The State Where Nurses Make the Most Money

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 20, 10:30AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The State Where Nurses Make the Most Money — © SDI Productions / E+ via Getty Images

Being a nurse has become among the most difficult jobs in America. Much of this was due to the strain of the pandemic. A recent study by Zippia shows 95% of nurses have felt burned out in the past three years. (Here are the 23 deadliest jobs in America.)
[in-text-ad]
Research by Health Affairs shows the effects of the work of nurses. The data reveal that between 2020 and 2021, the number of registered nurses fell by 100,000. This bodes poorly for the future. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that America will need 275,000 new nurses within eight years.
[nativounit]
Pay for registered nurses may play a role. Beckers reports the average pay of nurses across America is $82,750. That is a relatively low $39.78 per hour.

Nursing pay varies substantially from state to state. It also varies compared to the median household income. For example, in Alabama, where nurse compensation is low compared to most states, annual nurse pay is $61,9329. That compares to the state average of all workers at $53,915. That is only a 13% premium.
[wallst_email_signup]
The state where nurses make the most money is California at $124,000, over double the Alabama figure. The median household income in California is $84,907, so the nurse pay premium is $41,000.
[recirclink id=1187250]
A major complaint about nursing compensation is that not all states have this California premium.

The problem with the absence of nurses hits large cities and small cities alike. In a very small city, a scarcity of nurses may mean there are none at all. In large cities, where many hospitals admit patients through the emergency room, there is inadequate coverage for the most seriously ill patients.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.