Nurse Pay Index
What nursing actually pays.
Built from 4,980 live postings that state pay — not last year’s survey averages. Updated July 22, 2026.
Compare two states
Posted-pay percentiles, same dollar scale.
California: median $115,000/yr ($49/hr) across 686 priced postings · Texas: median $87,500/yr ($36/hr) across 520.
Every state, ranked by posted median
| # | State | Median | Middle half | vs national | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oregon | $127,475 | $105k–$137k | +28% | 58 |
| 2 | Hawaii | $116,922 | $93k–$129k | +18% | 27 |
| 3 | California | $115,000 | $96k–$140k | +16% | 686 |
| 4 | Washington | $110,500 | $96k–$125k | +11% | 240 |
| 5 | Nebraska | $110,320 | $84k–$119k | +11% | 21 |
| 6 | District of Columbia | $110,240 | $94k–$121k | +11% | 18 |
| 7 | Vermont | $109,047 | $96k–$115k | +10% | 7 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | $106,600 | $92k–$123k | +7% | 108 |
| 9 | Florida | $106,450 | $85k–$121k | +7% | 224 |
| 10 | Alaska | $106,262 | $97k–$122k | +7% | 14 |
| 11 | Mississippi | $105,000 | $87k–$110k | +6% | 9 |
| 12 | New York | $104,000 | $89k–$125k | +5% | 296 |
| 13 | Tennessee | $103,859 | $90k–$121k | +5% | 81 |
| 14 | Minnesota | $101,910 | $94k–$113k | +3% | 133 |
| 15 | Connecticut | $101,764 | $100k–$114k | +2% | 20 |
| 16 | New Hampshire | $100,750 | $84k–$118k | +1% | 32 |
| 17 | Nevada | $100,000 | $82k–$133k | +1% | 21 |
| 18 | Idaho | $100,000 | $84k–$112k | +1% | 15 |
| 19 | South Carolina | $99,918 | $84k–$112k | +1% | 41 |
| 20 | Maryland | $99,840 | $87k–$116k | +1% | 83 |
| 21 | Montana | $99,486 | $74k–$118k | 0% | 19 |
| 22 | Rhode Island | $99,372 | $90k–$111k | 0% | 11 |
| 23 | Georgia | $98,842 | $87k–$109k | 0% | 78 |
| 24 | New Jersey | $98,800 | $85k–$115k | -1% | 101 |
| 25 | Delaware | $98,800 | $85k–$112k | -1% | 21 |
| 26 | West Virginia | $98,652 | $83k–$114k | -1% | 14 |
| 27 | Kansas | $98,337 | $76k–$119k | -1% | 48 |
| 28 | Oklahoma | $98,293 | $79k–$117k | -1% | 34 |
| 29 | Kentucky | $97,530 | $71k–$113k | -2% | 18 |
| 30 | Louisiana | $97,400 | $84k–$115k | -2% | 50 |
| 31 | North Carolina | $97,357 | $86k–$103k | -2% | 144 |
| 32 | New Mexico | $96,970 | $97k–$110k | -2% | 163 |
| 33 | Virginia | $96,486 | $84k–$108k | -3% | 98 |
| 34 | Arizona | $95,597 | $80k–$113k | -4% | 246 |
| 35 | Ohio | $94,744 | $78k–$106k | -5% | 96 |
| 36 | Missouri | $93,894 | $70k–$106k | -5% | 52 |
| 37 | Colorado | $93,600 | $82k–$108k | -6% | 213 |
| 38 | Iowa | $93,600 | $72k–$103k | -6% | 42 |
| 39 | Alabama | $92,040 | $76k–$100k | -7% | 21 |
| 40 | Illinois | $91,520 | $82k–$107k | -8% | 222 |
| 41 | South Dakota | $91,520 | $83k–$142k | -8% | 18 |
| 42 | Pennsylvania | $90,701 | $59k–$114k | -9% | 110 |
| 43 | Arkansas | $90,683 | $59k–$100k | -9% | 20 |
| 44 | Maine | $89,783 | $82k–$119k | -10% | 26 |
| 45 | Wisconsin | $89,440 | $74k–$116k | -10% | 92 |
| 46 | Indiana | $88,930 | $77k–$107k | -10% | 51 |
| 47 | Texas | $87,500 | $75k–$107k | -12% | 520 |
| 48 | Wyoming | $86,840 | $80k–$97k | -13% | 8 |
| 49 | Michigan | $85,556 | $78k–$100k | -14% | 60 |
| 50 | North Dakota | $85,280 | $83k–$107k | -14% | 36 |
| 51 | Utah | $76,960 | $76k–$84k | -23% | 24 |
Highest-paying specialties right now
All specialties ranked →- #1Nurse Practitioner255 postings$133k
- #2Cardiac200 postings$113k
- #3General588 postings$104k
- #4ICU696 postings$103k
- #5Acute Care211 postings$102k
- #6Medical/Surgical246 postings$99k
- #7Home Health431 postings$93k
- #8Hospitals and Health Care198 postings$90k
- #9Pediatric304 postings$84k
- #10Geriatric264 postings$83k
What are you actually being paid?
30 seconds, fully anonymous — no name, no email. Your report joins the community-reported series (always labeled nurse-reported) so nurses can compare real experiences with what employers post.
What to do with this
- See the rolesJobs in your state paying around $99,320Every posting behind these numbers is a live job you can open and apply to.
- Offer in hand?Run it through the offer reality calculatorAnnualize it honestly and see what it's worth where you'd actually live — then compare offers side by side.
- 3-minute fit quizFind out which roles actually fit youPay is one axis. Shift, specialty, setting, and commute decide whether the job is worth it.
- CommunityAsk nurses what they really take homeDifferentials, ratios, and the offer nobody posts. Bring your number and compare notes.
Want the craft behind the numbers — differentials, negotiating, travel packages? Read the pay & salary guides.
How the Pay Index works
Midpoint of stated salary ranges on live nursing job postings; values outside $20,000–$800,000/yr treated as parse artifacts and excluded; groups under 5 postings suppressed. Community-reported figures are anonymous, unverified, and reported separately.
Posted offers are what employers advertise — a useful market read, but not take-home pay or a promise of what any individual will earn. Community reports are anonymous and nurse-reported, and are always shown as their own series.
Questions nurses ask
- How much do nurses make right now?
- Across 4,980 live nursing job postings that state pay, the median posted offer is $99,320 a year (median hourly postings run $40/hr). The middle half of postings runs $83,200–$118,394, and the top 10% start at $140,400.
- How is the Nurse Pay Index different from BLS salary data?
- BLS wage figures are survey averages published months after the fact. The Pay Index reads what employers are offering on live job postings today — posted offers, refreshed continuously, with implausible figures excluded and small samples suppressed. Both are useful; only one tells you what the market is paying this week.
- Which states pay nurses the most?
- By posted median right now: #1 Oregon ($127,475), #2 Hawaii ($116,922), #3 California ($115,000). Rankings move as postings change — this page updates continuously.
- Can I add my own pay?
- Yes — anonymously, in about 30 seconds, no account needed. Nurse-reported pay appears in its own clearly labeled series next to posted offers and is never mixed into the employer-posted numbers.