Alberta's Top Paid Nurse Earns $510,000

[curves2000]

Perhaps I am wrong here but could this figure be just a typing and computer mistake? A fat finger hitting a wrong keystroke with no follow up? It's not like there is an employee actually writing out hand written paycheck's and signing them to question this.

People being pressured into or wanting additional overtime hours 100% makes sense.

I still think this was more of a result of some error as opposed to a super human nurse working insane hours with virtually no life.

The nurses and Dr's who make very high incomes while also working very hard, long and challenging hours is a different conversation. I can see a lot of younger nurses in their 20"s who are just really focused on work, their career, little time for the BS being the ones who make $150k-250k.

Considering this is a hockey forum, there is something to be said about the small segment of young people who are 100% focused in achieving this. The NHL #1 picks like Crosby, McDavid, Mackinnon etc are what separate them from others. Just being focused on the task at hand and not getting caught up in the pitfalls of youth can lead to very large payday's later. Obv not a direct comparison but I still think the $500k nurse was more of an error. Could be a Nurse Practitioner with a much higher pay to start as well as opposed to an RN working like a madperson as well.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Public service sectors would rather pay overtime than hire more workers because each new person added to the payroll carries a hefty, long-term cost in benefits and pensions that make budget projections look scary.

I'd love to see the math laying out how employers paying ~12% in pension contributions for an additional employee isn't cheaper than paying 100-200% more in wages for someone to work those same hours as OT.

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

I refuse to believe CliffFletcher just randomly said something with no base in reality

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Locke

"Did you know that there is no point in working Overtime because the government takes it all? You're working for free! Oh! And that CPP is non-taxable because you already paid tax on it!!!"

This is a really great point. That income must mean that every single dollar they earn is taxed at like 50%, so really this is only costing taxpayers like exactly $250k, while the nurse pays exactly $250k in taxes, which obviously cancel each other out. The nurse isn't working for free, but we're not paying them anything at all!

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by FormerPresJamesTaylor

I refuse to believe CliffFletcher just randomly said something with no base in reality

He’s back, baby.

[Hack&Lube]

I have nursing friends that say AHS is so broken, they don't even have time to go on a pee break because of the intensity of their shift. Its almost worse than an Amazon warehouse. The work is intense, the hours are intense. A lot of qualified nurses earned a lot of overtime because the system was short of qualified practitioners and broken. Many nurses look leaves of absences due to increased stress and pressure during covid conditions. Staffing gaps were filled by outsourcing and recruiting lower ranks from lower income countries but that didn't replace some of the skill gap.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

When I was a financial planner I had to deal with this many, many times, while explaining progressive tax rates.

Did you happen to explain them to our premier? Curious if she ever figured this out.

[Stillman16]

Originally Posted by edslunch

It would take a heck of a lot more than work to rule to make $500K

I was more referring to the "generous" comment, explaining most collective agreements require rounding up to nearest 15 mins.

If you took advantage of this every opportunity, it could add up to a nice "generous perk" that is within the rules.

I wasn't saying these high earners are all immigrants, but the article specifically referred to one that was (from Belarus), and from my anecdotal observations, immigrants are far more willing to work when others aren't!

Nice that you are jumping to conclusions, without reading the full comment..or presumably yhe article itself!

[Stillman16]

Originally Posted by Slava

I'm not sure how you get that this person is an immigrant?

And honestly, it's preposterous. If someone is adding a few minutes here or there to their OT (in relation to your next comment) and that puts over over $500k a year, someone ought to be having a conversation with them. Surely, in a system that is struggling for funding, that kind of thing has to be rooted out immediately?

see above comment directed at you also

Not getting to 500k JUST with work to rule, but it can help, if you only work 5 mins for 15 min OT...so the hours reported are more than actually worked.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by opendoor

I'd love to see the math laying out how employers paying ~12% in pension contributions for an additional employee isn't cheaper than paying 100-200% more in wages for someone to work those same hours as OT.

12% pension plus 5% heath plan plus 8% vacation plus 3% overhead plus 2% professional development= equals about 1.3 times salary for no OT. So evecery one can do about 20% OT in a 1.5x OT environment before hiring new makes sense. (These are private secotor non-union metrics except for your listed pension number.)

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Stillman16

I was more referring to the "generous" comment, explaining most collective agreements require rounding up to nearest 15 mins.

If you took advantage of this every opportunity, it could add up to a nice "generous perk" that is within the rules.

I wasn't saying these high earners are all immigrants, but the article specifically referred to one that was (from Belarus), and from my anecdotal observations, immigrants are far more willing to work when others aren't!

Nice that you are jumping to conclusions, without reading the full comment..or presumably yhe article itself!

I read both, thanks, and wasn’t responding to you

[Stillman16]

Originally Posted by edslunch

I read both, thanks, and wasn’t responding to you

Sorry "you" was more of a group of posters that jumped on a small part of my original post, without reading the article or my whole post, and inferring some sort of racism to it.

Reality I've seen is, immigrants are trying to help family back home, or trying to work hard to get ahead/catch up, and are more willing to do the hard things (more work).

I actually admire them, and wish we had more, when we're trying to get things done! The ones raised here are much more entitled, chirping "work life balance", and abusing sick time....from my anecdotal observations.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Locke

Its not really in the vein of the conversation, but there is nothing worse than an elderly parent talking to you after having coffee with their friends.

"Did you know that there is no point in working Overtime because the government takes it all? You're working for free! Oh! And that CPP is non-taxable because you already paid tax on it!!!"



None of those things are true.

What do they put in that coffee at the Casino? I might have to get some.

I had a job once where I got extra overtime because a number of the other employees were convinced it would push them into the next tax bracket and actually cost them money. I tried to convince them that wasn't how progressive tax brackets worked but failed.

[indes]

Lol So many people in construction beat the "not worth it to work overtime" drum. Otherwise smart people who just seem to keep this myth going...

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Burninator

The line under that line says this.

"Nurses can also earn premiums working nights, weekends and statutory holidays, and their pay can be more depending whether they have a specialty or if they work in a remote location."

Must be a factor here?

Stat holidays is time and half, of course. But they have deemed around 4 or so days to be super stat holidays. That means they get double time. Christmas is one of those days. I know a nurse who games this and I'm not sure if I can get all the details correct but here is my attempt to explain it.

They influence the schedulers to get shifts and the take turns with a coworker as to who calls in sick on the superstat. The person who has it off gets double time, OT and its usually an over night shift so there is an overnight premium and also a weekend premium if it lands on a weekend. Someone making $50/hr is suddenly getting almost triple the wage for that one shift.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I had a job once where I got extra overtime because a number of the other employees were convinced it would push them into the next tax bracket and actually cost them money. I tried to convince them that wasn't how progressive tax brackets worked but failed.

It's incredible how many people think this way. Increasingly, guys understand that even if one of their cheques is taxed at a higher rate and they will be getting it back, there's still no point in working the OT because the money is "useles next year, I want it now". Absolutely bizarre.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

When I was a financial planner I had to deal with this many, many times, while explaining progressive tax rates.

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I had a job once where I got extra overtime because a number of the other employees were convinced it would push them into the next tax bracket and actually cost them money. I tried to convince them that wasn't how progressive tax brackets worked but failed.

I dont even know what to say. I've been doing Taxes for 20 years and I've worked some pretty crappy jobs in my life to pay for the education to do it and I am still staggered when I hear this.

"Overtime actually costs me money!!"

"If I make a dollar over my tax bracket all of my income is taxed at the higher rate!"

No....just...none of that is true. Those are not how these things work!

I feel like I've gradually slid into the sweet, sweet release of insanity having to explain these same things over, and over and over, and over....

The Geezer Coffee/Breakfast meets should be goddamned illegal. The Accountants and the Finance Advisors should team up all 'World Police' style and put a goddamned stop to this ridiculousness.

"Did you know that Income Tax is unconstitutional after the first World Waaaaaar....ohhhh GOD......why are you tazing me?"

Because thats BS! This is Canada! We dont have a Constitution and Income Tax is absolutely legal and mandatory, your pension is taxable and your BS is wrong! And you should feel bad for being so wrong! You know what makes people feel bad? Nothing like 10,000 volts!

"Hit him again!"

[nik-]

I haven't bothered to look into any of the details of this, but I am nevertheless furious.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by indes

Lol So many people in construction beat the "not worth it to work overtime" drum. Otherwise smart people who just seem to keep this myth going...

I always pushed the I want time off in leu of any overtime.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

When I was a financial planner I had to deal with this many, many times, while explaining progressive tax rates.

Pretty sure this needed to be explained on this very forum at some point.

People who don't understand progressive tax rates exist all over the place, in every tax bracket.