Where Registered Nurses Earn the Most (and Least): May 2025 BLS Pay for 380 Metro Areas
By NurseCompensation Research Team · 2026-10-05 · 10 min read
San Jose RNs have a median of $216,740. In Florence-Muscle Shoals, Alabama, it is $66,360. May 2025 BLS data for the top 20 metros, the 22 largest nursing markets, the lowest-paying areas, and rural regions.
State averages hide a lot. Inside a single state, nurse pay can differ by tens of thousands of dollars from one metro to the next. The May 2025 BLS wage survey publishes RN pay for 380 metropolitan areas and 136 nonmetropolitan regions, and the range is far wider than most nurses realize.
All figures below are annual medians unless labeled otherwise. The national RN median is $97,550.
The top 20 metro areas by median RN pay
| Rank | Metro area | Median | Mean | RNs employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $216,740 | $194,950 | 22,930 |
| 2 | Vallejo, CA | $203,290 | $182,820 | 4,120 |
| 3 | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $186,610 | $176,900 | 41,750 |
| 4 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $174,550 | $170,000 | 3,720 |
| 5 | Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $171,460 | $164,200 | 23,590 |
| 6 | Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | $170,960 | $159,830 | 1,750 |
| 7 | Yuba City, CA | $149,320 | $150,970 | 1,080 |
| 8 | Kahului-Wailuku, HI | $144,350 | $127,320 | 1,270 |
| 9 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $139,520 | $145,060 | 28,680 |
| 10 | Urban Honolulu, HI | $139,260 | $124,740 | 9,680 |
| 11 | San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA | $138,820 | $147,410 | 2,180 |
| 12 | Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | $137,360 | $134,680 | 3,280 |
| 13 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $135,560 | $140,370 | 109,360 |
| 14 | Bend, OR | $135,010 | $126,700 | 2,500 |
| 15 | Salinas, CA | $134,910 | $138,810 | 3,180 |
| 16 | Stockton-Lodi, CA | $134,580 | $145,400 | 5,460 |
| 17 | Redding, CA | $134,350 | $133,700 | 1,720 |
| 18 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $133,940 | $136,670 | 35,290 |
| 19 | Modesto, CA | $132,590 | $143,670 | 4,850 |
| 20 | Salem, OR | $131,750 | $125,750 | 4,010 |
Sixteen of the top twenty are in California. The only outsiders are two Hawaii metros and two in Oregon.
The Bay Area is in a category of its own. In San Jose and Vallejo, the median is higher than the mean. That means pay is concentrated at the high end, not propped up by a few outliers. A typical staff RN in San Jose earns more than twice the national median.
The 22 largest nursing job markets
Most nurses do not work in Vallejo or Bend. These are the metros with at least 30,000 employed RNs, sorted by median.
| Metro | Median | Mean | RNs employed |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $186,610 | $176,900 | 41,750 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $135,560 | $140,370 | 109,360 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $133,940 | $136,670 | 35,290 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $128,260 | $126,390 | 39,900 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $119,720 | $119,600 | 197,740 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $106,180 | $121,820 | 64,240 |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $103,040 | $106,480 | 43,600 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $102,710 | $104,590 | 46,830 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $101,420 | $100,820 | 76,680 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $101,180 | $101,400 | 73,790 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | $101,130 | $100,920 | 30,380 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | $100,830 | $101,090 | 53,700 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $100,490 | $99,760 | 56,460 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $100,490 | $97,930 | 100,240 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $99,830 | $100,290 | 65,910 |
| Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | $99,550 | $99,100 | 30,930 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $97,280 | $95,460 | 44,310 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $91,380 | $94,990 | 61,670 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | $85,470 | $92,690 | 38,720 |
| Columbus, OH | $83,900 | $88,780 | 30,510 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | $83,550 | $89,170 | 30,150 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | $83,180 | $88,310 | 35,200 |
A few things stand out:
- The middle of the pack is tightly bunched. Ten large metros, from Minneapolis down to Baltimore, have medians between $99,550 and $103,040. Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia are within about $1,000 of one another.
- Dallas edged out Houston in this release. Dallas-Fort Worth's median is $101,420 against Houston's $99,830. The gap is small enough that one employer's offer will matter more than which Texas city you choose.
- Boston's mean is misleading. It is $15,640 above the median, one of the widest gaps among large metros. Use the median when you benchmark a Boston offer.
- Florida's big three trail. Miami, Tampa, and Orlando all sit below the national median. Orlando's median is $14,000 under it, despite more than 30,000 RNs working there.
The lowest-paying metro areas
Excluding Puerto Rico, these are the ten metros with the lowest RN medians.
| Metro area | Median | Mean | RNs employed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panama City-Panama City Beach, FL | $75,310 | $79,170 | 1,610 |
| Tuscaloosa, AL | $75,250 | $78,840 | 2,590 |
| Joplin, MO-KS | $74,930 | $76,820 | 2,670 |
| Valdosta, GA | $74,360 | $77,970 | 1,110 |
| Eagle Pass, TX | $73,660 | $79,150 | 340 |
| Cleveland, TN | $72,800 | $71,990 | 630 |
| Anniston-Oxford, AL | $72,730 | $73,080 | 990 |
| Decatur, AL | $68,320 | $70,530 | 960 |
| Dothan, AL | $67,430 | $70,540 | 1,940 |
| Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL | $66,360 | $71,440 | 1,320 |
Five of the ten are in Alabama. The median in San Jose is 3.3 times the median in Florence-Muscle Shoals for the same license.
Puerto Rico is a separate case. San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas, with 14,940 RNs, has a median of $41,980, and the other Puerto Rico metros are lower still.
Rural nursing: not always the pay cut people expect
BLS groups non-metro counties into regions. The top of that list beats most big cities.
| Nonmetropolitan area | Median | RNs employed |
|---|---|---|
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region of California | $135,560 | 1,610 |
| Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region of California | $135,270 | 1,290 |
| North Coast Region of California | $133,830 | 2,200 |
| Hawaii / Kauai | $127,060 | 1,970 |
| Central Oregon | $123,350 | 930 |
| Eastern Oregon | $114,060 | 1,190 |
| Coast Oregon | $110,690 | 2,340 |
| Alaska | $107,870 | 1,840 |
| Western Washington | $107,450 | 2,420 |
The rural North Coast of California has a higher median than Seattle ($128,260) or New York ($119,720).
At the other end, the lowest rural medians are in the Deep South: Northwest Alabama ($64,540), Lower East Mississippi ($65,040), and Southwest Alabama ($67,280).
Pay compared with local wages
Raw salary ignores what things cost. One rough check is to compare the RN median with the median for all jobs in the same metro. Among metros with at least 5,000 RNs:
| Metro | RN median | All-jobs median | RN pay multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $171,460 | $59,750 | 2.87x |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $133,940 | $48,400 | 2.77x |
| Stockton-Lodi, CA | $134,580 | $48,990 | 2.75x |
| Bakersfield-Delano, CA | $128,810 | $47,470 | 2.71x |
| Fresno, CA | $125,420 | $46,910 | 2.67x |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $216,740 | $84,050 | 2.58x |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $186,610 | $74,260 | 2.51x |
| McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | $80,540 | $35,830 | 2.25x |
| ... | |||
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $106,180 | $66,620 | 1.59x |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | $85,890 | $55,240 | 1.55x |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $102,710 | $71,060 | 1.45x |
Inland California stands out. Sacramento, Riverside, Stockton, Bakersfield, and Fresno pay nurses California wages in places where the typical worker earns much less than in the Bay Area. On this measure, nurses in Sacramento are better off relative to their neighbors than nurses in San Francisco.
McAllen, Texas is the most interesting non-California entry. Its RN median is below the national figure, but local wages are low enough that nurses there earn 2.25 times the typical worker.
Boston and Washington, D.C. are the opposite. Both pay above the national median, but nursing pay is a smaller step up from the local norm.
This ratio is not a cost-of-living index. It does not account for housing prices directly. It is a quick way to see how a nursing salary compares with the economy around it.
What to take from this
- Within-state moves can be worth more than cross-country moves. Moving from Tampa to Miami adds about $5,900 to the median. Moving from Fresno to Sacramento adds about $46,000 without changing state licenses.
- Do not use the state number for a metro offer. Benchmark against your metro's median and 90th percentile.
- Rural is not automatically lower. In California, Oregon, Hawaii, and Washington, rural regions pay above most U.S. metros.
These figures exclude overtime, shift differentials, and sign-on bonuses, so total earnings for many nurses will be higher.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, metropolitan and nonmetropolitan area data files (SOC 29-1141 Registered Nurses and all-occupations totals). Released May 2026. Ratios and differences calculated by NurseCompensation from the published BLS figures.