I get depressed about pay and little ability to improve my salary without working a second job or continuing on to more education and a NP type role. I'm 16 years into my bachelor's degree nursing career and make $85,000/yr plus an end of year bonus that isn't guaranteed but has taken me to $90,000 the last 2 years. That's good nursing pay for Florida for nurses not in an upper management/DON type role. My IT husband also has a bachelor's and is 16.5 years into his career and made $170,000 last year alao not in an upper management type role. We have a young child, I can't take off and travel. I have no interest in a DON role (been there, done that, that extra $10,000ish a year is not worth the extra time required or constant headache). So this is literally the best it's going to get for me. I wish I'd picked a different career path.