Should I expect to be paid well in LTC??

[Sydangle2]

I got a job offer in LTC I was seriously thinking of taking.
Everything looks good....

*the job is 3 min from my home

*the hours fit well into my lifestyle 10:30p-6:30a & 6:30p-6:30a

*the scheduling seems to be fair- done be HR/ & requests are honored in a timely fashion

*benefits are excellent~ no chnge in mds/ coverage

*& ofcourse free parking.

The downside.........Evidently they will hire me but at 1.50 les per hour!!! They say they want to be fair to their current employees & NOT hire someone off the street at more per hour than someone that has been there 5 or 10 years. Uh?! How can they do this what about cost of living, etc. If I take this offer it's is literally like taking a step backward in salary 4 years! Then they say they will pay me what I am worth.~ I have 13+ years experience in a hopital setting working w/ cardiovascular med/surg pts & 6 years experince in LTC. & they want to start me at 1.50 less per hour?! They say the 5% shift differential makes up for that......... but it doesn't take the place of $$ per hour IMO??!

Am I way off base here?

btw~ (to put this in perspective think of it this way)
Imagine they said there salary range was between
1$-6$ per hour

(I think good I should be able to come in w/ my level experience at 2.50-3.00 per hour: cuz currently I make 2.26 per hour but I have a raise coming in august.. so that is the least I should expect/except...)

The HR lady throws some #'s I thought/ believed we left it at starting salary at 1.50 an hour w/ the idea that that it would increase 2.25 at the end of my probationary period in 3 months...NOT GREAT~ I would be right where I am now minus my raise in august at my current job... but I would be saving on gas $$ & parking garage at the hospital.

So I accept~ a little reluctently; but excited about the change....

I start getting all the paper work in order etc. have a f/u meeting dicussing the particulars etc it comes out my starting salary $1.00!!!!!??? What??! then I start second guessing myself.... cuz I was tired exhausted coming off a 16 hrs shift thinking I heard HR person wrong. I know I should have said something right away.... but I didn't. I really was thinking originally it's not that bad, then I started getting a sick feeling in my stomach thinking what am I doing??? At the very least I should expect to get paid what I am worth & I should not settle for less.... So today I was straight up the the HR lady and just told her like it was.

My question is this....Is this experience is the exception not the rule?

I thought LTC pays better. I went to couple LTC facilities & most wants to hire me at less per hour.... I am really thinking of just going to agency nursing & just maximizing my salary while having more control over my schedule & holidays. I can't remember the last time my schedule wasn't an issue over the holidays.

[ns lpn]

I live in Nova Scotia and it seems the RN's here in LTC get paid well however they often pay for it by working lots of OT and missing vacation due to shortage of workers.
The LTC facility I work at has a wage range matching the local hospital and bases the nurses salary on the total number of years worked as an RN so that a nurse who worked 10yrs at the hospital won't take a major pay cut to work at the LTC facility. It's difficult finding RN's wanting to do LTC especially the new grads.

What did you end up doing anyways?

[careaid11]

Hello
I live in British Columbia, our base wage for entering into the field of Care Aid is minimum 16.00per hour, if you work in some of the Hospitals and are union you can make as much as 23.00per hour to start. So depends where you live. Hope this helps.