Nursing Pay Caps

At the University of Wisconsin, the nurses are unionized. Unfortunately, a year ago Governor Tony Evers stepped in to negotiate a deal to avert a strike at the UW Health hospital in Madison.

The union for the nurses wants UW Health to provide greater pay transparency and to remove salary caps. One of Wisconsin’s US Senators will be speaking to the group to call for urgent progress toward retention and safe staffing in quality care.

The hospital administration announced a 3.5% annual pay increase for staff and a 2.2% increase to the pay scales. Regrettably, for nurses at the top of the pay scale, they will be given a lump sum payout which just gives them a check for roughly $500.

This is insulting and a slap in the face for nurses who have been faithfully serving patients, the community, and the hospital for the longest time.

We need seasoned nurses to mentor our new nurses. Having this cap on their salary is unwise as the nurses can go elsewhere for more pay and possibly even sign on bonuses. Last year the legislatures for the country were trying to cap travel nurses. This is not a way to attract nurses.

What the legislatures really wanted to do was cap the agencies who make money, who profit off the backs of nurses’ hard work by providing them with travel contracts. This is just another chink in the problems with the nursing profession.

If you are working at a place where you have reached the salary cap, I strongly encourage you to reach out to your state representative or senator to change this policy as nurses do deserve to make more.

While I think that there is an ultimate cap at some point, I don’t nurses have yet to reach it.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you.