RN Pay in 27 Industries, Ranked: Where Registered Nurses Earn the Most and Least (BLS May 2025)
By NurseCompensation Research Team · 2026-10-19 · 7 min read
Federal agencies pay RNs a median of $121,260. K-12 schools pay $69,340. General hospitals, which employ 56% of all RNs, pay $100,210. The full BLS breakdown by industry and by public vs. private employer.
Where a nurse works affects pay as much as where a nurse lives. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes RN wages for every industry that employs them in meaningful numbers. Below are all 27 detailed industries with at least 3,000 RNs, from the May 2025 survey.
RN pay by industry
| Rank | Industry | RNs employed | Median | 10th pct | 90th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Federal government (executive branch) | 101,050 | $121,260 | $94,410 | $174,640 |
| 2 | Specialty hospitals (except psychiatric) | 73,710 | $102,840 | $80,430 | $137,660 |
| 3 | Colleges, universities, professional schools | 25,920 | $102,580 | $70,990 | $163,890 |
| 4 | General medical and surgical hospitals | 1,902,960 | $100,210 | $76,270 | $138,990 |
| 5 | Management of companies (corporate offices) | 22,900 | $100,010 | $75,430 | $137,430 |
| 6 | Outpatient care centers | 173,380 | $99,350 | $73,770 | $177,360 |
| 7 | Scientific research and development | 3,360 | $97,440 | $65,750 | $173,530 |
| 8 | Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals | 43,560 | $97,060 | $76,790 | $137,740 |
| 9 | Health and personal care retailers | 3,950 | $95,560 | $67,210 | $125,140 |
| 10 | State government (excl. schools, hospitals) | 32,750 | $94,100 | $68,780 | $138,660 |
| 11 | Management and technical consulting | 6,880 | $93,150 | $62,400 | $131,090 |
| 12 | Insurance carriers | 42,180 | $92,670 | $78,190 | $108,790 |
| 13 | Employment services (staffing agencies) | 102,110 | $90,840 | $47,740 | $151,530 |
| 14 | Office administrative services | 7,970 | $90,330 | $63,220 | $127,900 |
| 15 | Local government (excl. schools, hospitals) | 35,850 | $85,730 | $62,600 | $133,830 |
| 16 | Skilled nursing facilities | 142,270 | $85,510 | $72,960 | $107,940 |
| 17 | Offices of physicians | 232,420 | $85,000 | $61,330 | $125,740 |
| 18 | Home health care services | 198,180 | $84,930 | $66,350 | $126,090 |
| 19 | Insurance agencies and brokerages | 12,150 | $84,800 | $67,170 | $103,570 |
| 20 | Offices of other health practitioners | 21,350 | $84,500 | $59,070 | $136,210 |
| 21 | Other ambulatory health care | 20,500 | $84,300 | $59,160 | $124,290 |
| 22 | Other residential care facilities | 3,300 | $84,240 | $59,920 | $128,750 |
| 23 | Residential mental health and disability facilities | 20,550 | $83,010 | $61,260 | $108,650 |
| 24 | Continuing care and assisted living | 32,710 | $82,520 | $63,090 | $106,800 |
| 25 | Individual and family services | 24,410 | $81,240 | $56,160 | $113,760 |
| 26 | Personal care services | 3,670 | $73,940 | $53,710 | $104,250 |
| 27 | Elementary and secondary schools | 67,120 | $69,340 | $48,010 | $103,310 |
The national RN median across all industries is $97,550.
What the ranking shows
Hospitals set the market
General medical and surgical hospitals employ 1.9 million RNs, 56% of the national total. Their median ($100,210) sits just above the overall RN median, and almost every other setting is measured against it. Only three industries on this list pay a higher median, and together they employ about 200,700 RNs.
Federal jobs lead by a wide margin
The federal executive branch pays a median of $121,260, about $21,000 above hospitals. This category includes Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers. The federal 10th percentile ($94,410) is close to the national median for all RNs, which means the federal pay floor is unusually high.
The non-hospital jobs nurses often move to pay about $15,000 less
Physician offices, home health, and skilled nursing facilities employ a combined 572,870 RNs. All three have medians between $84,900 and $85,600, about $15,000 below general hospitals. These are often the jobs nurses take for regular daytime hours or less physical strain, and the data puts a price on that tradeoff.
Wide ranges point to mixed jobs
Two industries have unusually wide pay ranges:
- Staffing agencies: a 10th percentile of $47,740 and a 90th of $151,530. This category mixes per diem, travel, and part-time placements, so the median says little about any one arrangement.
- Outpatient care centers: a 90th percentile of $177,360, the highest on the list. The category includes ambulatory surgery and specialty clinics, which can pay much more than general outpatient work.
Schools pay the least
Elementary and secondary schools have the lowest median of any industry with at least 3,000 RNs: $69,340, about $28,000 below the overall RN median. School nurses often work a school-year calendar. BLS calculates annual RN pay as the hourly rate times 2,080 hours, so these figures do not reflect a shorter work year.
Public vs. private employers
BLS also splits some industries by who owns the employer.
Hospitals
| Hospital ownership | RNs employed | Median | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| State government | 108,180 | $104,170 | $116,390 |
| Private | 1,730,350 | $100,240 | $104,040 |
| Local government | 181,690 | $97,640 | $100,920 |
State-run hospitals, many of them university medical centers, pay the highest median. County and city hospitals pay the lowest of the three. The gap between them is $6,530.
Educational services
| Ownership | RNs employed | Median |
|---|---|---|
| State government (mainly public universities) | 16,350 | $100,530 |
| Private | 16,850 | $88,810 |
| Local government (mainly public K-12 districts) | 62,050 | $69,690 |
Most school nurses work for local districts, and that is where pay is lowest.
What the data includes
These figures are base wages. They exclude overtime, shift differentials, on-call pay, and bonuses, which are more common in hospitals than in offices or schools. As a result, the real gap between hospital and non-hospital pay may be larger than shown here. The industry labels follow the North American Industry Classification System, which BLS uses for all of its industry data.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national industry-specific estimates (4-digit NAICS) and national estimates by ownership (3-digit NAICS), SOC 29-1141 Registered Nurses. Industries shown are all 4-digit industries with at least 3,000 RNs. Differences and shares calculated by NurseCompensation from the published BLS figures.