Whats with the beyond horrible pay? :(

[camci]

I just got hired for a job at assisted living PRN for 7.61 an hour. Seriously? That's below minimum wage, and he said it's because I have no experience in the health field yet.

I have a 2nd interview with HomeInstead home health next week and they said they'll start me at 8.25. Again, seriously? My friends make more money playing with a cash register.

Should I just keep looking? Is this low pay common?

[interceptinglight, CNA]

I'm working as a CNA in long-term care. Actually, I'm not certified yet, but the facility I work in has a scholarship program and they pay for the education and fees to get me certified. I get a huge whopping $7.62 an hour and after I'm certified the pay raise is $2.50 or $3.00 more per hour. Because this facility is all about cost-containment, I'll probably only get the $2.50 raise, giving me a grand total of $10.12/hour. I would much rather work as a medical transcriptionist, but I live in a small town and there are absolutely NO transcriptions jobs anywhere around here. I guess I took this job out of desperation, given the disgraceful unemployment rate in this town. I'm going to stay here long enough to get some good experience under my belt, then pursue working in a facility where quality is more important than quantity and the compensation for the people who do the hardest work is much better.

---Linda---

[interceptinglight, CNA]

One of the problems with long-term care is how poorly the facilities pay their CNA's. Cost-containment is often more important than quality of care. I am about to become certified as a Nurse's Aid and when I was hired in August the starting pay was $7.62 an hour. I haven't had this kind of low pay in over 25 years, and when my certification goes through there's supposed to be a pay raise. Even then I'll be making less than I'd like to. However, I'm going to get some clinical experience on this job and then move along to something better, hopefully in another state that pays there CNA's better.