How Wide Is the Nurse Pay Range in Your State? RN Pay from the 10th to 90th Percentile, May 2025
By NurseCompensation Research Team · 2026-11-09 · 8 min read
Nationally, RNs at the 90th percentile earn $137,470 and those at the 10th earn $68,940. The gap ranges from $112,060 in California to $32,790 in Maine. Every state's full pay ladder from BLS data.
Most salary lists give you one number per state: the median. Half of registered nurses in the state earn more than that, and half earn less. It's a useful number, but it says nothing about how far apart the lowest-paid and highest-paid nurses are. Two states can have similar medians and very different ranges.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes five points on the pay ladder for every state: the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th and 90th percentiles. A nurse at the 10th percentile earns more than 10% of RNs in that state. A nurse at the 90th earns more than 90% of them. The distance between those two points is a simple way to see how much room there is above and below the middle.
Nationally, in May 2025, RN pay at the 10th percentile was $68,940 and at the 90th percentile it was $137,470. That's a gap of $68,530, and the 90th percentile is almost exactly double the 10th.
Every state, ranked by the size of its pay range
| Rank | State | 10th pct | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | 90th pct | Gap, 10th to 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $101,260 | $122,440 | $140,270 | $173,170 | $213,320 | $112,060 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | $80,310 | $87,460 | $104,550 | $136,110 | $174,510 | $94,200 |
| 3 | New York | $79,760 | $94,840 | $109,440 | $129,660 | $157,090 | $77,330 |
| 4 | West Virginia | $57,210 | $68,160 | $80,130 | $99,770 | $131,760 | $74,550 |
| 5 | Washington | $89,630 | $103,100 | $124,200 | $134,240 | $161,910 | $72,280 |
| 6 | District of Columbia | $79,390 | $85,850 | $102,540 | $127,800 | $151,170 | $71,780 |
| 7 | Hawaii | $82,500 | $101,200 | $136,320 | $144,140 | $147,830 | $65,330 |
| 8 | Alaska | $85,030 | $97,700 | $109,480 | $129,100 | $149,070 | $64,040 |
| 9 | Texas | $67,120 | $79,170 | $95,970 | $105,100 | $127,950 | $60,830 |
| 10 | Arizona | $70,540 | $81,810 | $99,500 | $108,580 | $130,930 | $60,390 |
| 11 | Oregon | $95,280 | $107,220 | $129,010 | $134,420 | $155,010 | $59,730 |
| 12 | Georgia | $68,920 | $79,090 | $93,550 | $106,330 | $128,640 | $59,720 |
| 13 | Virginia | $67,830 | $80,090 | $93,600 | $103,030 | $125,580 | $57,750 |
| 14 | Connecticut | $80,350 | $86,120 | $102,740 | $121,840 | $134,870 | $54,520 |
| 15 | Nevada | $79,500 | $86,850 | $103,670 | $120,270 | $133,270 | $53,770 |
| 16 | Minnesota | $79,960 | $88,940 | $101,510 | $114,760 | $132,430 | $52,470 |
| 17 | Rhode Island | $77,410 | $81,840 | $100,640 | $107,100 | $129,840 | $52,430 |
| 18 | Florida | $67,970 | $78,660 | $84,190 | $101,180 | $120,330 | $52,360 |
| 19 | New Jersey | $83,060 | $99,710 | $106,500 | $127,730 | $135,170 | $52,110 |
| 20 | Idaho | $71,210 | $80,900 | $92,460 | $102,320 | $121,230 | $50,020 |
| 21 | New Mexico | $74,300 | $80,960 | $94,340 | $102,750 | $123,540 | $49,240 |
| 22 | Illinois | $69,170 | $80,020 | $95,990 | $105,960 | $118,190 | $49,020 |
| 23 | Vermont | $77,670 | $82,210 | $97,460 | $105,210 | $126,100 | $48,430 |
| 24 | Maryland | $76,780 | $83,740 | $99,790 | $107,340 | $124,790 | $48,010 |
| 25 | Kentucky | $64,170 | $75,670 | $81,040 | $97,200 | $111,750 | $47,580 |
| 26 | New Hampshire | $75,610 | $82,880 | $99,700 | $108,400 | $123,190 | $47,580 |
| 27 | Pennsylvania | $70,800 | $80,610 | $96,430 | $104,730 | $117,900 | $47,100 |
| 28 | Oklahoma | $60,530 | $77,350 | $82,920 | $98,910 | $106,390 | $45,860 |
| 29 | Delaware | $78,340 | $85,900 | $99,520 | $111,720 | $123,860 | $45,520 |
| 30 | Colorado | $79,500 | $84,590 | $100,260 | $108,930 | $124,940 | $45,440 |
| 31 | South Dakota | $54,040 | $65,070 | $78,060 | $84,280 | $98,220 | $44,180 |
| 32 | Montana | $70,120 | $80,210 | $85,280 | $100,800 | $113,920 | $43,800 |
| 33 | Arkansas | $60,780 | $66,640 | $78,940 | $90,280 | $103,660 | $42,880 |
| 34 | North Carolina | $67,660 | $78,770 | $84,350 | $102,040 | $110,220 | $42,560 |
| 35 | Wisconsin | $77,470 | $81,920 | $95,530 | $102,610 | $119,860 | $42,390 |
| 36 | Wyoming | $65,770 | $77,890 | $83,760 | $101,100 | $107,350 | $41,580 |
| 37 | Missouri | $63,230 | $76,050 | $81,780 | $98,560 | $104,390 | $41,160 |
| 38 | Tennessee | $63,970 | $75,460 | $81,500 | $95,250 | $104,920 | $40,950 |
| 39 | Louisiana | $63,800 | $69,040 | $80,230 | $93,600 | $104,740 | $40,940 |
| 40 | Alabama | $58,150 | $63,500 | $77,080 | $83,380 | $98,910 | $40,760 |
| 41 | Nebraska | $66,020 | $79,240 | $84,730 | $99,640 | $106,190 | $40,170 |
| 42 | Utah | $68,920 | $80,050 | $84,600 | $105,130 | $109,050 | $40,130 |
| 43 | Mississippi | $60,610 | $64,930 | $77,090 | $84,500 | $100,350 | $39,740 |
| 44 | South Carolina | $66,860 | $77,320 | $82,360 | $97,230 | $106,520 | $39,660 |
| 45 | Michigan | $77,260 | $82,080 | $94,300 | $103,450 | $116,710 | $39,450 |
| 46 | Indiana | $66,750 | $78,750 | $83,500 | $100,410 | $105,750 | $39,000 |
| 47 | Ohio | $66,980 | $79,200 | $82,510 | $99,030 | $105,290 | $38,310 |
| 48 | North Dakota | $65,520 | $69,620 | $80,730 | $93,080 | $103,480 | $37,960 |
| 49 | Kansas | $63,180 | $73,300 | $79,320 | $94,700 | $100,840 | $37,660 |
| 50 | Iowa | $63,840 | $68,290 | $78,630 | $85,940 | $100,500 | $36,660 |
| 51 | Maine | $74,160 | $79,890 | $86,990 | $101,460 | $106,950 | $32,790 |
California has the widest range in dollars, $112,060, which isn't surprising given how high its pay is overall. Measured as a ratio, the picture changes. In West Virginia the 90th percentile is 2.30 times the 10th, the highest ratio of any state, followed by Massachusetts at 2.17 and California at 2.11. Maine has the tightest range in the country: $32,790 from the 10th to the 90th percentile.
Where top earners pull furthest ahead
Another way to read the range is to ask how far the 90th percentile sits above the median. Nationally it's 40.9% higher. In these states the top of the scale stretches much further:
| State | Median | 90th pct | 90th pct above median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $104,550 | $174,510 | 66.9% |
| West Virginia | $80,130 | $131,760 | 64.4% |
| California | $140,270 | $213,320 | 52.1% |
| District of Columbia | $102,540 | $151,170 | 47.4% |
| New York | $109,440 | $157,090 | 43.5% |
| Florida | $84,190 | $120,330 | 42.9% |
In Massachusetts, the median RN earns $104,550, but the 90th percentile is $174,510. Massachusetts is also the state where the median sits lowest within its own range, closer to the 10th percentile than to the 90th. In other words, most nurses there are bunched toward the lower part of the scale, and a smaller group earns far more.
Where pay is compressed at the top
| State | Median | 90th pct | 90th pct above median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $136,320 | $147,830 | 8.4% |
| Oregon | $129,010 | $155,010 | 20.2% |
| Pennsylvania | $96,430 | $117,900 | 22.3% |
| Maine | $86,990 | $106,950 | 22.9% |
| Illinois | $95,990 | $118,190 | 23.1% |
| New Hampshire | $99,700 | $123,190 | 23.6% |
Hawaii is the outlier. Its median RN pay, $136,320, is the second-highest in the country, but the 90th percentile is only $147,830, just 8.4% higher. Pay in Hawaii rises steeply from the bottom to the middle, then flattens. The 10th percentile is $82,500, so most of the spread is below the median.
Where state ranges don't overlap
Some state pay ladders barely touch. In Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi and South Dakota, a nurse at the 90th percentile earns less than a nurse at the 10th percentile in California ($101,260).
Going the other way, in 7 states the 10th percentile is higher than the national 25th percentile ($80,330): Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington. In those states, even nurses near the bottom of the local scale out-earn a quarter of RNs nationwide.
How to use these numbers
If you want to know where your pay falls, compare it with your own state's percentiles rather than the national median. A nurse in Iowa earning $85,940 is at the 75th percentile there, even though that's below the national median. You can enter your pay into the Pay Check on this site to see your estimated percentile for your state and role.
A wide range also means a job offer at the state median isn't necessarily a typical offer for someone with your experience. The BLS data doesn't break pay down by years of experience, specialty or employer, so it can't tell you where you should be. It can tell you how wide the field is.
About the data
OEWS wages are straight-time pay. They include base pay, on-call pay and incentive pay, but they leave out overtime, shift differentials and one-time bonuses such as sign-on bonuses. For nurses who work nights or pick up extra shifts, actual earnings can be well above these figures. Annual figures are the hourly rate multiplied by 2,080 hours. Employment is counted where people work, not where they live, and the survey covers wage and salary workers only, so self-employed nurses are not included. District of Columbia is included in the table; Puerto Rico and the territories are not.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national and state data (SOC 29-1141 Registered Nurses). Gaps, ratios and rankings calculated by NurseCompensation from the published BLS percentiles.