Published
Back in the dark ages (1977) when the minimum wage was under $3/hr, I started as a GN at $5.35/hr in a large teaching hospital in the south. It was the most money I'd ever made in my life, and by the time I got my board results I'd managed to save over $5000- alot for a 22 yr old just out of college. After I got my RN I made $8 & change/hr. I am now at $34/hr, at a small ambulatory facility in the midwest. Gosh I feel old!!
My first LPN job - 1992: 15.00/hr, in MD.
My first RN job - 1993: 13.18/hr, in TX. (Like Trauma above, this was with the VA hospital system)
Boy was THAT an eye opener. Who'd a thunk I take a serious pay cut to become an RN.
That was the difference between working as an LPN in a LTC facility in trouble with the state for poor staffing and willing to suffer not having an immediate relief here and there, and then working as an RN in a hospital environment that was staffed. . .
~faith,
Timothy.
I make 13.65 in an acute rehab facility (plus eve shift and w/e eve shift diffs/and IV cert). I am paid the highest in our city of even the hospitals and the VA. My city is a big college town with 85000 people. If I go east or west to the next big city might go up to 18. I know I'd make more if I were in LTC, but that just isn't for me. So, willing to take less to be happy where I am working :)
In the 70's when I started, I made $10 /hr which felt like a fortune. (Virginia hospital) Years later was making $35....moved to S.C. and started back in the $20's---South Carolina is famously low in all fields, not just nursing. Now back to $30's.........remember tho you have shift diffs, weekend diffs, specialty diffs (ICU,etc) and some hospitals pay a little extra per hour if you have ACLS,PALS,etc
DelanaRN, MSN, APRN, NP
222 Posts
What year was that? lol. I know that someone who started nursing in the 70's probably won't make what someone starting out in the 90's makes.
Were you in long term care, hospital, clinic, home health?
After you had worked as a nurse for a while, did your pay go up significantly?
Thank you so much.