Canadian nursing salary statistics can be hard to come by
. Some sites such as Payscale give estimates but they are based upon very small sample sizes (the number of people asked is too small to get a definitive answer). Still, a few unions such as CUPE have collected wage averages from their members.
2010 Winter Olympic host province British Columbia pays RN (Registered Nurses) an average starting nurse salary of $50,500. A few provincial doors over, Saskatchewan starts new employees off at $52,500. As one would expect, the base starting pay is a large portion but not the entire story for the overall income that one can expect.
Paid vacation in these two provinces start at three to four weeks and can grow to upwards of six to eight weeks depending on length of employment (years on the job). Other portions of an RN's income is full benefits and generous retirement benefits.
Overtime typically beings at double time instead of the standard time and a half that most other occupations begin with. Overtime can even reach triple times and greater depending once again on the length of employment. The majority of RN contracts begin to pay OT after 36-40 hours of weekly work.
As we can see becoming an RN can become a financially rewarding career. With the current and continuing baby boomer demographical shift, along with greater life spans, demand for nurses will remain high for the foreseeable future. is Courses at Universities across Canada are four years in length and represent a great return on investment.