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CHC nurses to get salary increase
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Posted on Oct 05 2008
The House of Representatives wants the Department of Public Health to reserve at least $150,000 of its budget for salary adjustments for nurses at the Commonwealth Health Center.
The earmark was part of the budget bill the Lower House passed on Thursday. The provision was included in line with an audit report conducted by Office of Personnel Management on DPH’s nurse practitioner positions.
The audit report showed that the employees were incorrectly classified and have been awarded inappropriate salaries. The report also proposed a salary scale that could result in substantial pay increases for five nurse practitioners at DPH once their contracts have been amended.
Specific information on the pay hikes due to the affected employees was not available at press time. But the Lower House in the budget bill said that DPH must set aside a minimum $150,000 of its budget for the salary adjustments.
OPM said it developed the salary scale by comparing the salaries of local nurse practitioners with those of other advanced professionals. On an average, OPM said, a newly licensed nurse practitioner in the continental United States may receive a salary between $60,000 and $70,000. Even the Tinian Health Center pays its physician assistant and nurse practitioner an annual salary of $70,000 a year.
Under OPM’s salary scale, the starting salary for a newly licensed nurse practitioner will be $48,000 to $50,000 a year. This rate gradually increases with the practitioner’s years of experience. A practitioner with 20 years of experience may receive up to the $70,000 annual salary cap.
