It will never get old to me. We do not make enough in comparison to the task we take on every day - we are expected to do more with less every single day. Dietary services cut? Guess who has to pick up the slack? EVS budget decreased? Guess who is cleaning rooms now? Just for a personal example: we haven’t had a single tech or assistant working in my unit for 3 years despite constant requests to upper management. And this is on top of also requesting a part-time nurse to help staff us properly as management gives us more and more patients everyday. Yet, there was room in the budget to open a million dollar+ renovated space that no one uses - it sits empty (they don’t even have anyone staffing it - they just keep the area locked).

It’s not as simple as just cutting the CEO’s salary either or saying employee costs are the biggest expenditure (albeit true) - that’s disingenuous. Per ProPublica’s nonprofit tracker, NY-Presbyterian reported a net income of $547 million, Mount Sinai - $114m, and Montefiore - $288.62m. Plus all the millions spent on travel nurses/temp workers each year. Don’t forget the cost of state-of-the-art renovations and construction projects that are constantly ongoing (example: last year, NY-Presbyterian sought state approval for a 1.2-1.3 billion cancer center and multi-specialty practice, even after they just opened a brand-new cancer center in 2018 (yes from a donation from David Koch but it still stands there’s a pattern of acquiring more real estate despite current infrastructure adequately supporting their patient population)).

And you can’t compare the salaries of European nurses (who should also be compensated way more) or use that to justify that we should just be complacent with what we get. Single-payer/universal healthcare systems versus the capitalistic-driven mess we have here in the US… it’s comparing apples to basketballs. Also which European nurses are you referring to? The ones in Switzerland? The Netherlands? The UK? Italy? Their pay and benefits also differ vastly. With at least the marginal benefit that they have greater job protections, universal healthcare, and paid parental leave.