Nurse Salaries in the US: A 2026 State-by-State Index

Written By William Lewis

Nowhere is the "it depends where you work" answer more true than nursing pay in the United States.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' own data shows a gap of more than $90,000 a year between the highest- and lowest-paying states for the exact same registered nurse credential — a spread wide enough that a nurse's zip code often matters more to their paycheck than their years of experience.

Below is a full state-by-state index of registered nurse pay, followed by a breakdown by nursing role and specialty, all built on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data as reported through 2026. A short commentary at the end explains how to actually use these numbers.

A note on the figures: all state numbers below are median annual salaries for staff registered nurses, as reported through BLS OEWS. "Median" means half of RNs in that state earn more, half earn less — it's a better real-world benchmark than a mean average, which can be skewed upward by a small number of very high earners. These are gross salaries before tax; the "state tax" column shows each state's top marginal state income tax rate as a quick reference, since take-home pay can shift the ranking meaningfully (more on that below).

Registered Nurse Salary by State — All 50 States

Format below: Rank. State — Annual Median | Hourly | vs. National Avg | Top State Tax Rate

  1. Hawaii — $152,100 | $73.12/hr | +96% | 11.0%

  2. California — $117,200 | $56.35/hr | +51% | 13.3%

  3. New York — $107,850 | $51.85/hr | +39% | 10.9%

  4. Connecticut — $105,550 | $50.75/hr | +36% | 6.99%

  5. Massachusetts — $104,750 | $50.36/hr | +35% | 5.0%

  6. Alaska — $100,900 | $48.51/hr | +30% | No tax

  7. New Jersey — $99,350 | $47.76/hr | +28% | 10.75%

  8. Washington — $93,100 | $44.76/hr | +20% | No tax

  9. Maryland — $91,550 | $44.01/hr | +18% | 5.75%

  10. New Hampshire — $90,000 | $43.27/hr | +16% | No tax

  11. Rhode Island — $87,700 | $42.16/hr | +13% | 5.99%

  12. Delaware — $86,900 | $41.78/hr | +12% | 6.6%

  13. Oregon — $84,600 | $40.67/hr | +9% | 9.9%

  14. Illinois — $83,800 | $40.29/hr | +8% | 4.95%

  15. Colorado — $81,500 | $39.18/hr | +5% | 4.4%

  16. Minnesota — $80,700 | $38.80/hr | +4% | 9.85%

  17. Vermont — $80,700 | $38.80/hr | +4% | 8.75%

  18. Nevada — $79,950 | $38.44/hr | +3% | No tax

  19. Pennsylvania — $79,150 | $38.05/hr | +2% | 3.07%

  20. Maine — $77,600 | $37.31/hr | 0% | 7.15%

  21. Virginia — $77,600 | $37.31/hr | 0% | 5.75%

  22. Florida — $76,050 | $36.56/hr | -2% | No tax

  23. Arizona — $74,500 | $35.82/hr | -4% | 2.5%

  24. Michigan — $74,500 | $35.82/hr | -4% | 4.25%

  25. Wisconsin — $73,700 | $35.43/hr | -5% | 7.65%

  26. Texas — $72,950 | $35.07/hr | -6% | No tax

  27. Utah — $72,150 | $34.69/hr | -7% | 4.65%

  28. Ohio — $71,400 | $34.33/hr | -8% | 3.75%

  29. Indiana — $70,600 | $33.94/hr | -9% | 3.15%

  30. North Carolina — $70,600 | $33.94/hr | -9% | 4.5%

  31. Georgia — $69,850 | $33.58/hr | -10% | 5.49%

  32. Iowa — $69,050 | $33.20/hr | -11% | 6.0%

  33. Montana — $69,050 | $33.20/hr | -11% | 6.75%

  34. North Dakota — $69,050 | $33.20/hr | -11% | 2.5%

  35. Idaho — $68,300 | $32.84/hr | -12% | 5.8%

  36. Kansas — $68,300 | $32.84/hr | -12% | 5.7%

  37. Louisiana — $68,300 | $32.84/hr | -12% | 4.25%

  38. Missouri — $68,300 | $32.84/hr | -12% | 4.8%

  39. Nebraska — $68,300 | $32.84/hr | -12% | 5.84%

  40. Tennessee — $68,300 | $32.84/hr | -12% | No tax

  41. Alabama — $67,500 | $32.45/hr | -13% | 5.0%

  42. New Mexico — $66,750 | $32.09/hr | -14% | 5.9%

  43. South Carolina — $66,750 | $32.09/hr | -14% | 6.4%

  44. Wyoming — $66,750 | $32.09/hr | -14% | No tax

  45. Kentucky — $65,200 | $31.35/hr | -16% | 4.0%

  46. Oklahoma — $65,200 | $31.35/hr | -16% | 4.75%

  47. South Dakota — $65,200 | $31.35/hr | -16% | No tax

  48. West Virginia — $64,400 | $30.96/hr | -17% | 6.5%

  49. Arkansas — $63,650 | $30.60/hr | -18% | 4.4%

  50. Mississippi — $60,550 | $29.11/hr | -22% | 5.0%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), as compiled and reported through 2026. Figures are median annual wages; some third-party salary aggregators report mean (average) figures instead, which run higher — the BLS national mean RN salary is reported at approximately $98,430, compared to the median of roughly $93,600–$97,550.

Salary by Nursing Role and Specialty

Beyond geography, the single biggest driver of nursing pay is which rung of the nursing career ladder a person is on. Here's how the major roles compare nationally:

  • Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) — approximately $248,320 average annual salary ($119.38/hour), the highest-paid nursing role by a wide margin, and now requiring a doctoral degree (DNP or DNAP) for entry into the profession

  • Nurse Practitioner (NP) — median of approximately $129,210 per year (~$62/hour), with psychiatric and neonatal NP specialties trending toward the top of that range

  • Nurse Educator — approximately $86,410 per year nationally

  • Registered Nurse (RN) — national median of roughly $93,600–$97,550, national mean of approximately $98,430–$101,420

  • Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurse (LPN/LVN) — median of approximately $62,340 per year (~$30/hour)

  • Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) — median of approximately $39,610 per year (~$19/hour)

Within the RN category specifically, the spread by experience and setting is substantial: the lowest-paid 10 percent of RNs earn roughly $66,000 annually, while the highest-paid 10 percent earn upward of $135,000 — before accounting for the state-level variance shown in the table above, which can push that ceiling considerably higher in states like Hawaii or California.

Reading This Data the Right Way

A handful of patterns are worth pulling out, because the state rankings alone don't tell the full story.

The West Coast and Northeast dominate — and it's not a coincidence. Hawaii, California, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Washington fill out six of the top eight spots. These are consistently high-cost-of-living states with strong hospital union representation, dense urban healthcare systems, and historically tight nursing labor markets — all factors that push wages upward together rather than independently.

Higher pay doesn't always mean higher purchasing power. Hawaii's $152,100 median looks extraordinary next to Mississippi's $60,550, but Hawaii is also one of the most expensive places in the country to actually live. Meanwhile, several no-income-tax states — Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, and Wyoming among them — post solidly mid-pack gross salaries that convert into meaningfully better take-home pay than a state tax comparison alone would suggest. A nurse comparing offers across states should run the after-tax, cost-of-living-adjusted math before assuming the higher sticker price wins.

Specialty and advanced credentials move the needle more than almost anything else. The jump from RN to nurse practitioner roughly adds $30,000 to $35,000 to the median salary nationally. The jump to CRNA — now a doctoral-entry specialty — pushes average pay past $248,000, more than double what even a nurse practitioner earns. For nurses weighing further education against years of additional staff-nurse experience, the numbers make a clear case for how much advanced credentialing alone is worth in the U.S. market.

The South and parts of the Midwest and Mountain West anchor the bottom of the table. Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kentucky all sit at or near the bottom, generally reflecting a combination of lower regional cost of living, less unionized hospital labor, and historically looser nursing labor markets in those states — though several of these same states are now actively expanding recruitment incentives and loan-forgiveness programs specifically because of persistent rural nursing shortages.

These are staff-nurse figures — travel and agency pay operates on a different scale entirely. None of the numbers above reflect travel nursing or per-diem agency rates, which can run substantially higher than staff salaries during periods of acute shortage, in exchange for less job security, no long-term benefits, and frequent relocation. A nurse deciding between a stable staff position and travel work is, in effect, choosing between two different pay structures entirely, not just two different numbers on the same scale.

The national median actually understates the real spread nurses experience. A single "national average RN salary" headline flattens a market where the best-paying state pays nearly 2.5 times what the lowest-paying state pays for the same license and the same core job. For any nurse genuinely weighing a relocation, the state-by-state table is a far more useful starting point than any single national figure — and it's exactly the kind of gap that makes state-to-state nurse migration, not just international migration, a meaningful part of the U.S. nursing labor market.

Sources

William Lewis
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