We make as much as maids

boulergirl, CNA · Nov 19, 2004

I know other people's perception isn't that important, but I got tired of "that look" when I told people what I did for a living.

This is one reason why I've avoided housekeeping as a career choice. My mom keeps telling me I'm very good at cleaning and could do this for a living, but it's embarrassing as it is to tell people I'm a nurse's aide :imbar . What would happen if I switched to cleaning houses? (Please forgive me if this sounds snobbish.)

RS0302 · Nov 19, 2004

I just wanted to add something else here...lets say my mom is charging 20 dollars an hour to clean someones house. Her customers usually take 2-3 hours, and she will clean 2- 3 houses a day. She has to travel to and from houses, and she is not getting paid for that. The houses she cleans are not all in the same area, some houses can take 30-45 minutes to get to and from eachother with traffic. So she probably has 2-3 hours a day in travel time that she is not paid for. So working as a nurse if you made 20 dollars an hour for lets say an 8 hour shift you make 160 bucks. Well during an 8 hour time period my mom is going to be making less than that when you think about it. And you can also add all the gas money she spends getting to and from houses all day, driving all over western massachusetts. And like somone else mentioned, she does not get benefits. And if you were recieving no benefits you would be making more too right? I know for a fact I will be making much more money than my mom as a nurse even if she charges the same amount I'm making to her customers. Because when it all comes down to it, she isnt making 15-20 dollars per hour. Sorry spending all day cleaning may seem fun, but I have helped my mom with this to earn extra money and I would rather be doing anything else...that pays somewhat good money and where you recieve benefits, vacation time, etc. Now my mom never complains what she does for a living, I'm not trying to make this into a pity party for her,there are some pros like somewhat good hours, etc,but I can tell you that seeing what my mom goes through everyday gives me even more motivation to get an education.

jackleg27 · Nov 19, 2004

yeah, gosh, I wish all non-educated people would just learn to know their place and accept poverty as god's will for them too.
WHAT THE HECK??????????????????????????????????/
I strongly suggest you read "Nickled and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich. there is a section in that book about maids I think you would find interesting......

Yes that is a great book. It will really open your eyes.

MultipurposeRN · Nov 20, 2004

after being in nursing since 1990, I make an hourly rate of 22.70 or so, and that's salaried. So I agree that you have to look down the road at where our wages go. I had just left a night ICU job at a small hospital where i made 20.50 an hour. I do have a per diem job where I make almost 37, but we per diems are the first to be called off. I sign up for a weekend a month, usually can get saturday's hours and am generally called off Sundays. Nurses don't get paid what they're worth in education, skill, and time, but around here there's few other positions paying as well that offer as many opportunities. I agree it's not likely to change anytime soon. My pay is now what it was 6 years ago when I was working fulltime,I quit fulltime to work Registry jobs prn for more pay per hour, but ended up no better off financially. You have no paid time off with those kind of jobs and unless you're a very strict saver, which unfortunately I'm not, you can be depleted pretty quick by even one illness. I'm actually doing better with steady income now and know exactly what my pay is every 2 weeks. Before it was like construction work...I might sign up for 5 shifts at the PRN job, and get called off for 3 of them.

Jetman · Nov 20, 2004

Having been a teacher for a moment, I can certainly agree that teachers are grossly underpaid, as nurses are. But since we are comparing nursing with maids, here's another comparison: There are professional athletes out there who make more money in a year playing a game than possibly each allnurses.com's active memeber combined yearly income.

I worked at a Tenet hospital last year. CEO's salary in 2002 was 116.4 MILLION dollars or $22,785/hr. Was this ONE man really worth all that money? http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2003-03-31-ceopay2_x.htm

Jetman

Jo Dirt · Nov 20, 2004

I worked at a Tenet hospital last year. CEO's salary in 2002 was 116.4 MILLION dollars or $22,785/hr. Was this ONE man really worth all that money? http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2003-03-31-ceopay2_x.htm
Jetman

I hear lay people blaming outrageous health care costs on the obscene salaries paid for health care jobs like nursing. After reading this, I just have to say...:angryfire

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2004

I just have to vent. I have been interviewing for a cleaning woman and would you believe many of them asked for $20/hr!! That's cash by the way! I am so angry that many nurses are making the same hourly salary as a maid and WHY WHY WHY are more nurses not angry about thier pay? I am furious that so many non degreed positions make the same or more than we do. Why haven't nurses stood for their rights??? I am new but I would love to bring nursing salaries to the negotiating tables. I am so angry.

Maybe you should charge your husband 25 dollars an hour to clean and cook

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2004

My wife just loves her housekeeper to death

she is worth that money in the happiness that my wife gets

RNAssociates · Nov 27, 2004

I just have to vent. I have been interviewing for a cleaning woman and would you believe many of them asked for $20/hr!! That's cash by the way! I am so angry that many nurses are making the same hourly salary as a maid and WHY WHY WHY are more nurses not angry about thier pay? I am furious that so many non degreed positions make the same or more than we do. Why haven't nurses stood for their rights??? I am new but I would love to bring nursing salaries to the negotiating tables. I am so angry.

I couldn't agree with you more...and after reading Johnson& Johnsons "recruitment propaganda" I wrote this to them:

Having just read the pay statistics for RNs on your site - following the "It Pays to be a Nurse!" I would like to enlighten you....

I am a practicing RN (28 yrs. clinical experience) in Connecticut - one of the richest states in this country. My average annual salary (not counting the "extra shifts" and work I do) is close to your statistics. However, the young man who picks up my trash once a week earns more. He drives a 'robotruck' which picks up the can (which I haul to the curb) via a robotic arm. I pick up what drops to the street...He is 'not allowed' by his job description to lift more than 75 lbs.; a good thing then, because the trash can - empty - weighs more than that. He gets time and a half after 8 hours; double time on weekends and nights (sanding icy roads - blocking streets for the fire department...that kind of thing) and triple time on holidays...considered 'emergency work.' His benefits are completely paid by the town, he gets an hour for lunch sitting in his heated or air conditioned truck at the local beach....and his only license is a CDL. He can only read to the 4th grade level (not a requirement for this job)....he can sign his name -but not understand what he is signing. If he makes an error (like forgetting to pick up trash on a particular street) no one dies and he doesn't lose his license. If he doesn't come to work one day the trash gets picked up late - or the next day. He's 29 yrs old. I am 62. It has taken me 20+ years to earn what I do --- he started at the same wage two years ago - after being out of work 4 years and collecting welfare. He graduated from a GD program - with a 4th grade reading level. I graduated from a diploma program with two kids and a husband to take care of at the same time - and I was in the top forth of my class and the top half of the state on my boards - which I passed the first time.

Does it not strike you as ludicrous -even insulting - that such a situation not only exists but is lauded because "if we don't pay them like that we can't get them to work." and that "no one else will do it [pick up the trash]." Well, Sirs; as a nurse I can tell you, the shortage is because not only can no one else DO it - no one Wants to do it....why spend $15-20000 a year (or more) to graduate into a $20000+/- (to start) and have to co-pay your own benefits? AND do nights, holidays, weekends and live with the daily fear that some patient you were breaking your heart to care for is suing the doctor and the hospital - and because you were "there" you get named too.....and you need to pay for your own lawyer.

If you want to recruit young men and women into this glorious field - and, despite it all, it is; I love what I do - you might want to lend your considerable industrial and political weight to the issue and help make it the Profession it should be - the Profession which - if it didn't exist, would bring much of the world to it's knees; the Profession which hourly lifts and moves it's own weight and more in the quadriplegic former cop, or one/one hundredth it's weight in the preemie crack baby; which holds the weight of a dying mother's hand [after punching out because OT is frowned on] - because her own grown children are too busy to come be with her...

No, it isn't about money - not much. But just as 95% of nurses are female - a huge % of those women are single parents - I was, by the time I graduated. And within 6 years had two kids in college - a house and a car...on $19,000 (gross) a year (1980). Was I earning more at nursing than I could at McDonald's? Yes. Was I then (or am I now) earning more than the highschool drop out who picks up my garbage? No. Can I retire? No. Why? Because with all my grand earnings - after 28 years in the "Profession" - my monthly SS benefit is $946.00 - before taxes - a month. I can either eat or have a roof over my head - or get my CDL and pick up garbage, have an hour for lunch and get OT ...lots of it if I work late.....You choose.......

Angry? The word doesn't begin to describe it....and get nurses to speak up - or act together? It's like herding cats ----

My409 · Nov 27, 2004

Maybe we should sign on with the local sanitation department?

Claver · Dec 6, 2004

Good pay is very important for nurses and we deserve it. I was in home care making close to 70.000 a year as a fee for service nurse. The money was good, but think about the driving, all kinds of weather, all kinds of environments, dangers and risks of the inner city, paper work ++++, agency calling ++++. Then they were no benefits. Both my daughter and son-in-law are lawyers. They make good pay but think about the hours they put in - some weeks it is almost close to 100 hours each. They had to hire a live in babysitter.

Now I am back to a full time job - I make 55,000 - four weeks vacation, sick, holiday and personal leave, insurance benefits and pension and I have flex time - no weekends, holidays or nights. I am on call 24/7 but average calls in the evenings and nights are less than 10 in a week. I do need more money, but I have observed that many people have 2-3 other sources of income. So, I am exploring a small business opportunity.

PEACE1 · Jun 7, 2007

ok, mlet me say soemthing here, if one hae student loans to pay d=for and parking and scrubs, that si your choice, no one or a maid made you get into debt, so please stop thisw, are we really talking about salaries for nurses or putting maids down. they desere what tehy ccharge and more, i know i payed one guy 460 for 2 1/2 hours to clean my 3 bathrooms onbly and i have no complains, i make enough as a RN to pay for taht and not have to stress over cleaning, so hurray for hous ekeepers taht make money and do the job good