
Top B.C. nurses to earn up to $90,000
Union says its new four-year contract now the richest in Canada
Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Salaries for the highest-paid nurses in B.C. will rise to nearly $90,000 a year by the end of a new four-year contract between nurses and the government. The lowest paid, most inexperienced nurses will make $54,552, according to wage rates compiled Monday by the B.C. Nurses Union.
Major contract gains worth another 17 per cent -- for a total cost of about $1.76 billion this year and more in each subsequent year -- are being celebrated as the BCNU marks National Nursing Week with a public relations campaign in radio and television ads. The province's 29,000 unionized registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses have now vaulted over colleagues in all other provinces when it comes to compensation and benefits, according to the B.C. Nurses Union.