Why don't employers start lowering wages for nurses?

Nurses General Nursing

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After looking at the countless rants of nurses who can't get a job for months on here and seeing nearly all job listings for nurses requiring experience, I went on to conclude that getting a nursing job now isn't easy.

Why don't employers keep lowering the wage until there is only 1 or 2 applicants willing to apply instead of the usual 70 to 80? Don't you think an employer could get away with a job offer for $32 an hour for a RN instead of $33 an hour? Why not offer $8 or $10 an hour?? RN are working for FREE via internships! 33% of nurses at hospitals are nothing more than internships, free labor. The clinical experience at colleges means absolutely nothing. I bet you that a hospital can still get RNs if it paid $10 an hour for wages. On the news a while ago I heard of a company hiring programmers at MINIMUM WAGE, they had NO PROBLEM getting programmers willing to work for that much with no chance of pay increases. If you are an unemployed RN, wouldn't it be better to land a job as a RN for $15 an hour rather than be jobless?

On my way towards becoming an RN I've already encountered an obstacle. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get in anatomy, physiology, or microbiology. All classes were completely filled as soon as they were available to a group of students. I went to every class to petition and most of the time there were 3-4 times more people petitioning than people registered for the class. I will never get in those classes since I'm already working full time. Students taking more units (classes) last semester are the first allowed to register for classes. Students like me who struggle to get in a single class will always be the last allowed to register which means the classes I need will be closed. I'm not stupid and know I need to attempt to pass my classes with "A's". I'm getting a little discouraged when I'm not even given the opportunity to take the classes I need and when RNs can't find jobs at this time.

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Why would anybody want that? Ofcourse there are people who will work for less because they are desperate. But once some employers reduce wages it will likely cause a slippery slope where all nurses start to make less. I'd rather compete for a job. Also, job and college class openings are different in every region. Some places it's difficult to get a job and some are easier. It might be in your interest to look into other colleges in your area. Or you could maybe take underwater basket weaving (lol) or some other elective class so you can have first dibs next semester on the classes you need?

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

This thread is going to get fiesty pretty quick but...here we go.

1. I would not be an RN for less than I am currently making. I would find another field.

2. Lowering wages would lower quality in my opinion. Most strong, logical, talented nurses would leave the field completely due to bare bones waging.

3. Lowering wages would lower healthy competition for jobs. Employers like to have options, choices, pools of resources. At the moment our hospital has 500+ applicants and we are still currently short due to training time etc. Having two moderately optimal candidtes vs. 350 optimal to me sounds like a loss.

I am sorry your classes are full. I am sorry there is high competition for jobs, classes and programs. Now is a time to excel in your field, feed off competition and gain every ounce of experience you can in school so you can be a front runner of thos "350 optimal" applicants and land the job.

I am not sure where your "programmer" information comes from but there are many levels of programmers. My husband makes well more than me as a programmer, but his talent is unsurpassed. I know how to code a webpage but I am sure I wouldn't make what he would if I took a class or two. There are all levels of all professions.

Tait

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Why would anybody want that? Ofcourse there are people who will work for less because they are desperate. But once some employers reduce wages it will likely cause a slippery slope where all nurses start to make less. I'd rather compete for a job.

I would rather compete for a job also. I wouldn't worry about lower wages for RN happening, not even the tech sector lowered wages much during the time that lots of jobs were cut. RN wages posted strong percentage gains again this year compared to other jobs.

2. Lowering wages would lower quality in my opinion. Most strong, logical, talented nurses would leave the field completely due to bare bones waging.

Tait: The company hired mostly inexperienced c++ programmers and graphic designers that graduated from college for minimum wage, it was some company that made games. I don't know if it's still in business, but think about how much more that could be done when you hire 3 inexperienced programmer verses one programmer for the same cost.

Lower quality? If you could hire 2 RNs working for half as much, I think quality would greatly improve when a registered nurse is assigned to half as many beds. I hear so much complaining on here that nurses are overworked and can't provide the full care that they can being assigned to so many beds.

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Maybe employers could get away with lowering wages temporarily, but brace yourself for a whopping backlash. At some point, people will figure out that if they're going to be paid like waitresses and cashiers, they might as well dump the extra responsibility and work as waitresses and cashiers. No disrespect intended to folks who hold those highly necessary positions, but keeping a burger order straight or charging the correct amount for a pair of shoes can't compare with getting meds and dosages pill_bottle.png right and catching a patient's downturn before they code. ambulance.png

Sure, you might have a glut of new grads willing to accept slave wages, but when there aren't enough seasoned nurses nurse.png around to orient and season them, then what? When patients start complaining (death being the ultimate "complaint") and the OR schedule falls apart and the NICU babies have grimmer outcomes and great-grandma in her LTC facility develops pressure sores and the number of med errors and nosocomial infections and post-op relapses multiplies because 75% of the nursing workforce has said they'd rather ring up groceries or change diapers at a day care (again, no disrespect toward those who do these things) than risk their licenses and their sanity for a few bucks more than minimum wage, this might not seem like such a stroke of genius.

Great influx of workers for the food service industry and the check-out line. good.png Great exodus from the health care field. bad.png

star.png You get what you pay for.star.png

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Lower quality? If you could hire 2 RNs working for half as much, I think quality would greatly improve when a registered nurse is assigned to half as many beds. I hear so much complaining on here that nurses are overworked and can't provide the full care that they can being assigned to so many beds.

Two cheaper RN's does not always = better, stronger, safer care.

As RN/Writer stated: "You get what you pay for."

Tait

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If I was getting paid $15/hr, I'd find a job that is less stressful or physically/mentally demanding that paid the same.

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Specializes in Adult Stem Cell/Oncology.

I worked at a daycare for $12/hour, then as a nanny for $15/hour. Where I live, nurses generally get paid about $70,000/year. I'm in a private accelerated program, and by the time I'm done next summer, I will owe at least $40,000 for tuition and living expenses. If nurses got paid the same as daycare providers, I'd be in big trouble!

To the OP: if you want something badly enough, you'll get there! Have you tried getting into the classes at other community colleges? Or maybe taking some easy classes at night so that you can rack up units and get priority registration?

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You pay peanuts, you get monkeys. It would also be about 30 steps back for whatever advances nursing has made as a profession in the last few years. You would also get a lot of people quitting because how are they supposed to afford their rent or mortgage, support their families etc on 10 dollars an hour? We would be back to that whole shortage thing. I'm not Registered just yet but I can sure tell you if the pay was significantly lower I would be jumping straight from one degree to the next. I have many aspects of this career that I am looking forward to but I have to work to make a living also. There's not quite enough love to do it for next to nothing.

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Specializes in CTICU.

Gee, great idea!! Now we should just ask banks to excuse our mortgages, oil companies to lower the price of gas, supermarkets to lower the price of food etc etc etc etc

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

There is no way in hades I would do what I do for eight bucks an hour.

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Could you imagine pitching this idea to a male-dominated field like engineering?

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