Why is our salary so low?

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Something I grapple to understand is how come our average salaries are in the $99k range. Is it because most NP's are new to the career and that skews it do the lower end?

If we are reimbursed 80% of what physicians get, why are we paid 1/4 of what physicians make? In independent states where you open up your own practice, how much do you make?

Some of the post on this thread reminded me of a conversation I had a long time ago when I worked as RN in an LTACH. It was the middle of the night I was working with an LPN and she had the argument that she should be paid the same amount as an RN. Several of us were in the discussion and she got got hot arguing her point. To her, she did the same work that the RN did and she felt she should make the same amount.

My arguments than and still now was that there were some differences in job function between RN and LPN and the RN has more education along with an overall greater investment in their education. The pay increments were acknowledgement of that investment along with incentive for each of us to work towards the next rung on the ladder. LPN to ADN to BSN to MSN and so on.

Later in my career I would hear the same argument for the ADN making the same as the BSN and still later the BSN and MSN and not the MSN trained NP vs the DNP. Someone is always gonna look at the situation how it pertains to them without stepping back and seeing the big picture.

In my state and others NPs cannot practice independently and there are many things we cannot do that physicians can. Plus they do have do have more invested in their education and overall clinical hours. Should we work for peanuts no and I do agree somewhere in the 60-80% range should be expected based on experience and practice capabilities but we are not physicians and that is okay.

When we function as NPs we are still nurses practicing nursing, not nurses practicing medicine. So, the comparison of NP education and training to physician education and training is moot. The posts are not really about comparing NPs to physicians in this way though. They are about NPs being justified in expecting to be paid more for their work than most of us currently are being paid, and one of the main reasons for this is because, in many situations, we are viewed as nothing more than a pair of extra hands to help the doctor. There are a lot of NPs out there who are perfectly satisfied with accepting that descriptor, and that's alright for them but it would never be enough for me. I did not go to a fly by night school. I worked very hard when I was a student. I studied way beyond the material that we were required to study. I am not a physician but I am still very proud of what I accomplished so far as an NP and I feel very confident that I can walk into most clinical situations and safely and appropriately manage the patient's condition just as well as any physician would. I just prefer to talk 'up' my peers than to downtrod them with the 'physicians are better than us' stuff. There is sooooo much of this out there now

As well, most NPs are not compensated anywhere near 60 to 80% of what the physicians make, and although I have no scientific evidence to prove it I believe that this is the way it is because the NP profession is female-dominated in a still patriarchal culture that doesn't respect nurses and nursing as much as it should.

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. I worked very hard when I was a student. I studied way beyond the material that we were required to study. I am not a physician but I am still very proud of what I accomplished so far as an NP and I feel very confident that I can walk into most clinical situations and safely and appropriately manage the patient's condition just as well as any physician would. I just prefer to talk 'up' my peers than to downtrod them with the 'physicians are better than us' stuff. There is sooooo much of this out there now

Saying that does not make it true... You don't know what you don't know.

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Specializes in Adult Gerontology Primary Care NP.
You should talk to a US med student so you can learn what it takes to even get into med school... Do you know any nurses who have been rejected from NP school. Your education is a joke!

This is draining my energy. LOL! Ok. What is the point here? NP education - along with ANY education one receives - is what the individual makes of it. It also continues as a professional. We can sit back and complain about what we're not getting and how inexpensive NPs should be or do something about it(besides make disparaging comments on allnurses).

In regards to me talking to US med students.(maybe I'm responding to one now?) I think I already mentioned that in NP school, I trained alongside med students, was precepted by Cardiologist, Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Primary care physician, Oncologist, and Adult-Gero Primary Care and specialty NPs, mostly at top academic institutions in my area. Additionally, I have close friends who are ER, Neuro, and Onc docs. I can confidently say that I get what it takes to become a physician. What people need to learn is the history of medicine and you will see that the NP profession is actually following in the footsteps of MDs and DOs. I find that the biggest barrier are the nurses who seem to think that it is impossible for a nurse to have more "brain power". I often compare and contrast the experiences(and focus) between the two models. I have learned a great amount from my exposure to medicine. My goal as a future educator/preceptor is to incorporate what I learned from medicine more into the NP model, while holding my students accountable for their own education.

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@divobari... Good luck holding mediocre students accountable. They are in the majority in NP schools.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Telemetry/ICU Stepdown.

From the interviewer's standpoint asking for more money shows you are a strong candidate.

Mediocre candidates have one thing in common--they will for work any salary. They will work for a bag of almonds because they suck and they know it.

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Specializes in Adult Gerontology Primary Care NP.
@divobari... Good luck holding mediocre students accountable. They are in the majority in NP schools.

Sounds a bit acrimonious, but I'll accept the warm wish... Thanks! :-)

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The posts in this thread are spitting examples of WHY NP salaries are so low.

I don't think anyone should be guilted or put down for trying to advance their education. But I think and HOPE that more NP schools offer a class on business and marketing because we ought to be encouraged to negotiate our salary and break away from the patterns taught to us in bedside nursing. Being an NP is not the same role.

A lot of times, "the system" tends to guilt nurses and say we shouldn't be doing our work "for the money" and nurses within the field propel that. But we need to learn to have a healthy respect for money and not see it as separate from service. What is so wrong with wanting to get decent pay for the work you do? NP salary is low because of the ideas we harbor within nursing about nurses (crabs in a barrel mentality) and the view the general public has about nursing because of the images we create about ourselves. If we want to change that, we need to change the way the public and those within healthcare see nurses by starting with the way we look at ourselves. We need to do some serious self-examination.

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I actually think NP salary is too high for the little education they have. But if the market is willing to pay them that much, I guess it's ok...

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@JellyDonut... NP are expert in what? Because you work in a specialty, that does not mean you are an expert in that particular specialty. ...

I do not recall saying any NP was/is an expert in anything in particular. Now if you use expert as it related to Benner's theory then I may agree that with experience and study you gain the appropriate knowledge that takes you to the expert level of the services you provide.

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I actually think NP salary is too high for the little education they have. But if the market is willing to pay them that much, I guess it's ok...

I thought you didn't bash NP's on here. I guess I was mistaken? Luckily your opinion doesn't change things.

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Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
I'm also ok with absolutely anyone with a doctorate calling themselves doctor. My PCP, a DO, walks in on new patients, sticks his hand out and says "Joe Blow, what can I do for you" as his introduction.

But obviously his real name isn't joe blow

I know him! Joe Schmo. Great guy to work with. Gotta like someone not preoccupied with a HARD earned degree.

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Specializes in Adult Gerontology Primary Care NP.

In my area, major hospital systems start NPs at $125k-140k, depending on experience... I spoke to a recruiter who was trying to persuade me to not become an AGNP and he said he got a psych NP $130k - with no experience. Not bad for such mediocrity, huh?

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