Editor’s note: This post, originally published in January 2017, was updated with new information. You also can download our 2018 Nurse.com Nursing Salary Research Report for more current salary information.
In nursing, salaries increased on average about 1.3% per year from 2008 to the middle of 2014, and since then the rate has gone up 2.6% per year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The increase in the last two years coincides with a rise in the demand for hospital services, said Peter McMenamin, PhD, a senior policy adviser for the American Nurses Association. As baby boomers are aging and more people have access to healthcare due to federal insurance reform, the need for healthcare services will continue to increase through 2024, according to the BLS. These are some of the reasons the BLS is projecting the nursing employment rate will grow 16% from 2014 to 2024 — much faster than the average for all occupations.
“There are more opportunities than ever for nurses right now,” said Mary Jane Randazzo, MSN, RN, a nurse recruiter at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia. “Hospitals are creating roles for nurses in areas such as transplant coordination, urgent care, ambulatory care, clinical documentation and care coordination.”
The BLS also predicts the financial pressures on hospitals to discharge patients quickly will result in more admissions to long-term care facilities, outpatient care centers and home healthcare. “I’m seeing significant growth in home health, case management, hospice, palliative care and health plan assessment nursing positions,” said Mary S. McCarthy, RN, assistant vice president of human resources at MJHS in New York.
Salaries by the numbers
According to a recent report from Medscape, the average gross salary of an RN in 2015 was $79,000, compared with $95,000 for a clinical nurse specialist and $102,000 for a nurse practitioner. The specific averages vary depending on geographic region, and the report showed that RNs in California earned the highest annual salary with an average of $105,000, followed by the Northeast at $87,000. RNs who live in the Southeast and North Central region earn the lowest annual salaries at $74,000 and $69,000 respectively. Although the salaries are higher in California and the Northeast, the cost of living in these regions is the highest in the country, according to 2016 data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. The two states with higher paying nursing jobs combined with a lower cost of living are Michigan and Idaho, according to data from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
According to the BLS, nursing jobs within outpatient care centers command the highest median annual wages, followed by general medical and surgical hospitals, then home healthcare services, offices of physicians and skilled nursing facilities. Certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse researchers, mental health nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives are the four specialties with the highest salaries, according to NurseJournal.org.
In the academic arena, faculty salaries increased about 8% between 2011 and 2015, according to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. In 2015 the mean full-time salary of an assistant professor in the U.S. was $70,000; an associate professor was $83,000 and a professor was $108,000, according to the AACN.
The Medscape report also showed how pay increases were correlated to educational levels. Nurses who completed an RN diploma or associate’s degree program earned an average of $73,000 per year, while BSN nurses earned $79,000. Nurses who had earned a master’s degree averaged $87,000 per year, and those with a doctoral degree earned about $96,000 per year.
“Jobs are not lifetime jobs anymore. There is a lot of movement and you do not need to leave the company to do this.”
How to be a savvy applicant
Although salary is important when applying for a new job, Randazzo encourages nurses to find the right time to ask about the numbers. “Don’t ask before the interview,” she said. “Ask during an interview, or when you are offered the position.”
At her hospital, recruiters facilitate open communication about this topic by meeting with applicants to discuss salary and benefits before the interview with the hiring manager. “While applicants want to know about salary, I find that they are often even more interested in opportunities for growth and development, such as tuition reimbursement, mentorship opportunities, nurse residency programs and the culture of the work environment,” she said.
According to the Medscape report, 69% of advanced practice nurses and 49% of RNs received an education allowance or tuition reimbursement in 2015. Nearly 40% of APRNs and 55% of RNs received certification fee reimbursement that year. Mary Bylone, MSM, RN, CNML, past board member of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, believes learning about the work environment is just as important as gathering salary information. She suggests nurses ask to shadow someone on the unit to get a sense of the work atmosphere. “Money is a piece of it, but it does not keep us in a position,” she said.
For nurses who are moving to a new state, McCarthy suggests calling recruiters to gather information. “If a new graduate called from out of state and we didn’t have any positions available, I would share which organizations in the area are hiring new graduates,” she said.
Workforce of the future
As analysts like McMenamin look ahead, one of the salient demands in the future will most likely be for highly experienced nurses, he said. According to the BLS, nearly 700,000 nurses are expected to retire between 2014 and 2024. While there has been a surge of new graduates entering the workforce, there will not be enough highly experienced nurses in their 40s and 50s to step into the roles of retiring nurses, he said.
“There may be bidding wars for these nurses, and the wages for more senior nurses could increase while very experienced nurses remain in short supply,” McMenamin said.
One specialty that is projected to significantly increase is advanced practice nursing, according to the BLS. Employment in this specialty will increase 30% from 2014 to 2024 as these nurses provide primary and preventive care to meet the demands of caring for newly insured and aging baby boomers.
Randazzo and McCarthy also see many nurses transition to new jobs within nursing, and they expect that trend to continue. Randazzo, for example, started as a staff nurse at Jefferson Health 34 years ago, then later moved into roles as a nurse manager, pool coordinator and now a recruiter. “Jobs are not lifetime jobs anymore,” McCarthy said. “There is a lot of movement, and you do not have to leave the company to do this. I see a significant amount of internal movement. There are many different fields within nursing, and you can spend an entire career in nursing and barely touch a fraction of what is available.”
Key points to keep in mind:
- Since 2014, nursing salaries have increased by 2.6% per year.
- Because baby boomers are aging and more people have access to healthcare due to federal insurance reform, the need for healthcare services will continue to increase through 2024.
- Nursing jobs within outpatient care centers command the highest median annual wages.
- The average gross salary of an RN in 2015 was $79,000, compared with $95,000 for a clinical nurse specialist and $102,000.
- Nurses who are job hunting, should find the right time to ask about the wages.
- According to the BLS, nearly 700,000 nurses are expected to retire between 2014 and 2024.
- Employment in advanced practice nursing is expected to increase 30% from 2014 to 2024 as these nurses provide primary and preventive care.
Download our 2018 Nurse.com Nursing Salary Research Report today!
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I love this, is it for all or specific country, I’m a nurse in Kenya and interested to work there.
Hello Mercy,
The information in the article is specific to the United States. Best wishes!
Numbers might be specific for US, but don’t even believe most earn anything close to that. This might reflect an “average” but I believe you will find it far, far from normal. This is the type propaganda that entices people to get a nursing degree and then experience the reality of a excessively stressful field full of burned out and bitter nurses. Personally, I cannot recommend the field to anyone.
I wish we saw this where I work. Our salaries aren’t even close to $79,000, and BSN nurses don’t make more money than ADN nurses…all the same!!
LPNs and RNs are not in the same category. LPNs should be phased out, and are dragging the nursing profession down due to their lack of education. You cannot join the ANA as an LPN for good reason, and even ADNs are slowly being phased out as the requirement to advance to a BSN level is quickly becoming the standard. Get rid of the LPN!
LPNs are not being phased out long term care cannot exit with out them!
Some Licensed practical nurses are experience and very capable of doing what the RN does. Maybe the critical thinking skills are not yet mastered and can be accomplished through education and experience. The nursing home is the domain of the LPN; are you going to work there? LPN’s have skills right out of school that a 4 year RN can only dream about depending where they graduated from. Wound care, Tracheostomy’s care, enteral feed, colostomy care, etc. I know some RN’s that graduated from a four year school and don’t know any skills until on the job learning it. As I stated before, depending on the program. There are Registered nurses with BSN that don’t even know hands on care only book smart. Have you ever had experiences with RN’s with different level of education. The ASN is a better hands on nurse than the BSN. No my friend we need the LPN; maybe it should be required that they get their ASN so they can get an increase in salary also.
I sadly disagree.I believe initials behind your name does no make you a more knowledgeable nurse than an LPN. I have worked with some excellent LPN’S with years of experience. I would rather have them take care of me than a new nurse with her BSN! It definitely is not the initials that make you a great nurse. It is the experience. It disheartens me that hospitals are phasing them out and hiring new grads without any experience.
Ya this article is b.s. 79k. Lmao maybe with a ton of extra shifts, I work in Los Angeles at one of the best paying hospitals
Because their is propaganda. According to the Federal Department of Labor, nursing as a whole has experienced the slowest pay increase in the last 9 years than any other profession. In the US. As a matter of fact, nursing pay only gone up just over 7% in the last 9 years while the cost of living has gone up over 10%. Why has pay stagnated while demand has gone up? It’s because the industry is now saddled with more government regulations and lower Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement since ACA took affect. This issue will not go away in its own. And you can’t include the highest earning states, especially states like California that is a nurses union and include that income into the pay averages because it skews the data tremendously. Most, of not all facilities pay BSN’s no more than ADN’s. And on top of that, hospitals that are trying for Magnet status, force existing staff to spend two more years of their life if not more and sometimes without tuition reimbursement to get their BSN and then pay them nothing more for it. Also, this idea that facilities pay solely according to nursing experience is just another way to keep salaries low. The reality is that a nurse who is 50 with 10 years of nursing experience, 10 years of military service and 10 years of management experience has more to offer than a 29 year old nurse with 10 years of experience.
Exactly average median salary of an RN is not $79,000 per year. What a joke. I’m lucky to hit $60,000 a year and that’s with overtime.
The 29 y/o with 10 years experience must have started nursing school at 15???? You mean a 33 y/o nurse with 10 y/o experience? Sorry, had to point this out. Good day!
Secondly, I disagree with one level of nursing being more important than the other. It takes all disciplines to care for the patients we have. If you don’t want to work as a team, and you want to look down at your help you may be in the wrong profession. We don’t need people like that in Nursing, its hard enough.
Katrina RN BSN.
Haha..what do u know, they never mention LPN or CNA !
LPN’s and CNA’a are not “nurses.” The title of “nurse” is a protected one. Going to school for 9mos. does not make you a “nurse.” NO, LPN’s and CNA’s do not do the same job as nurses. Those are supportive roles. They are unlicensed personnel that lack the critical thinking skills required to be a “nurse.” If you are an RN or hold higher credentials, you are a nurse.
LPN’S are Nurse’s and just as important!!!! We also hold a license we are skilled and knowledgeable I find this very offensive.
I agree. I’ve been an RN for 32yrs and the LPN’s I’ve worked with ARE nurses.
LVNs are Nurses and are Licensed, this article stated that “Nursing salaries are on he upswing” I have had the pleasure of worked with many ICU LVNs over the years and would have no problem with them taking care of me or my loved ones
Excuse me,but what is LPN stands for then? As long as my state recognises me as a nurse,you are no one to say LPN is not a nurse. By the way ,if you are an RN,I feel sorry for your patients,because you are not really smart,saying an LPN is an unlicensed personnel,what do you think an L stands for,huh? Wow!!, I only have 3 licenses in 3 different states,but im unlicensed.What an idiot!
Why are the salaries for LPN’s not mentioned? We are out there working every day. We carry some of the same positions and rolls as RN’s. We count too!
This comment was posted on Jan 15 by an LPN. “Why are the salaries for LPN’s not mentioned? We are out there working every day. We carry some of the same positions and rolls as RN’s. We count too!”
LPNs have a valuable role in healthcare but, as noted, do not carry the education of the RN. And I’m sorry, but I just can’t resist…”some of the same positions and ROLLS as RN’s.” Perhaps that addition education in the training of an RN is in an English class…and in my position, thank goodness I have never been required to carry ROLLS.
Hi Mercy,
I live and work in the eastern region of the states, and as a 7y experienced RN, BSN, MSN, I feel as though my salary is not comparable with others with the same experience, and my organization tells me that I do, but I am not convinced. Do you know of any approach that I should use?
Hello Addie,
If you are concerned about whether your salary compares to those nurses within your organization who have the same experience AND education level, you may want to consult with your nurse administrator and with the human resources department, as there are many factors that may explain variations in pay rates. Outside of your employer, local and national salary rates could be reviewed on several websites. There are also several online resources that provide useful information on how to determine if you are being fairly compensated for your work.
Thank you,
This just “floors” me! As an RN for 32yrs working most of it in long-term care, my salary is just a little more than what new RN grads are making. The corporations that “own” the business AND our nurse managers say that “we pay as high or higher than surrounding facilities!” Wow!
I only saw RN’S salaries, any rise in LPN salaries?
We are not seeing an increase in Southern Illinois/St. Louis area, and we haven’t in 10 years!
Not with the Govt organization.
These salary articles all seem to be very inflated. I live in rural Illinois. Maybe administrative nurses make these salaries or more, but the day to day front lines nurses who are the backbone of the nursing profession are in the $45,000 – $50,000 range. They work very hard to get it.
BEEN A NURSE X 42 YEARS , IN ER STILL, GLAD TO SEE THIS PROFESSION ON THE RISE!
I STILL LOVE WHAT I DO
I have very mixed felings about the salaries for new nurses. I’ve never been paid what other nurses have b/c I live and work in a rural area. It’s a slap in the face that new RN’s expect to recieve pay equal to or more than what I’ve worked hard for these past 32 yrs.
So glad to see that the salaries for full time nurses is improving! I know that it is well deserved!!!! Can anyone tell me what the going rate for per diem nurses in the greater New York area is? My experience is that we are making a lower hourly rate than the full timers when I believe we should be making more since we take no benefits. Any information that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.
It is good to know that there is still appreciation for the seasoned nurse. It seems in the mid west that the focus is hiring the new graduates and getting rid of the seasoned, more mature nurses. The pay in Missouri ten years ago, is still the same now even though the same nurses have ten more years experience. Where is the appreciation for the rise in cost of living or for knowledge in our profession. Who is there to teach the young/new graduates, if the budget cuts eliminate the seasoned nurses? Please recognize the need for nurses with experience, not eliminate us.
Where did you find the “appreciation” for the seasoned nurse?
Thanks for keeping the trends in nursing available to the average worker.
It cannot be, My gross earning is $60,000 working in hospital with a BSN degree. I worked in north suburbs of Chicago.
Nurses salaries are still well below the national average for any male dominated job in this country. We do not encourage retention of nurses in their profession. The job we do as a hands on caring professional gives us no salary increase. Patients lives are in our hands and we have a great deal of compassion and patience.
So untill the nursing profession is on the same level with an engineer this is a well underpaid profession.
Don’t even think about making the statement “as compared to male dominated profession”. Get over it. There is no gender wage gap. The fact is that you cannot take all women’s jobs and divide by the number of jobs and come up with an average salary and the. Compare that to the same formula for men. I agree with you that nurses are underpaid accross the board… male or female. But don’t go spewing that wage gap crap because it is bull.
its not true, my friend is working in ICU with 10 yrs experience and BSN and making 31$ in hour in Detroit, MI, its around 60-62K a year and another friend with 14 yrs in ICU-max 37$ in hour, I am making more because I am working as a travel nurse in CA
I have my BSN and School Nurse Certification which is another year of schooling. I live in Northern NJ, 15 min from NYC and my salary is only 54,000. After taxes, union dues and insurance, I’m only making around 35,000. That’s awful pay.
In 1993 I was making $75,000/yr as a clinical nurse specialist. Nursing salaries are declining.
I live in east central Indiana. I Have my PhD in Nursing, am an associate professor of nursing at a university full time and work part time as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in neither position working full time would I even come close to the mentioned salaries. In fact I am just a fraction above if you add the two together. Salaries in this area are very low and have made little improvement over the last 10-15 years. Very depressing!
I am a retired RN, age 70, with a BSN. My first job as an RN in Florida in1968 paid $2.15 per hour! At retirement 3 years ago in California I was making $37/hour! What a difference! Many changes over almost 50 years!
It seems to me like the salary of nurses are really low according to this article, but the comments are stating otherwise. I’m an RN, BSN, PHN with 5 years of experience- two of which in are the operating room. I’m making a little over 140K working at a surgery center, not a hospital, and that doesn’t include overtime.
I am a Hemodialysis Nurse I have been working here almost [email protected] $36/hr-I also take call! Will retire in March! Would have loved to make more money! But our job has never been taken serious, just like teachers,police which we can’t do without!
Unionize, contact “National Nurses United”
An LVN in California can make up to 29 dollars an hour if they apply as a “vendor” to any of California’s 21 Regional Centers. These regional centers have clients that need nursing care. THere is a massive shortage of nurses in California that can work with developmentally disabled. Each of California’s 21 Regional Centers that deal with consumers with medical needs that require nursing care usually “vendor” nursing or home health agencies like Maxim to provide nursing services, but these vendored home health nursing agencies are notoriously inefficient and unreliable in providing nursing care to california’s regional center consumers that need nursing care. Therefore, it’s important that California’s 21 Regional centers are mandated to allow vendor lists of independent nurses to provide direct services to consumers when the vendored home health agencies can’t do it, which is often. Independent nurses that get on California regional center’s vendor lists can make the same salary the regional centers pay the agencies. In short, the regional centers will pay an agency 29 dollars an hour, but the agency will turn around and pay their nurse 16 bucks, which limits the quality of care and ability of a vendored agency to keep quality nurses for that rate. It’s better for California Regional Centers to recruit and retain nurses on their own vendor lists, and get rid of these home health agencies that are a complete FAILURE at providing consistent and reliable nursing services for regional center consumers.
I agree, no mention of CNA raises?
As a nurse with 26 years of experience, RN, BSN, MSN-edu, I moved from NYC to PA, I was insulted with the Nursing Salaries quoted. We as nurses work super hard and provide services and care to patients as well as the family with education and support. Nurses wear many hats. Nurses also provide guidance and education to new doctors. Urges Salaries are a disgrace, it’s annoying when LPN and CNA tried to pass themselves nurses, RN are professionals with licensure and degrees. LPN & CNA receive certificates, LPN get a licensure. RN’s are VERY different we have a scope of practice LPNs & definately not CNA have. Yes, our Salaries should be higher we earned it. It’s a women’s profession, in a so called mans world, we should fight for our rights for Higer pay. In NYC we sure did, I courage less where you live and the cost of living, that’s a poor excuse to pay RN’s peanuts with all the hats we wear….
“it’s a women’s profession…”. Is that why nurses eat their young? Is that then a women’s thing or a nurse thing? I sure don’t do that. If seen it done while in school and on the job. Maybe if nurses acted like professionals, they would be treated like one as well. Now obviously there are nurses that are professional. But more and more I see nurses that call off or no call no show and how on earth can that be considered professional. All these schools are only concerned with collecting tuition and not with making sure that it is a quality person being accepted into their program. It’s all about money.
I am an LPN. My starting salary at a new facility last month was the same exact starting salary in 2000. How is this even possible? And yes, the RNs and LPNs have a different role especially in LTC. The RN sits at the desk all day while the LPN delivers patient care and medications/ Txs. The RN will call a LPN over to a resident near her desk to do a blood pressure! Incredible Glad I am in school and will be an RN soon. I will be sitting finally.
I was reading all the comments some good and some insulting. For anybody to say an LPN is not considered licensed is an insult. LPN has to take the NCLEX as well. I have been an LPN for almost 13 years and I have worked in almost every specialty unit in a hospital setting. I live in Texas and I would be asked to assist in training new RN’s. Let’s be very clear. RN’s can do certain things that an LPN can not do because of the scope of practice. But if your working in a teaching hospital, your allowed to help in the training for other nurses including the RN’s. People get hung up on those last letters beside their names and not the responsibility of being a team and being patient focus. I am ACLS and PALS certified because the facility I work for required all RN’s and LPN’s to take these courses. Their are only a few things because of the scope of practice I am not allowed to do. But I have my own patients without an RN standing over my shoulder. When it comes to pay, I make more then some of the RN’s. Nursing is about being patient focus not the letters at the end of your name. It’s sad but as usual Nurses eat their own.
Licensed Practical Nurses are nurses. I went to school for 18 months and did clinicals at Chicago hospitals. We worked the floor and had some of the most experienced clinical educators there were. I studied all night and barely slept for three hours a night as a single mother raising two children.
We are nurses and while I did return to RN program, it is difficult to manage school, children and studies because nursing school is rigorous. My school did not pass you unless you were 83% or higher and to achieve an A you must meet 94%. Averaging above a 3.0 can be difficult, but I was able to do so by the grace of god and with extensive studying. I went back to school as a second degree since I was laid of from a prior profession. Going back to school as an adult it not easy. I do understand education is important, but not all licensed professionals have excellent bedside manners. In the past six years I have seen many professionals make errors. This field has liability and we adhere to them according to our nurse practice act in each state. We are nurses and we give medication in our state and took the NCLEX. Regardless of your degree we are all on the same team. This is why this profession has declined in teamwork and clinical excellence. If we all could work well together instead of labeling what someone is or is not, we could achieve the best patient outcomes.
I have worked with wonderful and knowledgeable LPN’s
All License nurses across the nation need to fight and push policies to increase the pay rate in his or her state. Even though Northern California pays well it has a lot to do with the cost of living in this state. I live in California and it’s great to meet traveling nurses from other states but I can not help to think that traveling agencies are making a fortune off of this trend.
I have ten years experience and work in rural Iowa making $41,000 a year. I am in the process of earning my MSN as an FNP and starting pay is $84,000. Where are you getting these pay scales from because they don’t seem to fit any of our pay scales? They are more than likely using NP wages in this estimate. The frontline nurses are poorly paid for the work that they do!
Move to NY and California; better yet, New Jersey and Connecticut are not bad? For NYC the starting salary for new nurses working in a hospital is
$79,000 and even $85,000. Higher cost of living, higher pay. forget it if you have been on the job for 10 years, you will make close to $100,000.
I’ve been a Licensed Practical Nurse since 2007. I’ve worked in the SCU/ICU, LTC, Home Heath. I’ve ran circles around most the Registered Nurses I’ve worked with. Nursing takes a special kind of person. As I see most of the above messages have been made by individuals who obviously are not the special breed who belong in the health care field. Good nurses wouldn’t carry judgment Such as this… All TRUE nurses are underpaid or are passed the buck by other LAZY so called nurses. Here in OHIO an LPN can make anywhere from $19 to $27 an hour depending on which setting you chose. I have one class for my RN. After I recieve this, I won’t slam other nurses like soo many others seem to do. ✌?❤️.
Great Blog share here…
I’ve been a nurse 35 years and its declining and they are using LVNs instead of nurses. Hospice you work for free…charting for free all night long. Its a rip off
It’s so funny to see the comments on LPNs. I have trained RNs as well and they were very appreciative. There are nurses that become a nurse because it is higher paying than some degrees. They have no manners or heart to be called a nurse. I remember when an LPN had 6 patients and rn had 6. The real rns were the ones that would wipe an ass so the patient didnt get bed sores. The rns that i wouldnt call a real nurse were sitting at the desk on the phone or chatting about themselves instead of taking care of pts. I have been an lpn for 18 years and know more about taking care of a patient than an rn whos shit don’t stink and lpns scare them. Rns do get paid a lot more so don’t know why any rn would be threatened by an lpn. A lot of rns started as a cna and worked up the later to rn. Thats when you know they really care about people. It may be 12 months for an lpn but its 5 days a week and almost 8 hours a day. That is a lot of knowledge and experience. So u rns that have the nerve to down lpns don’t really care about people or their feelings and need to get off your high horses and learn to care for people.
They are using lpns because we work hard for less. Be a good rn and they will use u too.
LPN not a nurse??? Really? I’ve worked with several RN’s that are “book smart” but lack common sense. I’m making more then some of my friends that are RN’s – currently I make $23.59 with an additional $4 an hour attendance bonus as long as I’m not late nor miss. I have my IV certification and LPN’s are allowed to administer ATB’s via PICC line in Ohio. Sometimes experience is the best teacher and working in long term care I’ve gained a lot of experience skill wise. Shame on the individual that said LPN’s and STNA’s aren’t nurses. I learned really quick that my aides can make or break me. They are your eyes a lot of the time in LTC bc of the heavy patient load. My aides are very knowledgeable and know the residents very well. I feel sorry for the patients this individual ever takes care of and anyone that may work under him/her one day.
Another informative and useful article, love to reading this. Thanks
I am an LPN and work in long-term care. I never wanted to be an RN because of the RN attitude towards LPNs. I know that 4-5 pts at the hospital is a lot, but in long-term care they expect 1 LPN to care for 30-40 people. Now that is a hell of a lot to ask of 1 person.