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Nurse Erica Roberts can see a brand-new hospital from the end of her driveway on the NSW far north coast.
A trip to the Tweed Valley Hospital would be an enviable commute in an area where she's worked on and off for almost 20 years.
But, like many colleagues, the grandmother says she is thousands of dollars better off working in Queensland.
While she occasionally picks up shifts in her local area, she much prefers conditions on the Gold Coast, north of the border, after making the switch last year.
"The wage is a deficit of about $30,000 to $40,000 in New South Wales as opposed to Queensland," Ms Roberts said.
"You get more super ... the conditions are better, your ratios are better."
Cost-of-living prompts some to border jump
The Nurses and Midwives Association in NSW is pushing for a one-off 15 per cent pay rise, after rejecting a state government offer for a 10.5 per cent pay rise over three years.
Ms Roberts can see the new hospital from her house but driving to Queensland is more lucrative. (Supplied: NSW Government)
At the level she was working at in NSW, Ms Roberts said the equivalent pay in Queensland was an extra $4 an hour and she could make greater super contributions.
The disparity is backed up by ABS statistics, which show that the average salary for a registered nurse in Queensland ranges from $79,058 to $106,144.
The average salary in NSW for the same role is between $69,810 and $98,014.
"Every different ward I go to I run into someone from the Tweed, and it's the same story," Ms Roberts said.
"Some of them live right near the new hospital but just financially, you just do so much better in Queensland."
The Nurses and Midwives Association's Tweed branch president Kristin Ryan-Agnew said it had been a trend, particularly with the cost of living crisis.
"It's very, very expensive to live in Kingscliff, so these nurses who are so poorly paid, cannot have paid for rents anyway," she said.
"So they having to move over to Queensland, where they can afford rent and they can get much better pay."
Minister acknowledges worker shortages
Amid the strike action in NSW on Tuesday Health Minister Ryan Park acknowledged the wage gap between states.
Negotiations between the government and the union continue. (AAP: Jane Dempster )
He said the gap was caused by the former Coalition government's 2.5 per cent wages cap for public sector workers.
"It's why the Treasurer and Premier removed the cap last year, provided that largest ever increase in over a decade," Mr Park said.
"It's why we offered 10.5 per cent over three years."
"We acknowledge that, but what we simply can't do is do an offer of 15 per cent [wage increase] in a single year."
He acknowledged there were health worker shortages across the country and said negotiations with the union would continue.
Previously, the Minns government said it could not afford to meet the union's demands, arguing it could lead to other emergency workers demanding better pay conditions as well.