Nurses not making enough...wait what?

I have a several friends that are nurses at local reputable hospitals. They complaint to me all the time that they are not making nearly as much as they should be. Most of them have been working for 4yrs now and complaining that they should be making $30 or more.
I keep telling them that any other job out there does not pay their employees that much money starting out, so they should be happy the amount that they are getting. Are they just greedy or do you think they should deserve more?

One works in the E. R. and the other NICU
If you had your babies in the NICU, and I did for over 100 days, I would think you'd want them to be paid as much as they are worth so they have their full attention on the babies. And I do believe NICU nurses are worth more than $30/hr.

where is this? i know places that pay $50+/hr but obv COL is high theree/ years of exp matters too obv. some places bump pay/yr or @ intervals like say /5yrs

Depends completely on the region. In NY or CA, heck yes you should be making a whole lot more. In rural IL, no. So it's a hard question to answer, because $30/hour means different things in different areas.

Areaof the Country is revelant when speaking of hourly pay due to cost of living prices etc. I'm in CT and an LPN. I started with no LPN experience at $25/hr. RN's obviously make more. So an RN w/4 yrs would for sure be making more than $30/hr.But in certain areas of the country RN's don't even make what CT LPN's make. I've honestly seen what our CT CNA's hourly rate as being listed as a new grad RN pay in some posts. Again, its all about location, location, location

As others have stated, cost of living varies so much from market to market. Plus, the Great Recession has placed a damper on salary increases. Where an organization may have typically given a 3% increase plus a small yearly market bump, they may now be getting only a 1-2% yearly increase.I recently compared cost of living between Chicago & Louisville KY. I saw a leadership positon listed for $90,000 down there; comparable to earning $113,000 up in Chicago. A considerable difference, but the same buying power.Lots of free online calculators if you want to make comparisons yourself

I honestly don't think nurses being overpaid is the greatest issue impacting our profession. I don't begrudge any nurse for being paid well. It's also really none of my business what my colleagues are making.

Quote from Reese2012I have a several friends that are nurses at local reputable hospitals. They complaint to me all the time that they are not making nearly as much as they should be. Most of them have been working for 4yrs now and complaining that they should be making $30 or more. I keep telling them that any other job out there does not pay their employees that much money starting out, so they should be happy the amount that they are getting. Are they just greedy or do you think they should deserve more?One works in the E. R. and the other NICU

Texas (rural)- not even close...but cost of living was lowerIllinois (med city)- depends on experienceI started out at 7 bucks an hour as a GN- and got 25cents more when I got my boards results/RN

The OP is a pre-nursing student. That explains a lot.

Hold on to your hats..South FLorida...RNs are making around $25.00/hr and they can get away with it b/c the market is so tight.I just ran into a recruiter from one of the biggest hospitals in the county and she threw out that number for an experienced case management position....that even shocked me....!

Maybe it should sound more like this:Not paid enough for what we do!It would be great pay for a monday through friday recepionist job in a nice office.......

After all, we don't do much for our pts. The MD's just do all the care by themselves. lol