Negotiating Your LVN Salary After a Job Offer

How to Evaluate the True Value of an Employment Offer

You’ve been offered a position as a Licensed Vocational Nurse!! Congratulations! The next step will be to begin discussing the details of the employment offer. A BIG part of this discussion will be the LVN salary associated with the job. As we noted in a previous article, the interview process is not the time to discuss potential pay for the position for which you’re interviewing. However, once you’ve been extended employment, then there are a few questions which you can ask relating to pay and other benefits.

Evaluating the Overall Benefits Package

During the follow-up discussions after you interview for the LVN position, you need to be very clear about what’s on the table. It never hurts to verify with the hiring manager whether or not you’re being presented with an exclusive employment offer. It doesn’t need to be awkward, but you can always ask if the employer is presenting you with a firm job offer.

As with most health care employment opportunities, individuals working as LVNs will very often receive generous benefits which can include health and dental plans, as well as retirement funding opportunities. Through asking the employer about these additional employment benefits, you can put a dollar number on these perks which will effectively increase the overall attractiveness of the job offer.

Determining if the Vocational Nurse Salary is Negotiable

Once you’ve verified that you are being offered a nursing position with the hiring manager, you will begin to discuss compensation details. At this point, you can and should feel free to ask if the LVN salary on the table is negotiable. If the answer is yes, then you can move on the further negotiations. If the answer happens to be no, then you can begin to review further employment and benefit details to determine if these factors will weight into your decision to take the offer.

Are There Other Forms of Compensation?

While not extremely common for vocational nursing positions, a growing number of small assisted living facilities are offering profit sharing and other forms of performance-driven compensation. During your discussions, be sure to ask whether or not there are additional opportunities for income beyond the base pay as a Licensed Vocational Nurse.

Performance Evaluation and Merit-Based Increases

Another important topic to discuss is the healthcare facility’s process for evaluating employee performance. You will also want to find out at what intervals these evaluations will happen. Often there will be pay increases after performance evaluations. It’s always a good idea to find out if this will be the case and when you might expect these evaluations to take place.

Can My Nursing School Help Me Find a Job?

Most accredited nursing schools will hold recruitment events where you'll get the chance to meet potential employers. Most of the larger hospitals will send representatives to these events.

Most LVN programs also offer employment assistance, which may include job fairs, introductions to local hospital administrators, and interview advice.