Nurse Practitioner (Houston, Dallas, Austin: rent, transfer, safe neighborhoods)

[Elsy Stiebel]

Why are salaries for register nurses so low in Texas in general. The big cities like Houston, Austin and Dallas have a high cost of living and high rent in good safe neighborhoods.

[ashbeeigh]

You may want to ask that in the Texas forum since you are asking about Texas in general.

[Trainwreck20]

'Cause people take the jobs for the money that is offered?

But don't know why it is or isn't less than elsewhere.....

[centralaustinite]

Someone on this board has very good insight into nursing/medical pay etc, not sure who but I hope they chime in. In many sectors (except tech) salaries haven't risen to keep up with the rising COL in Austin and TX in general.

[hts]

In a free market economy, wages are the result of supply and demand.

[Aquitaine]

Mrs. Aquitaine is a PA and her (large) practice hires both somewhat interchangeably. According to the AAPA, salaries in TX are actually quite high. It's just that salaries in Austin are not as high as they are elsewhere in the state. Mrs. A got a postcard inviting her to move to Brownsville for guaranteed 40 hour workweeks earning something like $90/hr. She was one year out of grad school at the time.

After five years here, the best explanation we've seen is simply demand. Austin has a bigger influx of new grads, which skews the labor pool to "younger and more cheaply bought." But for people who stick around, salaries do go up.

[Elsy Stiebel]

I will be moving to Spice Wood and on inquiring about RN salaries I was very surprised. I am a Family Nurse Praticitoner for many years and I have seen plenty of Texan recruiters in NY so the market economy theory does not cut it. I still need to apply to transfer my license but I would like to work as school nurse part time or per diem.

[A-Tex]

Originally Posted by Elsy Stiebel

I will be moving to Spice Wood and on inquiring about RN salaries I was very surprised. I am a Family Nurse Praticitoner for many years and I have seen plenty of Texan recruiters in NY so the market economy theory does not cut it. I still need to apply to transfer my license but I would like to work as school nurse part time or per diem.

People have accurately explained to you what the situation is here. But go ahead and continue to believe they will be different for you when you move.

[Aquitaine]

and I have seen plenty of Texan recruiters in NY so the market economy theory does not cut it.

All that means is that demand is high (and it is). Assuming that those recruiters were for Austin.

The information I'm relaying to you is that supply is also high, which is why Austin salaries in healthcare are depressed relative to other parts of the state.

My information is also geared more towards PAs and NPs than RNs.

To the extent that you're suggesting that something other than the market is dictating the prevailing wage for RNs, I don't even know what to do with that -- what else would it be? Some kind of conspiracy? You're trying to get into the market....it's going to be governed by market conditions.

Spicewood also isn't Austin. It's a beautiful area but it's pretty far out. Lakeway probably has demand if you're willing to commute.

It sounds to me like you drank some kool-aid and now you're frustrated that the reality isn't living up to your expectation. Whatever else you might like (or dislike) about the area, the fact is that it's easy to find an RN here and nobody is going to pay above market rate to import one if they don't have to.

[L210]

Austin has a lot of highly-educated people. The salaries are high in the Rio Grande Valley because they have a severe shortage of healthcare professionals. It's just not an attractive region for a lot of college-educated people to move to, so they have to raise the wages to try to entice people.