What's to complain about?

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Another I regret my decision to go into nursing thread. It's grown on me and I am very satisfied by what I do. However, it does not provide enough income for me to take care of my family. Not to even mention the horrible benefits that most places offer now.

I was having a discussion with a co-worker the other day and she was complaining that her husband had to install fire suppression sprinklers all weekend. However, she loved that he was making time and half for the job and shouldn't complain too much about it. Since she opened the door wide open, me, "so, if you don't mind me asking, what's time and half?" Her response, "well, he only clears $84 an hour after they take out for his retirement and benefits." As I stare blankly at her in disbelief, her response, "but he works really hard and it's an important job." Additional details, no formal education beyond high school for the job, but he did go through an apprentice program for two years. He's in a union and averages about $60 - 75 an hour, depending on the job.

The belief that what we do is somehow less important than installing sprinklers is a major reason why nursing is in its present state. Not only does my co-worker, a nurse, believe that it is justified, but society is saying that this skill is more valuable than caring for our sick people. This sentiment is rampant on AN as well and will be defended with snarky comments like, "don't let the door hit you on the way out."

It's too bad and obviously not going to change in the near future. With nursing being overwhelmingly female, a major contributing factor is that women do not know their worth. New studies indicate that most people are happy with earning between $70k and $80k. More than this doesn't necessarily make you any happier and less doesn't allow you to be your happiest.

Yes, I do make slightly more than the "happy" range with minimal overtime. Yes, I am very confident that I can install sprinklers and my co-worker stated that her husband "doesn't have the book smarts to do anything else." Meaning he could not do our job, but I'm confident that the vast majority of nurses could install sprinklers. She mentioned that she was concerned that he's getting older and it's getting more difficult for him to climb around in the ceiling. I'm relatively young and can not imagine being able to do all that's required as a bedside nurse when I'm in my later 40s or older.

I have many immediate and extended family members who are nurses and live all over the U.S. and are in many different specialties and settings. Most of them have been in nursing for over 10 years and they more or less echo my feelings. They also did their best to dissuade me from pursing nursing as a career. Wish I would have paid more attention to them and took their advice.

Specializes in CVICU.

Supply and demand. Very simple. Plenty of nurses to go around now-a-days.

If you can do the job of someone getting paid as much as you described, I think it would be a good idea to go do it. But to disrespect some one for lack of a formal education is insulting. I know PhD's I would not trust to tie my shoe. It took just as much knowledge to perform my jobs related to construction and perform it properly, ​ than it has to be a BSN nurse working in critical care.

The local union hospital here in town make 2-3 dollars more an hour than every other hospital….nothing to switch jobs over.

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People aren't paid according to how hard they work or how much they know. They're paid according to how easily they can be replaced.

People with four year degrees have a hard enough time finding jobs. And then nurses also have community college graduates to compete with. There are too many of us to ever expect a high paying salary.

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Oh you're a guy? I didn't realize that.

My ex and SO are both general contractors, they make more money during good years but have more stress than me, a lot more stress.

You're right about value though. People in general think teachers and nurses make good money as it is. Have you ever heard people go on about teachers during union negotiations? People can be hateful to the service industries.

Now iphones they do want to spend their money on.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

The local union hospital here in town make 2-3 dollars more an hour than every other hospital….nothing to switch jobs over.

There is more to a union than an extra $100 a week which isn't too shabby anyway such as benefits, job security and often staffing requirements.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Cops don't make much; many I know in that field have to moonlight to get by. The officers aren't in a primarily female milieu; so to what can you attribute their low pay?

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
Cops don't make much; many I know in that field have to moonlight to get by. The officers aren't in a primarily female milieu; so to what can you attribute their low pay?

Good point and I wonder if it is similar to the "nurses calling"? Some of us line up for a job because of reasons other than employment and are willing to work for less than we might be able to get if we were a little more selective? I don't know just wondering out loud. It doesn't seem like there is ever a shortage of people wanting to be police officers, right?

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Cops don't make much; many I know in that field have to moonlight to get by. The officers aren't in a primarily female milieu; so to what can you attribute their low pay?

PA STATE TROOPER POSITION INFORMATION

Salary Information

  • Graduation after July 1, 2015 - Starting Salary is $ 57,251
  • Graduation after July 1, 2016 - Starting Salary is $ 58,962
    *Overtime pay and shift differential are paid as applicable.

Additional Benefits & Information

  • Troopers are granted an annual clothing allowance of $600* for clothing maintenance.
  • Troopers earn 10* vacation days during their first year of employment and then 15 days of vacation beginning with theit second year of employment.
  • Troopers earn 15* sick days per calendar year.
  • Troopers receive 12* paid holidays and four personal days per calendar year.

Upon graduation and promotion to the rank of Trooper, members and their dependents are eligible for Health Care Program, Dental Care Program, Vision Care Plan, Prescription Drug Program, and a Health Reimbursement Account. The Commonwealth pays the entire cost of all coverage for the Trooper and their eligible family members.

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I don't have much to add. But I just wanted to say that I get it. Maybe you and I both are in the minority on this topic. Looking at the figures relating salary to happiness, that amount is almost 2 times my income last year. I will be going back to school this fall. I know that I probably will not start out making any more than I am now, but I do hope that the new opportunity is easier on my body and overall quality of life.

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To call what I wrote in my OP whining is a bit of a stretch.

But isn't that what you were doing? Whining because other occupations that don't require a college education get paid more than nurses?

At least that's the way I(and obviously several others) see it.

In all fairness to you and other nurses though it does peeve me that people like the Kardashians make millions for being "reality stars".

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
PA STATE TROOPER POSITION INFORMATION

Salary Information

  • Graduation after July 1, 2015 - Starting Salary is $ 57,251
  • Graduation after July 1, 2016 - Starting Salary is $ 58,962
    *Overtime pay and shift differential are paid as applicable.

Additional Benefits & Information

  • Troopers are granted an annual clothing allowance of $600* for clothing maintenance.
  • Troopers earn 10* vacation days during their first year of employment and then 15 days of vacation beginning with theit second year of employment.
  • Troopers earn 15* sick days per calendar year.
  • Troopers receive 12* paid holidays and four personal days per calendar year.

Upon graduation and promotion to the rank of Trooper, members and their dependents are eligible for Health Care Program, Dental Care Program, Vision Care Plan, Prescription Drug Program, and a Health Reimbursement Account. The Commonwealth pays the entire cost of all coverage for the Trooper and their eligible family members.

I was talking local Sheriff's Dept. They earn waaaay less than State Troopers.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I was talking local Sheriff's Dept. They earn waaaay less than State Troopers.

Either way there is no way I'd do what they do for less than 3xs that money. I made more as a LPN and although I got peed on and spit at a few times I wasn't ever shot at.

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Having some serious deja vu from an earlier thread. :rolleyes:

What I don't understand, having seen this same complaint/whine posted before (and now being dressed in much more civil tones so he can be better heard) is that it ALL comes down to the very same thing. The same bottom line, no matter HOW many times it's posted: Those who are newly in the nursing field should have known, REALLY should have known, what the salary expectations were for you, and are for others with more experience. Wages are driven by supply and demand, like in EVERY field, and as long as there are fresh new grads popping up every few months en masse, of COURSE wages aren't going to be higher. Simple math, really: why would an employer pay more for something he can get for less? Saying that we should be paid more, overall, because we are worth more, overall, without having a shred of evidence to support it, is nothing more than....yes, whining and complaining and THAT has zero value. Waste of time.

You can no more prove nurses as a profession should be paid more (on the basis of your own dissatisfaction) than the sprinkler guy can prove he should be paid exactly four times what a nurse makes (again, because it's an opinion related to personal job satisfaction, NOT something that is market-driven).

I don't care if it's females or males we're talking about, because it comes down to basic numbers, quantity: if there are 100 people waiting for every job, how much 'fussing' do you think an employer is going to put up with before booting you and choosing one of the other 99? Not much. Don't like the conditions? You are welcome to leave, but it's not your EMPLOYER who is going to feel the pinch of your departure; your seat was filled before it got cold.

I DO think comparing what one makes to a completely different profession is not only meaningless, but counterproductive. Why? Because if one is to insist on comparing apples and oranges, one is going to never understand why the answer is what it is. They will continue to be unhappy, as you are. They will continue to compare apples and oranges, such as an experienced tradesman in a rather specialized industry who earns a higher (yet sporadic) hourly wage with a low-experienced nurse working shifts in a hospital.

It's common sense to know what one makes in comparison to the guy who mows your lawn and how it is related to the economy, purchasing power, yada yada. Pretty basic stuff. But your complaint isn't that you aren't earning a specific amount above the lawnmower guy, it's that you aren't earning as much as (or more than) someone in a better-paying profession. Again, we're at apples and oranges.

This is NOT a resistance to improving wages, as you have said numerous times. It's a reality check as to why wages are what they are. We're not in a pre-industrial revolution era in which workers worked 16 hour days and potentially lost an arm during one of those days, went home to sleep on the floor with a bite of bread for dinner, and then dragged themselves back to work because there were absolutely no other options, other than to die in MORE abject poverty than they were already living. I think it would be fair to say that a revolution is NOT in order for nurses today, that we earn a decent and fair wage, have benefits and other favorable options that make employment desirable in the field. For those who do not believe the benefits outweigh the costs.....yes, you have the right to vote with your feet and leave.

To inflate one's own worth on the basis of nothing more than a belief that one is 'worth' more than the skilled tradesman he apparently looks down upon is insanely arrogant. Otherwise, I would have to suggest that the one who is unhappy with what he or she is doing should get OUT of what he or she is doing, and take that "easy" job that pays more. Would have to wonder if it would seem so very easy after one has been doing it awhile.....kinda like those 'easy' nursing jobs? ;)

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