modesto for $400,000. In San Francisco you will pay over $1 million for a tear down.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
12 minutes ago, FNP2B1 said:

LOL true, but you can still get a decent house in Modesto for $400,000. In San Francisco you will pay over $1 million for a tear down.

No thanks! lol

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Wow is all I can come up with. However, while I "wow" the salary, I also "wow" the cost of a house! $400,000 for something decent???!!! Yikes!

Thats not affordable to my midwestern sense of affordable. I would think $320k for salary would translate roughly to 100k here in rural central IL where you can get a decent house fo 100k.

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Specializes in NICU.

You also have California state taxes which eat up quite a lot of that income.

I agree with the above- I don't know how sustainable that salary is for the work being given.

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10 hours ago, RosesrReder said:

No part of California is a low cost of living or affordable lol.

Not true. Many parts of Sacramento are very affordable. I can attest.

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9 hours ago, traumaRUs said:

Wow is all I can come up with. However, while I "wow" the salary, I also "wow" the cost of a house! $400,000 for something decent???!!! Yikes!

Thats not affordable to my midwestern sense of affordable. I would think $320k for salary would translate roughly to 100k here in rural central IL where you can get a decent house fo 100k.

Yesterday evening I was looking at a pop up ad for new housing. The low end models, move-in ready, were $768,000 give or take, while the others were $1,380,000 and above. These are all in the general area where I want to live. I calculated a standard 20% down payment and then looked at my "new and improved" salary since MediCal increased their reimbursement rates for home care in July 18 (that I had to fight my employer for, no less). Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

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Specializes in FNP.

Sorry, you couldn't pay me enough to live in CA. And according to all the pt's I'm getting from CA to TX, this isn't news.

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Specializes in PMHNP-BC.

Coming from Seattle’s east side area.... a decent house for 400k seems like a dream. Unless you want a creepy house in a sketchy area.

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Specializes in PMHNP-BC.

Small empty plots of land go for more than 200k here.

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Note to self: Stay on this side of the MS River.

Sheesh at the cost of living on the west coast. No thanks!

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