LPN Salary by State, May 2025: And How Far Behind RN Pay It Falls in Each State

By NurseCompensation Research Team · 2026-10-05 · 9 min read

The national LPN median is $64,400, $33,150 below the RN median. But the gap ranges from $13,790 in Maine to $65,180 in Hawaii. May 2025 BLS pay for licensed practical and vocational nurses in every state.

Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (LPNs and LVNs) are often discussed only as a stepping stone to the RN license. That framing skips over the 648,410 people who work in the role, and it hides a useful fact: the financial case for moving from LPN to RN depends heavily on which state you live in.

Here is the May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

National snapshot

Measure	LPN / LVN	Registered nurse
10th percentile	$49,740	$68,940
25th percentile	$59,000	$80,330
Median	$64,400	$97,550
Mean	$67,050	$101,420
75th percentile	$76,030	$112,350
90th percentile	$83,440	$137,470
Employed	648,410	3,379,720

Nationally, the median RN earns $33,150 more than the median LPN, about 51% more. There are roughly 1.9 LPNs for every 10 RNs.

LPN pay in every state

Ranked by LPN median. The last two columns show how much more the median RN earns in that state, and how many LPNs work there for every 10 RNs.

Rank	State	LPN median	LPN 10th pct	LPN 90th pct	RN median	RN-LPN gap	LPNs employed	LPNs per 10 RNs
1	Washington	$83,150	$64,230	$100,950	$124,200	$41,050	6,780	1.0
2	Alaska	$80,800	$62,400	$96,700	$109,480	$28,680	290	0.4
3	Oregon	$80,470	$64,000	$98,990	$129,010	$48,540	4,260	1.1
4	Massachusetts	$80,220	$61,690	$93,980	$104,550	$24,330	13,210	1.5
5	Rhode Island	$80,090	$65,650	$94,540	$100,640	$20,550	1,290	1.3
6	California	$79,750	$64,390	$100,450	$140,270	$60,520	82,850	2.4
7	New Hampshire	$77,110	$59,860	$93,660	$99,700	$22,590	2,220	1.4
8	Arizona	$77,070	$61,050	$89,850	$99,500	$22,430	6,530	0.9
9	Nevada	$76,160	$61,750	$89,420	$103,670	$27,510	3,350	1.2
10	District of Columbia	$75,740	$62,880	$87,470	$102,540	$26,800	1,040	0.9
11	New Jersey	$75,160	$63,210	$85,400	$106,500	$31,340	17,410	1.9
12	Illinois	$75,000	$58,880	$89,810	$95,990	$20,990	17,440	1.3
13	Maryland	$74,660	$60,720	$90,010	$99,790	$25,130	9,560	1.8
14	Colorado	$73,880	$50,820	$84,440	$100,260	$26,380	4,920	0.9
15	Connecticut	$73,690	$62,610	$81,060	$102,740	$29,050	8,540	2.1
16	Maine	$73,200	$56,160	$82,600	$86,990	$13,790	760	0.5
17	Hawaii	$71,140	$59,620	$88,340	$136,320	$65,180	840	0.6
18	Vermont	$69,930	$50,230	$84,710	$97,460	$27,530	1,130	1.5
19	Delaware	$68,710	$59,210	$77,580	$99,520	$30,810	2,240	1.6
20	New York	$67,180	$54,480	$81,530	$109,440	$42,260	39,400	1.9
21	Indiana	$65,720	$50,550	$77,220	$83,500	$17,780	14,480	2.1
22	Michigan	$65,460	$56,160	$77,780	$94,300	$28,840	10,880	1.0
23	Virginia	$64,920	$50,580	$79,170	$93,600	$28,680	15,550	2.0
24	Pennsylvania	$63,940	$51,500	$77,750	$96,430	$32,490	38,260	2.6
25	Idaho	$63,800	$47,890	$77,850	$92,460	$28,660	1,880	1.1
26	Wisconsin	$63,760	$51,820	$78,490	$95,530	$31,770	7,390	1.1
27	Minnesota	$63,750	$51,700	$77,380	$101,510	$37,760	12,840	1.8
28	Wyoming	$63,460	$46,700	$77,000	$83,760	$20,300	480	0.9
29	North Carolina	$63,270	$50,480	$74,730	$84,350	$21,080	18,010	1.6
30	Utah	$63,230	$37,480	$77,540	$84,600	$21,370	1,680	0.6
31	Nebraska	$62,660	$50,890	$77,940	$84,730	$22,070	4,580	1.9
32	Iowa	$62,630	$50,550	$77,710	$78,630	$16,000	5,510	1.6
33	North Dakota	$62,300	$50,950	$74,130	$80,730	$18,430	1,920	1.7
34	Texas	$62,240	$48,910	$76,140	$95,970	$33,730	57,560	2.1
35	Montana	$62,210	$49,230	$74,330	$85,280	$23,070	1,620	1.5
36	Georgia	$62,030	$46,010	$76,690	$93,550	$31,520	21,060	2.1
37	Ohio	$61,950	$50,030	$74,120	$82,510	$20,560	39,900	2.8
38	South Carolina	$61,820	$50,370	$76,420	$82,360	$20,540	9,400	1.9
39	Florida	$61,770	$50,450	$74,320	$84,190	$22,420	38,620	1.7
40	Kansas	$61,760	$49,780	$77,290	$79,320	$17,560	7,530	2.2
41	Missouri	$61,530	$48,580	$77,120	$81,780	$20,250	14,700	1.9
42	Kentucky	$60,460	$48,420	$73,220	$81,040	$20,580	8,570	1.7
43	New Mexico	$59,330	$38,090	$78,110	$94,340	$35,010	2,460	1.4
44	Tennessee	$58,870	$41,110	$67,540	$81,500	$22,630	20,830	2.9
45	Oklahoma	$58,320	$45,440	$66,410	$82,920	$24,600	11,540	3.0
46	Louisiana	$57,470	$45,810	$66,150	$80,230	$22,760	17,600	3.6
47	Alabama	$57,030	$39,880	$69,120	$77,080	$20,050	11,580	2.1
48	Arkansas	$56,620	$44,670	$65,020	$78,940	$22,320	10,010	3.4
49	West Virginia	$55,360	$45,690	$70,960	$80,130	$24,770	6,050	2.6
50	South Dakota	$52,750	$40,770	$67,700	$78,060	$25,310	2,050	1.4
51	Mississippi	$50,220	$39,320	$60,910	$77,090	$26,870	9,850	3.4

What stands out

A Washington LPN out-earns the median RN in 15 states

Washington's LPN median is $83,150. That is higher than the RN median in 15 states, including Ohio ($82,510), Tennessee ($81,500), Kentucky ($81,040), and every state ranked below them in RN pay. Washington and California LPNs at the 90th percentile earn about $100,000.

The RN-LPN gap varies by a factor of almost five

Smallest gaps	RN-LPN gap	Largest gaps	RN-LPN gap
Maine	$13,790	Hawaii	$65,180
Iowa	$16,000	California	$60,520
Kansas	$17,560	Oregon	$48,540
Indiana	$17,780	New York	$42,260
North Dakota	$18,430	Washington	$41,050

In Maine, the median RN earns 19% more than the median LPN. In Hawaii, the median RN earns 92% more.

The South leans on LPNs

Louisiana has 3.6 LPNs for every 10 RNs, the highest ratio in the country. Arkansas and Mississippi (3.4), Oklahoma (3.0), and Tennessee (2.9) follow. At the other end, Alaska has 0.4 and Maine 0.5.

The states that employ LPNs most heavily also tend to pay them the least. All five of the highest-ratio states rank in the bottom eight for LPN pay. If you are an LPN in one of these states, there are plenty of jobs, but the pay ceiling is low: the 90th percentile in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas is between $65,000 and $66,500.

What the gap means for an LPN-to-RN bridge

Bridge programs vary widely in cost and length, so rather than assume a price, here is how quickly the pay difference repays every $10,000 spent on tuition and fees. This is a simple pre-tax calculation using state medians and ignores income lost while studying.

State	RN-LPN gap	Months of the gap to recover $10,000
Hawaii	$65,180	1.8
California	$60,520	2.0
Oregon	$48,540	2.5
New York	$42,260	2.8
Texas	$33,730	3.6
National	$33,150	3.6
Florida	$22,420	5.4
Ohio	$20,560	5.8
Iowa	$16,000	7.5
Maine	$13,790	8.7

To apply this to a specific program, multiply the right-hand number by the program cost in tens of thousands. A $30,000 program in Maine takes about 26 months of the median gap to repay. The same program in California takes about 6.

Two caveats matter:

Lost income during school. If a bridge program means cutting LPN hours, add those lost wages to the cost.
Medians are not guarantees. A new RN often starts below the state RN median, so the real early-career gap can be smaller than shown.

Even in Maine, a $30,000 program is repaid in a little over two years of the median gap. But the strength of the case differs a lot by state, and an LPN in a low-gap state can reasonably weigh other options, such as moving to a higher-paying LPN market.

What the data includes

BLS figures cover base pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and sign-on bonuses. LPNs in long-term care often work significant overtime, so actual annual earnings can run above these figures.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national and state data files (SOC 29-2061 Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses; SOC 29-1141 Registered Nurses). Released May 2026. Gaps, ratios, and payback periods calculated by NurseCompensation from the published BLS figures.