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A Nurse's Pay Working A 16-Hour Shift
This Is How Much You'll Take Home in California
Jason Nunez
February 16, 2024
Kaiser Permanente has always been known as a hospital that offers an endless number of overtime shifts, but they’ve recently taken this notoriety seriously after realizing the significant sum of money they’ve spent on overtime pay, especially as nurses could earn over $200 per hour during these shifts.
Monica and I used to take advantage of their generosity—it’s how we managed to pay off our $128,461 worth of debt.
In fact, if you remember when we first started our YouTube channel, I made a video about a nurse who was working over 365 days of 16-hour shifts. You’d be surprised to know this nurse has not been approved for much overtime in the past 2–3 months.
The crazy thing about working 16-hour shifts, and the reason why so many nurses choose to pick up those shifts instead of having to come in on their days off, is because of the amount of money that can be earned from one single 16-hour shift.
Here's what I mean:
Monica's Hourly Rate: $132.70, with the night shift differential.
Regular Shift: 11 pm to 7:30 am.
Extended Shift: If she takes an additional shift from 3 pm to 7:30 am the next day, her pay breaks down as follows:
First 4 Hours: Paid at 1.5 times her rate with the evening shift differential.
Next 4 Hours: Paid at twice her rate with the evening shift differential.
Last 8 Hours: Paid at her regular rate of $132.70 per hour.
Earnings for a 16-Hour Shift:
As you can see from the chart above, she should earn a total of $2,845 for the 16 hours of work she commits to. However, these numbers are before we even consider federal, state, Medicare, and Social Security taxes. You often hear that it’s impossible to live in California due to the excessive amount of tax the state takes from its residents. Give me a break! The above amount is what a nurse in another state might make in an entire week or two of work. And let me plug in the above numbers for you in an after-tax calculator:
After Taxes:
As a single-income earner, your take-home pay will be around $1,986 of your gross earnings. Or, in other words, your take rate is 30% of your gross, and you are still left with close to $2,000 for one day of work!
Expenses:
Monica and I pay around $4,100 for our mortgage, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, and homeowner’s association dues. In essence, two of these shifts are nearly enough to cover our entire mortgage. Given that we still bring home over $14,000 per month while working fewer than 20 hours per week, it's clear how we can afford lavish vacations, pay all our bills, and invest a significant amount each year without needing to work excessive hours.
Imagine working just two 16-hour shifts each week. You could easily make close to $150,000 a year, and you'd have 10 days off every two weeks. Some critics argue that working 16 hours straight can be risky for patients. However, is it really that different from someone waking up at 7 am and going to bed at 11 pm? That's pretty much what a 16-hour shift is like. Plus, one of the best parts about these long shifts is getting two 1-hour lunch breaks if you’re an 8-hour shift employee working at Kaiser, AND you don’t have to come in on your days off to pick up overtime.
Work smarter, not harder, people!
See you next time,
Jason
P.S. We will continue to give our newsletter subscribers a 20% discount on every spreadsheet on our website with the coupon code “20HOURS”. Get yours now!
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