UPS Drivers make HOW much????

Nurses General Nursing

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It has been broadcast all over the news in my area that UPS is hiring, and that the average UPS driver makes around $76,000 annually! :idea: That just totally makes me feel devalued as a nurse. I am not sure what the national averages for nurse salaries are right now, but I am pretty sure it is not that much. I mean, seriously, these people deliver packages (not to devalue them, I have known a few and they work exceptionally hard), but we nurses deliver babies, we keep people alive, we take care of children and the elderly. We are highly educated, knowledgeable, and the responsibility we hold is immense. If the UPS guy screws up, someone might not get their package delivered on time. If a nurse screws up, someone could die. I just cannot reconcile this in my head!!!!

When I first saw this my initial thought was "screw nursing, I'm going to drive the brown truck!" My next thought was, how sad that we are so seriously devalued. What will it take before people realize our value to society? Am I overreacting to this? What are your thoughts?

Again, I want to add that I do not want to sound like I am putting down UPS drivers or similar careers. They work hard and do a great job. It is just that in comparison to the responsibility that we nurses hold, it does not seem that the pay is in line. Not that they deserve less, it is that we deserve at least as much or more for the work that we do!!!

Specializes in ER.

My boyfriend makes 2.5 times what I make as a new nurse without any college education although he was trained through the Navy. Although if he worked anywhere else in the company, he would make only 6,000 more.

On the flip side, I would not want to work retail or as a package handler. It's back-breaking work literally. Retail is frustrating with stuck up people and I would never be able to handle it again.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

As far as I am concerned those UPS guys earn every cent they make.

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Can someone please tell me where these nurses are making all of this money and point me in that direction, kindly? Am I doing something wrong here? Lol I work two hospitals jobs and don't average what these fictitious numbers project. What am I doing wrong!

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Degree inflation and a relative lack of unions are the main factors keeping RN wages down.

If UPS drivers make more than we do, too bad, so sad for us. UPS employees unionized and advocated for their compensation. They deserve every penny they fought for.

Wishing "society" would value us more and pay accordingly is a childish fantasy. Not how the real world works. In the real world, workers have to organize and demand their rights.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Can someone please tell me where these nurses are making all of this money and point me in that direction, kindly? Am I doing something wrong here? Lol I work two hospitals jobs and don't average what these fictitious numbers project. What am I doing wrong!

Fictitious numbers? What are you calling fictitious? Pretty much any experienced nurse can make >$100K without working overtime. Of course there are going to be trade offs. Like for example living in a very high cost of living area, or an area with long and brutal winters.

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Yes, I was looking around the Web and I once found a LPN job in a remote part of the Yukon Territory that paid 65 Canadian dollars an hour. Of course, up there, a loaf of bread probably costs $10 and your housing is probably an igloo and a moose carcass mashed together or something.

So, trade-offs.

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Specializes in ER.

To be fair, how much a nurse makes has increased quite a bit. I remember an instructor who was paid 12 bucks an hour starting out told her mother-in-law how much she made. The mil asked to see her paycheck. That lead to the mil's hospital's nursing staff flipping out and threatening to walk if the hospital did not increase their paycheck from 8 bucks an hour to the 12 bucks an hour.

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

There are lots of areas where earning >$100,000 for a nurse is nowhere near possible. Sure, it happens lots of places but not everywhere!

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How do you think pharmacists feel? 4+ years education and their streets counterparts with no education (only street education) make the same, if not more.

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Specializes in ICU.

OKay, I didn't real all the responses, but I used to work for UPS - 9 years before nursing. Drivers usually work 10 hours a day minimum. During Thanksgiving and Christmas they work more. We used to stuff those delivery trucks SO full of packages we could BARELY close the doors ... and it was up to the driver to attempt to deliver EVERY ONE before they came back. Oh, you should see the MOUNTAINS of packages they have to deal with. The drivers I knew all had bad feet, wore custom made shoes, and my favorite driver was killed when his truck slid off the snowy road into a ditch. Feeder (semi-trucks) were the choice jobs but I chose to go to school. So, what area did I pick?? Nursing. :yawn:

As a part time job while you're going to school, it's not a bad gig. Used to be anyway. It kept you in great shape, but it was a very dirty job. No one box was that dirty, but the handling of hundreds and hundreds of them accumulated the grime. I used to wear 3 t-shirts and my stomach would still get black with grime. Oi! :down:

Then again, there were times I'd trade my ICU job in an instant for that. One can only deal with so much death, then it's enough. :no:

http://www.browncafe.com/community/

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My dad worked for the post office sorting mail for about 30 years. He made good money and had excellent retirement benefits and medical insurance. He didn't even have to drive a truck. He just sorted mail in a big warehouse.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Can someone please tell me where these nurses are making all of this money and point me in that direction, kindly? Am I doing something wrong here? Lol I work two hospitals jobs and don't average what these fictitious numbers project. What am I doing wrong!

You aren't doing anything wrong just living in a different area. If you make $100,000.00 as a nurse your house is going to cost you > $700,000.00 for a cracker box.

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