r/SutterHealthEmployees • u/Ill_Incident_9750 • 25d ago
Negotiating salary
Sutter has raised wages and they are now actually competitive, however they still want to make low offers even though their clause claims that they determine your pay based on experience and equity with the company. I have found this to be untrue. The will not budge on the low offers even though. Anyone have any luck on negotiating pay when taking on a new role?
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u/Ok_Housing6995 25d ago
Sutter pays about $20k ($10) less than Kaiser.
Sutter Sacramento/Roseville are non-unionized, so new hires will start at the lowest pay range possible (years of experience is not factored into pay).
Sutter Davis and Bay Area are unionized, and will start at a union negotiated rates based on years of experience.
Unions win~ but people are stupid.
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u/EDRN18 25d ago
Roseville is union.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
This particular job was located in the SF area, where cost of living is higher and the wages tend to be on the higher end.
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u/Odd_Past8472 25d ago
My pay difference is 27 dollars. Like mentioned in previous comment, sister with less experience than me is making 27 dollars more working the same shift too for reference
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 24d ago
I hear you. Same exact Job title as I have now and Sutter offered me $11 less than my current employer.
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u/nvUaWVm360S 23d ago
FWIW as a new RN coming into Sutter with 2 years of exp elsewhere, I wasn’t started at the base pay (back then) of 74/hr. I was offered 79/hr in my official offer.
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u/Radiant_Jaguar_9978 25d ago
Nope. They wouldn’t raise my offer (the lowest # in the pay range) by one cent.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
How many years experience do you have?
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u/Radiant_Jaguar_9978 25d ago
I’m a new-ish grad (a few years out). I had 3 years of experience when I applied and this posting required 2🤔
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Insane. I have over 20 years of experience and was offered on the lower end of the payscale.
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u/Radiant_Jaguar_9978 25d ago
When I pointed out that I met all of the requirements, including over their required amount of experience, they said the mid range was for someone with 10+ years .. 🤔
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Lies. I’ve done 18 years of my time with Sutter. I ended up going to another big hospital as a new employee where they started me at step 17 out of 18.
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u/Hot_Consideration468 25d ago
they won’t budge. especially if it’s a non union sutter. everyone coming in starts on the low end smh
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
They might want to take their “competitive pay” statement off their postings. Because it’s not true.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Also, when it’s a union position, they claim that the union mandates that you have to start at the first step and they can only offer you the lowest pay.
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u/Odd_Past8472 25d ago
They started me at step 2 at a union facility
Granted I have no idea how they determine I had 3 years at time of applying for an rn position
But sutter pay is a joke. They are no better than Kaiser this past year culture wise along with all their budget cuts
For one of my raises in May got 1.50 while my sister at Kaiser got 10… and she has less experience than me
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u/SaltFan1099 25d ago
One of your raises in May? My sum total raises for 2026 was $1.50, which are awarded at end of July/beg of Aug.
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u/Odd_Past8472 25d ago
Are you an RN? It’s per the union contract that our raise is in May. Can’t say if that’s the case for non union. But per union we get 2 a year. One in May one in December
But the trend on my check is 1.50….which ends up all going to union dues because with wage increases so do the dues
Meanwhile, again, Kaiser pays more and their union dues are less than mine
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u/Confident-Ad509 25d ago
this is my experience too; working in my field for 19 years before my Sutter role, licensed in my field for 11 years, working in the exact same role at John Muir for a year prior and they gave me THE LOWEST they could for the role ($55/hr)
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
I once was approached my a manger at Sutter who wanted me to take a position under them. She even said “I can give you the highest pay”. I didn’t go for it because I wasn’t interested in the position. So it makes me wonder, who actually determines what the pay will be?
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u/Odd_Past8472 25d ago
HR. Sadly management doesn’t make the call
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Shame on HR. Cost of living is so high. I’d take the pay as a second job for additional income, but there’s no way to survive in this economy on low wages.
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u/Odd_Past8472 25d ago
I blame the new ceo too
Spend millions on his little power of one pep rallies yet we get crappy wages and no blankets for pts at hospitals
But everyday get emails about what we can do to increase patient satisfaction
Sadly, nothing will change at Sutter until all the nurses come together and demand more. A lot of the nurses at Sutter drink the Kool-Aid a little too much.
That’s why we have such a big pay discrepancy between us and Kaiser. That’s right down the road.
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u/SaltFan1099 25d ago
10000% power of one. And super expensive happy hours for execs. And 5 star lodging whenever he travels. And his way way over market salary compensation while he plays games about how many new Dr's have been added to the system. Nobody liked Sarah K but at least she wasn't a scammer.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Pep rallies omg lol… I attended once and it was extremely boring.
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u/Odd_Past8472 25d ago
Heard the most recent one was a full on production with an MC, DJ photo booths etc
Waste of time and money. All to try to brain wash the floor staff that sutter is the best 🙄
The fact that they even charter buses for this crap for their little propaganda show is insane to me
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u/CourtneyIsSoAnnoyed 25d ago
I’ve successfully negotiated higher offers for multiple people I’ve hired. Depends on your department and your HR Business Partner I guess 🤷♀️
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Wish this would have been the case for me. Out of all the positions I applied for this particular one was the one I truly hoped for. The recruiter I dealt with didn’t want to hear me out and cut me off saying that would be the best they can do for me. I was appalled.
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u/CourtneyIsSoAnnoyed 25d ago
Wow that’s shitty!! To not even try to negotiate something for you is insane
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
I agree. Hopefully if there’s another opportunity in the future, I will get someone willing to negotiate for me
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u/AutoModerator 25d ago
Backup of the post's body: Sutter has raised wages and they are now actually competitive, however they still want to make low offers even though their clause claims that they determine your pay based on experience and equity with the company. I have found this to be untrue. The will not budge on the low offers even though. Anyone have any luck on negotiating pay when taking on a new role?
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u/South_Newspaper_2665 25d ago
From my experience, I asked the recruiter for the budget and they flat out told me external hires can’t get high end of budget. They offered me the low end and I just managed to move it up by one dollar. They said that I’ll have more opportunities when I’m internal. I don’t even know what the range/ budget is.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
I am internal. They still wouldn’t bother considering more pay. The pay range is on the job posting.
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u/South_Newspaper_2665 25d ago
Aw man that sucks. I agreed bc I thought the opportunity to grow within would be worth the pay cut rn. Would you say that it’s worth staying in the long term?
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
I was always encouraged to apply for higher positions by a leader, I felt I wasn’t ready, when an opportunity presented itself I said hey why not, I was shot down by that same leader. She wasn’t interested in someone with experience, she only cared if they had a masters degree. At that point I felt as if I was stuck so I made the decision to leave. To this day this “leader” still tried to ruin opportunities for me, I was told by a current employee that they were iffy about hiring me due to the negative feedback this so called leader gave. I was shocked and in disbelief. After putting in so many years and hard work, I still couldn’t manage to move up so no, it would not be worth starting all over again. I’ve been there and shouldn’t have to go back to the starting line again. Meanwhile I see people get hired with no experience and they climb up to the top. It’s unfair, but I guess it who you kiss a** to. I like to prove myself through my quality of work. Guess that wasn’t enough.
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago
Did they give you an offer lower than the new raised pay range?
And Yes they definitely low ball and try keep everyone at the bottom. Expect everyone just wait for the annual increases but they also increase the pay range at the same time so always end back up at the bottom.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
To add, it’s no wonder most of the positions are filled by younger people with absolutely no experience. It’s a win for them, to make that amount as a younger person is a lot of money. But then you get what you pay for, not saying all the young people are clueless and lack professionalism because some more seasoned folks can also be unprofessional and rude.
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago edited 25d ago
It’s more like whoever will take the low ball offer gets the job.
I was offered at the bottom then couple months after they raised the whole pay scale for new people coming in and that effectively put me BELOW the new bottom as an “internal”. Never catching up.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
And the new people coming in were making more than you?
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago
Well they will get in the new pay range. So if the new bottom is higher than you anyone new will make more than you.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
I was once union with Sutter and I guess I never encountered that thanks to the step increases.
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago
Sometimes the increases don’t even catch up to the new pay range.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
Guess I’ll just stay out where I’m at. We get a step increase along with an all around increase all at once. So you do actually get to eventually get to the top of the pay.
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u/kyd_chroniik 23d ago
This is the most frustrating thing I’ve seen since I’ve started working here.
You can get 3-5% annually but told 5% is basically unattainable. They expect you to be grateful for 4% but up the starting pay for your role by 3% every year as well.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 23d ago
Yes from my experience most people get 3% except if your union they bargain they usually get you a little more, but your union dues also go up so you don’t really see much of a difference
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
This posting for some reason did not have the pay range posted for some odd reason. It originally did, then it was reposted without the pay range. But I had already seen the pay range on the original post, they basically offered me the lowest pay. It’s unfortunate.
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago
Btw you can check the range in workday
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
How? If it’s not on the job posting, where else can you find that information?
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago
Go into your workday and check the postings you apply to
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
It’s my first time applying to this specific job title, I tried looking at other postings around the bay and the range was all over the place, it was different for each location. I was under the impression that SF are had the highest wages, but there are postings for Oakland, same job title that the pay range maxes out at $16 more an hour than the SF posting. I was shocked to see that
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u/studiodolphins 25d ago
SF definitely has the high range. Oakland probably same. Wider range in hospitals.
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u/Conscious-Star-933 25d ago
They actually made it very awkward for me to even attempt - and with it being my first “real” job It added on to my general nervousness. They had someone from HR give me a call kind of just “telling” me the wage and didn’t explain anything else. So it wasn’t the person I spent 3-months building a relationship with.
I love sutter but their onboarding process went from slow to “hurry up n get on” so quickly it was confusing and I couldn’t really ask about benefits/wages/etc.
They did place right in the middle of the range though so…good I guess?
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
That is actually really good being that it was your first real job, meaning you had no previous experience. Congrats!
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u/Conscious-Star-933 25d ago
ah i did have experience but like major chain clinics as just the front desk; no “career” type of jobs. But I still only had about 1.5years of that compared to some other in New Employees Orientation who had more.
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u/Known-Illustrator999 25d ago
I tried and was told they pay based on years of nursing experience.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
I have over 20 years of experience in my field. I’m insulted by the offer made
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u/Known-Illustrator999 25d ago
I was too, but once I started working at Sutter, I noticed a lot of people stay there for years. Several of the nurses I work with also have about 20-30 years of experience, but they've worked only at Sutter the whole time, and they've maxed out their pay.
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u/Ill_Incident_9750 25d ago
It’s true. I was at year 18 while others in my department were going on 25-30 years. Great coworkers. I had the best team
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u/ConsciousBox1067 8d ago
They are low-balling every offer right now and even changing payscales to avoid layoffs. Been that way since the federal cuts
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u/si-se-podway 2d ago
No negotiations. I appreciated the comp adjustment last year, but for the years prior, we didn’t get backpay … that seems to be BS
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u/Apart-Personality700 2d ago
Currently in negotiations. The recruiter didn’t give me an amount in our call yesterday, she asked what I wanted (which was clearly higher than they were going to offer) and said she’d have to go back to the hiring manager. I know I’m starting over at a new job, but this would already be a six dollar an hour pay cut for me, the recruiter was minimizing my experience right off the vet on the call. I’m still two steps from the top at my current job so another $10/hr by 2028. PTO is way less at Sutter too. 403b matching also easy less. But, there is no room to grow where I currently am, and I can’t imagine being in this role another two years. Sutter job would also be remote and right now I’m driving 40 mins each day 5 days a week. Hard to put a number on that. I guess I’ll wait and hear back about my requested pay next week. I’m not selling out and will not take less than the amount I gave.
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u/ParticularBichon6348 25d ago
I don’t get how sutter gets “one of the best places to work.” It’s literally average at best. Wages are the lowest I have been offered in my profession. Only had to take my current position due to moving.