NursingLink

Ok u lvn's out there. Let me give u the real deal on this california hourly wage varience. I have 7 years experience. If I choose to work home health in southern california they would offer me between 16hr to 22.83 per hour caring for peds pt paid for by medical. Different pay at each agency, and don't think that is going to get u any benifits or overtime! I don't want to bash agency's but I garentee u if they have recrutiers u r going to be paid way less! They earn 50 to 60 a year and it's gotta come from somewhere! Now if I choose to work in a hosp, snf, then pay is anywhere from 17.66 (county hospital with all the benifits) to 25hr snf that most people never want to work at! Now your best bet is to work as a travel nurse or registry that staffs hospitals. That pays anywhere from 24hr to 31hr with ot after 8 hrs. Most r 12hr shifts. We have such a shortage that u will always find work, and if your are half way decent, you will stand out like a queen or king because due to the shortage, more and more non quilified nurses are being hired just to fill a spot! Oh ya I've seen it all! And the crazy thing is they never get fired just reassigned! Oh ya there is always intermin home visits. That is also anywhere from 28 to 35 a visit. But its not a good thing to base your sole income on. So that is the skinny. Now the nurses who are claiming to make more than that (lvn) in southern california, let me know if there is an additional position available! Because I am working over 84hr a week and want to increase my pay and cut down my hours! Love u all!

i agree that it depends on where you live and the cost of living! but we are under paid for what we do! i have probably topped out at 18$ an hr in home care. LTC pays more but not by more than a couple dollars from that. But LTC is so terrible to work and I felt I was putting myself at risk everytime i went to work in one of those places.. What do we do to demand higher pay? especially in this economy?

I think these numbers are irrelevant. The cost per hour needs to be compared to the cost of living and the number of job openings needs to be related to the population. Of course there is going to be more jobs in California because it has a large population! Of course the hourly wage is higher in California because they have a high cost of living!

I live in NC and my hourly rate is 39.75! These rates are very inaccurate! I used to travel, and I know the staff nurses in CA have better wages than you are reporting. We as nurses are underpaid as it is. This is very insulting.

I second that the California nursing wage is wrong. LVN's make $25.00 an hour and RNs make $40 an hour in San Diego.

The wage for California is completely inaccurate. A nurse with 8 years experience makes almost twice that in Northern California. I know new grads start at over $36/hr at UCDavis.

Alabama is not much higher. New grads start at around $17.00/hr.