What are some of your benefits and how good are they?

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Specializes in LTC.

Its that time of year again where I work...open enrollement for insurance. Last year our deductible went up and so did the price of our health insurance.

Our insurance sucks! Several nurses who have had hospital stays said that the insurance is refusing to pay what its supposed to cover....as usual. I pay 267 every 2 wks for family coverage. I think this is awfully high but cheaper than private insurance.

We have asked why corporate wont change the provider to a better one and get told the same thing every time "its out of our hands. we cant do anything about that" ...yea right...enough complaints and something would get done.

Also....our 401k doesnt match what we put in. Im going to cancel mine and turn it over to an IRA at my bank.

We have to use our vacation time to get paid for recognized holidays also.On top of these crappy benefits that none of us like but cant afford to be without......they cut our raises out completely last year. They always say dont get OT..bla bla...but with the shortages we have on help, it happens and that cant be helped.

They really lay into us about OT at the end of the month when we have changeover. They dont want us in there on the clock...yet this massive amount of paperwork must be done and in theory correctly. I refuse to do it off the clock. I did for a while, but I stopped that months ago. If I have to do 3 or 4 nurses paperwork because they are too lazy to touch it..by God Imma get paid for it.

What benefits do your employers offer? How good is it? How expensive is it for you to have it deducted from your pay? Do you get raises?

Im just trying to get a roundabout idea of if this is everywhere or not and how to understand it better. I think i this keeps up before long we will be making min wage again.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

No raises...

Just had bennies and PTO slashed 25%

Warned that our meager health insurance (provided for employees) is going to switch to a worse plan and have substantial cost of coverage shifted to the employees.

Our pay sucks.

Despite all that, morale among the nursing staff is good and it's a decent-enough place to work -- lousy, lousy compensation, though... my 19-year-old nephew was just given a promotion at his non-professional job... and now earns what I do.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, ED, Nurse Instructor,.

Before I went PRN. We got merit raises every year. I think like 2%. The health insurance was okay, $5000 deductible, about $90 a month, 401K match, pay was good enough for me, and I could complain. We had other incentives also. Some people complain. Employees had a choice of two insurance companies.

I pay for my own insurance about $100 a month. The prescription pretty much regular price. I take some meds I will be off them in a few months. I get paid good money to work in Resource Pool. I sign up to work 3 different units but I work 5. NM offer bonus pay for me to work on there unit on my night off. Everything is working out. By the way I have to prn jobs. I know you have a family and its different. If you and your staff continue to complain and start walking out for new jobs, believe me they will be making some changes. Good luck to you and keep us posted.

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.

this is why it is so important to have union representation. a single nurse alone is easily brushed aside by these large corporate entities. :uhoh3:

support your nursing unions! :up:

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Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.

I used to p!ss and moan about my union(s)... ALOT... until I joined this forum. Now I might just kiss the very feet they walk on.

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Well, there is nothing and then there is nothing. I have to compare nothing to nothing. In case you are not sure of my answer, I don't work for employers who give me benefits.

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Specializes in Ltc, Hospice, Spinal Cord.

Those do sound bad. Where I work we get:

26 vacation days per year, 8 hours per pay period

13 sick days (which you can accumulate),

Double pay for 10 holidays

We do have 401K match

Salaries are very competitive

We have a 10% shift differential and 25% for weekends

I haven't had to select healthcare insurance yet but I'm about to... we have several options. We received a cost of living increase last year and I've also received two promotional increases. I'm also about to take advantage of tuition assistance which will pay for approximately 90% of the cost for my graduate degree.

I'm very happy where I am. :up:

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We get 401K--employer matching but I can't remember how much, etc. Profit sharing if we meet certain benchmarks. About 8 hours a pay period for PTO. Retirement. STD is about 13.00/pay period, LTD paid for. Tuition reimbursement of 2000.00/year. Luckily I do not have to get health insurance as my husband has excellent insurance. I do get the dental though--I have double coverage--needed lots of gum surgery and daughter needed braces so it was well worth the 13.00 very 2 weeks. My husbands health insurance though beats all. He pays 26.00/week for health/dental/vision. Health is 400.00 deductible per person-once you meet 2 deductibles in the family-everyone's deductible is covered. 1500.00 out-of-pocket per year. Prescriptions standard 20% for non-formulary, blah blah.

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Those do sound bad. Where I work we get:

26 vacation days per year, 8 hours per pay period

13 sick days (which you can accumulate),

Double pay for 10 holidays

We do have 401K match

Salaries are very competitive

We have a 10% shift differential and 25% for weekends

I haven't had to select healthcare insurance yet but I'm about to... we have several options. We received a cost of living increase last year and I've also received two promotional increases. I'm also about to take advantage of tuition assistance which will pay for approximately 90% of the cost for my graduate degree.

I'm very happy where I am. :up:

Wow that sounds great! What hospital/LTC are you working for? N What state? If you dont mind me asking. Thanks.

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Barring a few decent places, most private companies (whether health-related or not) don't have great benefits these days. They've been whittled away over the years. In addition, this economy is exacerbating the situation (and it's doubtful it will improve until gubment gets its paws out of the free market). Actually, many years ago, a lot of the bennies were put into place in lieu of higher salaries. Anyway, the only people who really get consistently good bennies are the gubment workers and union workers. Sounds good on the surface, but guess who's paying for all of that? Yup, you got it: YOU (by way of taxes in the case of gubbie workers and by way of higher prices for union workers). If we all weren't taxed so much to pay for all those other people (ie WE pay for all those gubbie workers' salaries, health insurance, and retirements, etc), we'd all have plenty of money to buy our own health insurance as well as enough to sufficiently fund our own retirements. Unfortunately, the private workers (and that includes most nurses) are forced, by law (ie by the politicians/legislators via their enforcers, the IRS) to pay for OTHER people instead of being able to use our OWN hard-earned money to pay for ourselves. Ever notice the voters who vote for these socialistic type politicians are always the ones who stand to gain much more in bennies, salaries, raises, and other assorted freebies than they pay in on taxes? Yup, there's some real greed out there, and it's not just the greedy CEO's - there's a Helluva lot of greedy middle classed individuals who are always scamming out of someone else's wallet. From WHERE DO those people think their bennies and other goodies are coming, anyway??? They're coming from people like you and me. Sigh.

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Specializes in pulm/cardiology pcu, surgical onc.

We do have a pretty decent benefit package since my organization is a major insurance carrier in this area. Annual raises per union ladder usually like 4%, no pay deduction for medical/dental coverage for my family with personal yearly deductible of $350, 401K match, shift/weekend diffs, approx 8 hrs vacation/sick time and 3 hrs of extended illness time each pay period. Incentive pay of time and a half plus $25 each hour of an extra shift, and 2K annual tuition reimbursement. But it was just announced there will be another hiring freeze for the next 2 months.

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Specializes in LTC.

Wow! I'd love to have some of these killer benefits at my job! Our pto time depends on our years of service full time so you get more pto time for each year and it only comes once a year in Jan. If you go pt they "take" it from you even though you already technically earned it the prior year. They tried that with me when I got n nursing school but I pitched a fit and got to salvage what I had by showing them the policy on it.

Our insurance has tripled in cost per check in three years I went from paying 70 to 267 every 2 wk. Last yr it cost me 12$ for a dr visit, now it's 25 . The er copayment is 300 which luckily I've never used, it used to be 100$.

I had my toddler checked for stool parasites and since it couldn't be done in the office my INS covered only 17$ of a 100$. Lab bill.

I haven't had a physical in 4 years or lab work or pap test. All those used to be covered til this year and now insurance says we have to pay for it. I use my vision mostly. I have dental but haven't used it since they refused to pay for my hubbys anesthesia which they preapproved before his oral surgery last year. It's an all around mess for everyone

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