[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by shedav

Noah, Im glad you dont have a problem with your starting salary..because I do. I think it is horrible. I can remember when I started out I was making around 12. Now I did not have to pay any student loans back but a bunch of my friends did around 20,000. Went to school 4 years. My sister-in-law who did not go to college and worked at a local fast food restaurant for 8 years applied to be a mail carrier and got the job for being female. Guess what her starting salary was??? 14.50!!! 2 more dollars on the hour than me. Needless to say I was pissed.(I was glad for her just pissed at the system). Anyway I started thinking I guess getting your mail is more important than saving someones life. I also have a friend whos husband works for the state roads and I know their job is very hard to do but he even makes more than I do as a nurse.

Marylou thanks for the information..here in WV we do not have very many foreign nurses though and the wages are still the same.

I'm not a nurse, but you guys got me curious because where I live (Mpls./St. Paul), nurses supposedly do pretty well. According to an online salary wizard, the median salary for an RN in Orlando is $57,651. Here in MSP, it's $62,643. Of course MN has state taxes and we don't get "paid in sunshine" (in fact it was -15 yesterday morning ), but compared to FL, we get better schools, less traffic congestion, better transit, less crime, a younger, more stable population and 9 months of beautiful weather (as opposed to 3 in FL)

[shedav]

Ben Around I think out west the pay is suppose to be a little better. I was suprised to when I did a search in Fl wages for nurses a couple of weeks back. I think what they do is post that in order to peak interest but once you apply the salary is based on years of experience. I have been a nurse for 12 years and I make 26.10/hr which is a good salary but it took me 12 years to get it. I also work in the highest paid hospital in the state because we are union. Most hospitals around here nurses with the same years of experience are making about 3 dollars less than me. I live in Chas WV and could work at a hospital here (which i did for awhile) but would only be making around 23 and have to pay for my healthcare which is about 240. So instead I drive an hour and 20 minutes to huntington where the pay is better and my healthcare is payed by our employer..only downfall all services has to be done there, but then again I dont have to pay for it so it is worth it.
I know nurses here who work for other hospitals that have over 25yrs experience and have been capped out for the last 5 years at 25/hr.

I think another problem is also there are so many graduating that they do not need to pay top dollar. For example, why keep someone who is at the top of the payscale when if they quit or whatever they can hire someone like noah and pay him a mere 18.50 for the same job because like everyone else he needs the job. It is more cost effective to keep a high turnover of nurses because that way they can keep the salaries low.

Most hospitals I have worked for give you like a 25c raise a year..LOL

I also suppose if I wanted to work myself to death and not enjoy life then I could have a good income to spend...but then again if I was working all the time when would I have time to spend it???

[shedav]

Ben Around I went to the yahoo hot jobs site and did the same thing only for my area and guess what it showed??? A salary of 56,360. I can tell you that is horribly wrong. I just got my w2 and last year I made 42,000 and that was working full time as a staff nurse. The only thing I can figure is they must be using nurse manager salaries or something because your typical staff nurse does not make anywhere close to that figure unless they are working alot of overtime.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by shedav

Ben Around I went to the yahoo hot jobs site and did the same thing only for my area and guess what it showed??? A salary of 56,360. I can tell you that is horribly wrong. I just got my w2 and last year I made 42,000 and that was working full time as a staff nurse. The only thing I can figure is they must be using nurse manager salaries or something because your typical staff nurse does not make anywhere close to that figure unless they are working alot of overtime.

Interesting. I'll bet it's the overtime that's throwing it. I wonder if lots of people in yoru profession work overtime. We have a friend who is a nurse and they are constantly making her work extra shifts. She makes good money for it, but she hates the demands on her time. Can't say I blame her.

These salary wizards would be more helpful if they'd adjust their salaraies to a 40 hour week for those positions that are hourly pay.

[shedav]

You are right about that I bet that is a factor regarding the salary. I am constantly getting called at home to ask if we want to work because the floor is short. I was also talking to some travel nurse companies and guess what?? They complained about how poorly their contract rates were for their nurses in FL the only thing that appealed to me is they do pay for housing or you can find your own and take subsidy and with that figured in the pay was better. She gave me an example of a hospital in naples it was 24/hr but then if you lived there (they still give you the subsidy) it was 1750/month, but of course most people dont take the subsidy the take the free housing because that is why it is called TRAVEL nursing because they dont live there!!!LOL

of course that was some of the higher subsidy offered but I am sure it is because Naples is so expensive.