RN Salary by State: Sourced BLS Wage Ranges for 2026

Reviewed May 22, 2026 by the ScrubScope editorial team.

RN salary by state varies by tens of thousands of dollars around the national median of $93,600 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported for registered nurses in May 2024 ^[1]. Half of RNs earned more than that nationally, half less. The figure you personally land on is decided less by your years on the floor than by which state line you practice inside. That state gap is the part most salary roundups skip, and it is the part this page sources.

The short answer

If you want one defensible national number for a registered nurse in 2026, it is the BLS May 2024 median of $93,600, with the bottom tenth of the distribution near $66,030 and the top tenth above $135,320 ^[1]. That is a roughly $70,000 spread inside a single occupation code. Geography is the largest single reason the spread exists.

Two things are worth knowing before you read another RN pay chart. First, BLS reports registered-nurse wages by state and by industry, not by your shift differential, your overtime, or your sign-on bonus, so the government figure is base wage and nothing else. Second, the highest-paying state and the cheapest state to live in are almost never the same place, which means a headline state ranking tells you less than it looks like it does. Cost of living eats part of every state gap, but not all of it.

How BLS reports RN wages

The occupation code is 29-1141, registered nurses, and BLS publishes it two ways that matter here. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, or OEWS, gives national and state estimates once a year. The Occupational Outlook Handbook summarizes the same survey in plain language and is the easiest primary source to quote for the national median ^[1].

The vintage matters. The figures on this page are the May 2024 OEWS release, the most recent full survey BLS has published as a complete state set. When BLS releases a newer vintage, the national median will move, but the structural point will not: state remains the dominant lever, and the OEWS state file is where the state-by-state numbers live ^[2].

One survey caveat worth flagging, because it shows up in any honest state comparison: BLS noted that data quality issues kept at least one state out of the May 2024 state set, so a complete fifty-state ranking from a single release is not always available. Treat any chart that claims a clean ranking for all fifty states with mild suspicion, and check it against the BLS state file ^[2].

What the state gap looks like

The cleanest way to see the geography effect is to put the national median next to the high end.

California is the standout. Its state mean of roughly $148,330 in the May 2024 release runs more than $50,000 above the national median, and other West Coast and Northeast states cluster well above the national figure too ^[2]. At the other end, the lowest-paying states sit closer to that $66,030 bottom-tenth figure, and the most populous states by employment, places like Texas and Florida, are not the same as the highest-paying ones. The biggest job markets and the biggest paychecks are different maps.

A practical read: the same RN credential, the same license, and the same number of years of experience can be $40,000 to $50,000 apart on the BLS table purely because of the state. Specialty, certification, and degree level all move the number, but none of them moves it the way a state line does.

What the BLS figure does not include

The government number is base wage. It is honest, it is comparable across states, and it is incomplete in a specific way you should understand before you treat it as your real income.

It does not include overtime, which for many hospital RNs is a meaningful share of take-home pay. It does not include shift differentials for nights and weekends. It does not include sign-on bonuses, which travel nurses and high-demand specialties may see. And it does not adjust for cost of living, which is the single most important adjustment for anyone comparing two states.

That cost-of-living point is worth a hard look. A California mean near $148,330 is a large number, but California housing costs are also large, and a registered nurse comparing a California offer to a Midwest offer is not comparing two numbers on the same scale ^[2]. The defensible move is to take the BLS state figure, then adjust it down for housing and tax before you compare. A high gross wage in an expensive state can clear less than a moderate wage in a cheap one.

What moves the number besides state

Geography is the largest lever, but it is not the only one.

Setting is the second. BLS reports RN wages by industry, and a nurse in a hospital, a nurse in a physician's office, and a nurse in a school or nursing home do not sit at the same point on the distribution. Hospital and specialty settings generally pay above the office and long-term-care end of the range.

Experience is the third. A new graduate a year out of the NCLEX is rarely at the median, and the RNs pulling the top tenth above $135,320 are typically experienced, often in a high-acuity specialty, and often picking up overtime on top of base ^[1].

Education is the fourth, and it is the one with a real decision attached. Whether a BSN pays more than an ADN is a separate and frequently misunderstood question, and the honest answer is more about hiring access than about a guaranteed wage bump. We treat it directly in the BSN vs ADN salary comparison. If you are an ADN-prepared RN weighing the bridge, the RN-to-BSN program overview lays out the route, and whether an online nursing degree is worth it covers the broader return-on-investment math.

Using the number well

The mistake the salary roundups encourage is treating the national median as your number. It is not. Your number is the BLS figure for your state and your setting, adjusted down for what it actually costs to live there.

If you are deciding between two states, do this in order. Start with the BLS state mean for each. Adjust each one down for housing and state income tax. Then weigh the non-wage factors, because they are real: scope-of-practice rules differ by state, the job market differs by state, and your support network and licensing situation differ too. The state with the bigger gross wage is not automatically the better move.

And if your real question is whether to advance the credential at all, the registered-nurse number is only one input. The other is what the program costs you and how long it takes to break even. For the advanced-practice direction, the NP salary overview and the NP salary by state page carry the sourced figures.

Bottom line

The defensible RN number for 2026 is the BLS May 2024 median of $93,600, inside a real national range from roughly $66,000 to above $135,000 ^[1]. State is the largest single mover of where you land inside that range, with California's mean near $148,330 sitting more than $50,000 above the national median ^[2]. Use the figure for your state and setting, adjust it for cost of living, and never let a headline national number drive a relocation or an enrollment decision.

Reported wages are averages, not promises; individual outcomes vary by employer, setting, and experience. ScrubScope routes inquiries to the schools you choose and does not make admissions or financial-aid decisions; see our full disclosure.

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