PORT ANGELES — Nearly 200 Olympic Medical Center nurses will get 13 percent in salary increases during the next three years.
On Monday, Olympic Memorial Hospital district commissioners unanimously approved a new three-year contract with Service Employees International Union 1199 Northwest, the union representing both registered and licensed practical nurses.
There was no discussion by the commissioners as they approved the contract, which calls for an immediate 5 percent increase in salary increases for nurses and another 8 percent within the next two years.
Hospital officials and union representatives said previously that the increases will help keep nursing wages on par with annual salaries which average nearly $48,000 statewide.
Under the contract, beginning full-time nurses working next year at Olympic Medical Center — Olympic Memorial Hospital and its related facilities — will earn an hourly base wage of $19.71, or about $41,000 next year.
The top of the pay scale for nurses is a base wage of $32.85 an hour, or $68,377 next year.
The rest of this story appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.