This Should Make You Feel Good About How Much $$$ You Make

angel337, MSN, RN · Aug 7, 2008

This from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (LINK)
Q. How much do auto workers make, and do strikers lose their pay?
A. The average UAW member makes $1,155 per week. Yes, strikers lose their paychecks, but they receive $200 per week from the union's strike fund, which stands at about $900 million nationwide, funded by union dues. The union also pays strikers' medical expenses, but dental and vision coverage are suspended.
$1155/wk = $60k/yr, I'm not impressed. I know all the stories about auto workers making $100k and they always mention WITH OVERTIME. I know of many nurses doing the same. My 60 year old aunt is one of them.
Just like auto workers, nurses are always complaining about the pay. I don't get it. I got $22.50 to start. If I work 60 hours per week I make $85,000. And this for 20 months of schooling? I'll take it.
American auto workers are at the top of Adam Smith's hit list. He's sending their jobs to all those willing workers around the world who would do 4 times the work for 1/4 the money. The only question is what's taking him so long.
As for us nurses, when it comes to money, we'd better make hay while the sun is shining. From what I hear, it has not always been this good, and from what EVERYBODY knows about economics, it will not stay this way forever. When schools like my alma mater Bryant and Stratton (historically, an overpriced career college) and DeVry (historically overpriced tech school who bought Deaconess College of Nursing and renamed it Chamberlain) getting into nursing education the market will eventually be saturated with new nurses.
The "nursing shortage" that people are always talking about is what's keeping us well paid (yes we are well paid). As more schools add Associate RN programs the nursing shortage will evaporate and our bosses will start to be alot meaner.
Again, stop whining and make hay while the sun is shining.

how long have you been a nurse??