The federal government just put the national annual mean wage for registered nurses at $101,420. It's a useful map of the occupation. Used as a benchmark for the offer in your hand, it will quietly mislead you in both directions.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the figure on May 15, 2026, from wages collected in May 2025. The same release reports a mean hourly wage of $48.76 and a national median of $97,550 a year. Three numbers, three different jobs. None of them is the number on your offer letter.
A national average is a summary, not a going rate.
The mean ($101,420) and the median ($97,550) describe the same distribution two ways. The mean sits higher because a long tail of top earners pulls the average up: California ORs, CRNAs, 30-year veterans. Half of all RNs earn less than the median. Your offer lives somewhere on this line, and where it lives depends on things a national number can't see.
The distribution, in four marks: the 10th percentile sits at $68,940, the median at $97,550, the mean at $101,420, and the 90th percentile at $135,320.
Distribution of RN wages, United States. Source: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Occupational Outlook Handbook percentile bands.
The same title pays a $73,000 range.
Cross a state line and the "national" number stops describing you. State mean wages run from $77,020 in Alabama to $150,280 in California, nearly double, for the identical credential. A state mean is a better map than the national one. It's still a map.
Four points on that ruler: Alabama $77,020, Oklahoma $85,060, the national mean $101,420, California $150,280. That is a $73,260 spread between the highest and lowest paying states, same license.
The highest number rarely wins.
A state mean still can't see rent, taxes, or your commute. Adjust for cost of living and the leaderboard reshuffles. California posts the highest hourly wage in the country, and Oregon has the highest wage once cost of living is factored in. Oklahoma's headline "16% below national" nearly closes: an $85,060 salary there buys roughly what $95,000 to $96,000 buys in an average-cost city.
The state that pays most isn’t where you keep most.
California posts the highest sticker wage in the country. Adjust for what it costs to live there, and the leaderboard flips.
Hawaii nurses earn the 4th-highest sticker wage — and, after a 187 cost index, the lowest real pay in the country. Effectively 47% less than the number on the offer.
Read any offer in real dollars
Highest on paper: California, $150,280 nominal, first in the nation, falls behind once a cost-of-living index near 140 takes its cut. Purchasing power drops below several lower-paying states.
Highest in real dollars: Oregon, $120,470 nominal, third in the nation, first once adjusted. A strong wage against a moderate cost base makes it the country's top real-dollar market for RNs.
Nominal wages: BLS OEWS, May 2025. Cost-of-living ranking: Becker's Hospital Review / World Population Review, 2026.
The offer reality calculator.
Do it with your number. Enter a real offer: base hourly rate, guaranteed hours, shift differential, sign-on bonus, and your local cost of living. We'll annualize it on guaranteed hours only, no overtime, one-time money kept separate, then translate it into national dollars for where you live. That's the comparison the headline number can't make for you.
Annualized base pay
$74,880
In national dollars (cost-of-living adjusted)
$74,880
- National mean
- $101,420
- National mean · BLS OEWS, May 2025
- Posted annualized median
- $95,680
- Posted annualized median · 23,369 postings · Sep 10, 2026
- Gap vs benchmark, adjusted
- −26%
- vs. national mean, adjusted
Base pay only. It leaves out health premiums, retirement match or pension, PTO, education support, and childcare, which routinely outweigh a higher hourly rate. Use it to start the comparison.
Compare offers apples to apples.
Line two offers up on the same terms before you weigh them. For each role, get these on one page, then compare hourly with hourly and keep one-time money separate.
Rate and guaranteed hours
Base hourly and the hours you're guaranteed. Annualize every offer on the same hours assumption, or the comparison is already broken.
Differentials: nights, weekends, charge, float
Ask what you'll earn on the schedule you'll work, not the best-case rotation. A strong night differential can outrank a higher base you'll rarely work.
One-time money: sign-on, vesting, repayment
A sign-on bonus is not salary. Note the vesting schedule and what you owe if you leave early, then set it aside from the hourly comparison.
Benefits: premiums, retirement, leave, tuition
Health premiums, a retirement match or pension, paid leave, and education support routinely swing the value more than a dollar or two of hourly. A pension is worth naming a number for.
The conditions you'll earn it in
Orientation length, the staffing model, and the schedule you'll truly work. Commute, parking, licensing, and childcare come straight out of the paycheck.
The number moves most when the role does.
Geography and shift move your pay by thousands. Credential moves it by tens of thousands. If the offer in front of you is below where you want to be, the ladder is usually the bigger lever, and the city is the smaller one.
The ladder, in national medians: Registered Nurse $97,550, Nurse Midwife (CNM) $120,880, Nurse Practitioner (NP) $129,210, Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) $203,090.
National median wages. Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Use $101,420 to understand the landscape. Never use it to grade an offer on its own.
Notes
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (released May 15, 2026; USDL-26-0725). National RN mean $101,420, mean hourly $48.76.
- Becker's Hospital Review, RN pay by state, adjusted for cost of living (May 15, 2026). State range $77,020 (AL) to $150,280 (CA); Oregon highest adjusted.
- Becker's Hospital Review, RN median pay by state. National RN median $97,550.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Registered Nurses. Percentile bands; about 189,100 openings projected per year, 2024 to 2034.
- Nurse.org, Nurse Salary by State (2025 BLS data). About 3.38M RNs; 56% in hospitals; state year-over-year movement.
