Registered nurse salary: what RNs earn by state and work setting

Registered nurses in the US earned a median of $97,550 a year in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the middle of the pay range is only part of the story. This guide is for nurses, nursing students and career changers who want to know where an RN paycheck can realistically land, which settings and states pay the most, and how to check the number for your own area before you sign an offer.

All figures below come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for May 2025, which BLS published on May 15, 2026. That is the newest OEWS data available as of this writing.

Quick reference: RN pay, May 2025

What registered nurses earn nationally

Start with two numbers: the median and the mean.

The median is the middle paycheck. Line up every RN in the country from lowest paid to highest paid, and the median is the person standing in the middle: half earn more, half earn less. For May 2025 that was $97,550 a year, or $46.90 an hour.

The mean is the plain average: add up every RN's pay and divide by the number of RNs. The May 2025 OEWS release puts it at $101,420 a year, or $48.76 an hour.

Why is the average higher than the middle? Because a smaller group of very well-paid nurses, many of them in high-wage states such as California, pulls the average up more than lower earners pull it down. When you are benchmarking an offer, the median is usually the fairer yardstick, because it is not stretched by the top end.

RN pay also sits well above the typical US job. The mean wage across all occupations in May 2025 was $69,770, and BLS noted that registered nurses were one of only two of the 10 largest occupations with above-average wages.

The pay range from the 10th to the 90th percentile

A percentile tells you what share of workers earn less than a given amount. If the 25th percentile is $80,330, a quarter of RNs earned less than that and three quarters earned more. The 10th and 90th percentiles mark the bottom and top of the "normal" range: roughly where new grads in low-wage areas start, and where experienced nurses in high-wage markets end up.

Sources: annual 10th, median and 90th from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook; quartiles and hourly percentiles from O*NET OnLine's local wage table, which republishes the 2025 BLS data.

Two things stand out. First, the 90th percentile is roughly double the 10th, so "what RNs make" really depends on where you sit in that spread. Second, the middle half of nurses (25th to 75th percentile) earned between $80,330 and $112,350. That band is a realistic reference zone for most staff nurse jobs, before you adjust for location.

Example: a new grad offered a salary near the 25th percentile nationally is not being lowballed by default. But an experienced nurse with a specialty certification getting the same offer in a high-wage metro has good reason to push back, using local figures rather than national ones.

Base pay vs total pay: what the BLS number leaves out

This is the part most salary articles skip, and it matters a lot for nurses.

OEWS measures straight-time, gross pay. According to the technical note in the BLS release, it includes base rate, cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay and incentive pay. It excludes overtime pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, the employer's cost of benefits and tuition reimbursement.

For RNs, those exclusions are big:

• Shift differentials. Extra pay per hour for nights, evenings, weekends and holidays. Hospitals and nursing homes staff around the clock, so many RNs work these shifts. The amounts are set by each employer or union contract, and OEWS does not report them.
• Overtime. Extra shifts and hours worked past the overtime threshold are not in the BLS figure.
• Sign-on and retention bonuses. These count as nonproduction bonuses and are left out.
• On-call and call-back pay. BLS notes that hospital nurses may be on call. How that time is paid varies by employer and contract.
• Benefits and tuition help. Retirement contributions, health coverage and tuition reimbursement (which BLS says some employers offer for RN-to-BSN study) are real value that never shows up in the wage figure.

Union contracts. Where nurses are unionized, the contract usually sets base pay steps, differentials and overtime rules. These differ from one employer and contract to the next, and OEWS does not break out union versus non-union pay. If you are weighing a union job, ask for the current contract's wage scale.

The practical takeaway: two nurses with the same base rate can take home very different annual pay. When you compare offers, compare the full package, not just the hourly rate.

Pay by work setting

Where you work changes your pay as much as what you do. Here are the May 2025 medians for the largest RN employers, with each sector's share of RN jobs.

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Registered Nurses, based on OEWS May 2025.

What sits behind these numbers:

• Hospitals employ most RNs. The OEWS release says general medical and surgical hospitals alone accounted for 56 percent of RN employment, or about 1.9 million jobs. Hospital pay is near the national median, and hospital jobs are where shift differentials and overtime most often add to base pay.
• Ambulatory care covers physicians' offices, home health and outpatient centers. After hospitals, the largest RN employers were offices of physicians (232,420 jobs) and home health care services (198,180). The median here is lower, but BLS notes that offices and other settings without 24-hour care are more likely to run regular business hours. For many nurses, that schedule is worth the trade.
• Nursing and residential care pays a lower median than hospitals.
• Government has the highest median in the table. This group covers government employers other than public hospitals and schools.
• Educational services, mainly school and college nurses, has the lowest median. One likely factor: many school jobs follow the academic calendar, and OEWS records annual salaries for workers paid that way, so the figure can reflect a shorter work year.

Highest- and lowest-paying states and metro areas

State is the single biggest lever on RN pay. BLS's May 2025 release says the annual mean wage for registered nurses ranged from about $77,000 in Alabama and South Dakota to $150,280 in California. That is nearly a two-to-one gap for the same license.

Sources: state means from the BLS OEWS May 2025 release; Massachusetts and metro medians from O*NET OnLine's Massachusetts wage table, using 2025 BLS data. Note that the California, Alabama and South Dakota figures are means, while the Massachusetts rows are medians, so compare them with care.

The Massachusetts rows show something useful: pay varies inside a state too. The state's 90th percentile was $174,510, and in the Boston metro it reached $188,670, far above the national 90th percentile. Smaller metros in the same state sit much closer to the national median.

Weighing pay against cost of living. A higher salary in an expensive metro does not always mean more money left over. Before you relocate for pay, compare housing costs and taxes for the specific cities you are considering. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities, which compare price levels across states and metro areas, and are a reasonable starting point. You can also explore more city comparisons on our salaries by city page.

Example: a nurse weighing a job in a high-wage coastal metro against one in a lower-wage state should compare the local median for RNs in each place, then subtract the gap in rent or mortgage costs. If the pay gap is bigger than the cost gap, the move likely pays off.

What moves RN pay up: specialty, certification, shifts and overtime

OEWS does not publish RN pay by specialty, degree or certification, so be skeptical of any site claiming precise BLS figures for "ICU nurse salary" or "BSN vs ADN pay." What the data and BLS guidance do support:

• Setting. Moving from a nursing home or school to a hospital or government job is associated with a higher median, as the setting table shows.
• Location. Changing state or metro moves the needle more than almost anything else.
• Shifts. Nights and weekends usually carry differentials. They are not in the BLS figure, but they can add meaningfully to annual earnings at employers that pay them.
• Overtime and extra shifts. Again excluded from OEWS, and very employer-specific.
• Certification. BLS says nurses can earn voluntary certifications in areas such as ambulatory care, gerontology or pediatrics, and that some employers require them. Some employers pay a certification bonus or differential; ask.
• Education and advancement. BLS notes that hospitals in particular may require a bachelor's degree, and that management roles increasingly call for a graduate degree. The path runs from staff nurse to charge nurse or assistant manager, then director of nursing and beyond.

APRNs are a separate occupation

Nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives are advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). BLS counts them as separate occupations with their own wage data, so their pay is not included in the RN figures above.

How RN pay compares with related roles

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Similar Occupations.

The OEWS release also lists May 2025 mean wages for the APRN roles separately: nurse practitioners $137,300, nurse midwives $136,980 and nurse anesthetists $248,320. Nurse anesthetists were the highest-paid occupation in the healthcare practitioner group outside physicians, surgeons and dentists.

Hourly vs annual figures and how to compare them

BLS converts hourly wages to annual figures by assuming a 2,080-hour work year, which is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. That is why $46.90 an hour lines up with $97,550 a year.

Many RNs do not work 40 hours. A common hospital schedule is three 12-hour shifts, or 36 hours a week. Do your own math:

• Formula: hourly rate × hours per week × 52 = annual base pay.
• Example math: at the national median of $46.90, a 36-hour week works out to about $87,800 a year in base pay, not $97,550.
• Then add your expected shift differentials and any regular overtime separately.

When you compare a salaried job (common in schools, clinics and management) with an hourly hospital job, convert both to the same basis. Also check whether the salaried role works a full year or a school year.

Negotiating your RN pay

Nursing pay often looks fixed, especially with step scales. There is usually more room than it seems, particularly on where you are placed on the scale.

• Anchor to local data. Use your metro's percentiles, not the national median.
• Ask about step placement. If the employer uses a pay scale, ask how prior experience and certifications are credited.
• Negotiate the extras. Differentials, sign-on bonuses, tuition help and certification pay may be easier to move than base pay.

Scripts you could use:

"Thanks for the offer. Based on BLS data for this metro and my four years of med-surg experience, I was expecting to be placed higher on your scale. Can you walk me through how you credit prior experience?"

"I'm excited about the role. Before I accept, could you share the night and weekend differentials and how overtime is scheduled? I want to compare total pay, not just the base rate."

Pay transparency rules in a growing number of states and cities require employers to post pay ranges, which helps you see a hospital's range before you apply. Check your state labor department for the rules where you live, and see our negotiation and pay trends pages for more.

On the demand side, BLS projects RN employment to grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 180,800 openings a year on average. Steady demand gives you a reason to negotiate, though it never guarantees a specific outcome.

How to look up RN pay for your area

1. Go to the BLS OEWS May 2025 occupation list and click "Registered Nurses" (29-1141) to open the profile, which has tables by industry, state and metro area.
2. For a quick state or metro view with percentiles, use O*NET OnLine's local wages tool and pick your state from the menu.
3. For all occupations in one state, use the BLS state estimates page.
4. Note which measure you are reading (mean or median) and the data period.
5. Compare the local 25th, median and 75th percentile with your offer, then add differentials and overtime the employer describes.

Keep in mind that BLS builds these estimates from survey data collected over three years, so small metros can have wide ranges or missing figures. When the local data is thin, use the state figures as your guide.

What to do next

Look up the median and percentiles for your metro, not just the national figure. Then ask any employer you are talking to for the full pay picture: base rate, step placement, differentials, overtime rules and bonuses. Put those side by side, convert everything to the same weekly hours, and negotiate from the local numbers. For more role-by-role pay data, browse salaries by role.