ICU nurse pay in California
$124,800median posted offer#1 of 44 states for ICU
ICU nurses in California are being offered a median $124,800 a year across 178 live postings that state pay — 20% above the national ICU median of $104,000. Updated September 10, 2026.
Where does your pay sit in ICU in California?
Checked against 178 live postings that state pay. Your number stays in your browser.
Enter your pay to see your percentile.
Posted offers on live listings — not take-home pay or a promise of what any one nurse will earn.
Other specialties in California
- Nursing Unit & Program Directors 9 postings$200k
- Infusion 55 postings$187k
- Executive Nurses & Nurse Administrators 22 postings$182k
- Interventional Radiology 5 postings$163k
- Cath Lab 5 postings$156k
- Gastroenterology 5 postings$153k
- Hospice & Palliative Medicine 9 postings$153k
- PCU 8 postings$151k
Or see all nurse pay in California (2,870 postings), or ICU pay across every state.
What to do with this
- See the rolesSee ICU roles in CaliforniaEvery posting behind these numbers is a live job you can open and apply to.
- Offer in hand?Run it through the offer reality calculatorTurn it into a full-year number, see what it's worth where you'd live, and compare offers side by side.
- 3-minute PULSEFind the work that brings out your bestPay is one axis. Your pace, decision style, connection, scope, and energy rhythm shape the rest.
- CommunityAsk nurses what they really take homeDifferentials, ratios, and the offer nobody posts. Bring your number and compare notes.
Want the craft behind the numbers — differentials, negotiating, travel packages? Read the pay & salary guides.
Questions nurses ask
- How much do ICU nurses make in California?
- Across 178 live ICU postings in California that state pay, the median offer is $124,800 a year. The middle half runs $103,704–$143,546, and the top 10% start at $157,976.
- Is California a good state for ICU nurses?
- On posted pay, California ranks #1 of 44 states for ICU. The median there is 20% above the national ICU median of $104,000. Pay is one axis — shift, ratios, and cost of living decide whether the job is worth it.
- Where do these numbers come from?
- Midpoint of stated salary ranges on live nursing job postings; values outside $20,000–$800,000/yr treated as parse artifacts and excluded; groups under 5 postings suppressed. Headline figures blend every employment type; `employmentTypes` splits the same postings into staff, travel, PRN and agency bands, each annualized on the posting's own stated terms (weekly travel rates at 52 weeks), so a rate is only ever ranked against its own band. Community-reported figures are anonymous, unverified, and reported separately.