2015 allnurses Salary Survey Results

allnurses.com conducted its first annual Salary Survey in January 2015 to find how various variables such as education level, licensure, experience, geographic location, and even gender affect nursing salary. More than 18,800 respondents provided some very interesting and credible data.

The Survey

In January 2015, allnurses.com invited members and readers holding an active nursing license via the allnurses site as well as newsletters, emails and facebook to participate in a 10-minute online survey about nursing salaries. Respondents were asked 20 questions to characterize their educational background (degree, license), main roles as nurses, employer type, experience level, geographic location, etc....... After just 2 weeks from January 22 through February 3, more than 18,800 responses were received.

After reviewing the results, feel free to post your questions and comments. We can all learn from each other's input.

Respondent Profile

As shown in Figure 1, the majority of the respondents have a Bachelor's or Associate's Degree in Nursing(39.23% and 38.89% respectively), followed by Diploma (14.81%), Master's Degree in Nursing (6.38%), PhD (0.29%), Doctor of Nursing Practice(0.29%), and Doctor of Nursing Science(0.10%). With the difference in the number of BSN (6,891) and Associate (6,831) respondents so slim, it will be interesting to see what effect the mandates of some health systems requiring BSN or higher will have on these numbers in future surveys. To see what allnurses readers are already saying about this, go to BSN and Associate Nurses are Neck and Neck. Will this change?

FIGURE 1

39percent-nurses-have-bsn-degree.jpg

Figure 2 shows that the majority of respondents were overwhelmingly RNs (82.39%). A couple of questions this brings to mind: are fewer nurses beginning their career as LPNs/LVNs (14.84%), and will the number of APRNs (2.09%) increase fast enough to help meet the needs of a rapidly growing population in need of more autonomous healthcare providers.

FIGURE 2

82percet-registered-nurses.jpg

When asked, "Are you a manager or supervisor?" 17.58% (3,316) responded YES, while 82.42% (15,542) answered NO.

In response to the question, "What percentage of time is spent in direct patient care?", half of the respondents(51.85%) spend 75-100% of their time in direct patient care while 8.79% spend less than 5% in direct patient care. (Figure 3)

FIGURE 3

nurses-spend-time-direct-patient-care.jpg

It's not any surprise that the survey revealed that 92.26% of respondents are female and 7.74% are male.

FIGURE 4

92percent-nurses-are-female.jpg

FIGURE 5

80percent-nurses-hourly-employee.jpg

Experience: Figure 6 show that 62% of the respondents have 10 years or less experience.

FIGURE 6

nurses-have-less-than-10-years-experience.jpg

Additional demographic of our respondents:

  • 82% work full-time; 11% part time; 7% other
  • 55% work at a Not-for-Profit facility
  • Facility Size: 25.47% less than 100; 21.45% = 100-300; 15.93% = 300-800; 11.94% = 800 - 1500; 11.54% = 1500 - 3000; 13.67% = more than 3000
  • Population Setting: 45.38% Urban; 32.15% Suburban; 22.47% Rural
  • 56% of nurses work in a hospital. To see the other places that top the list, read Where Do Most Nurses Work?

FIGURE 7

82percent-nurses-work-fulltime.jpg

FIGURE 8

55percent-nurses-work-not-for-profit.jpg

FIGURE 9 - Total Number of Respondents by Primary Specialty

Compensation

The interactive charts below will allow you to customize your view to include various filters that will affect the range of figures shown. You can do this by selecting items in the drop down menus at the top of the charts. Be sure to hover your cursor over the chart for more details.

These salary figures do account for cost of living indexes, which can greatly affect the value of salaries. Generally, the cost of living is highest on the West Coast and in the Northeast. The states in the South, Midwest, and sections of the Mountain West have the lowest cost of living. For more discussion about this, please read What States Pay the Highest and Lowest Nursing Salaries?

Although women dominate the nursing profession, do men make more money? - Read what our readers have said. Look at interactive graphs below and see what you think.

FIGURE 10 - Annual Salary Base Pay by Gender

FIGURE 11 - HourlyBase Pay by Gender

FIGURE 12

FIGURE 13

FIGURE 14

FIGURE 15 - Avg Salary by Degree/State

FIGURE 16 - Annual Salary by Degree/State

FIGURE 17 - Avg Annual Salary + Hourly Pay by Degree/State

FIGURE 18 - Annual Salary + Hourly Pay by Degree/State

Specializes in Outpatient/Clinic, ClinDoc.
i.see.youRN said:
Well I believe us upstate people are weighing the averages down... The base pay in my hospital is $24/hr and there are area hospitals that pay even less.

I agree, upstate NY RN pay will take the NYC numbers WAY down. ? I've been a nurse for 25 years and I don't even make close to the salary shown for NY..

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Yes agree, I live in IL for instance. The nurses who reside in Chicago bring in the bring bucks while those of us that live in the cornfields bring in the considerably less.

i.see.youRN said:
Well I believe us upstate people are weighing the averages down... The base pay in my hospital is $24/hr and there are area hospitals that pay even less.

Yeah I do know upstate makes way less. Even in westchester. I started for a year in a westchester county hospital and made $35/HR...

Guess I'll stick with the nyc hospitals..

Specializes in ICU.

Central California, 36 hour/week on 12 hour shifts, 10 years RN experience, operating room, $56 hourly pay, $double time pay after 12 hours, $8/hour for on call, $6/hour night shift differential, no weekend differential, health insurance for me alone costs $60/month, dental, vision, 401K with 6% match, 6.48 hours PTO every 2 weeks, 18 paid hours per year for education, a few more small benefits.....

Specializes in GENERAL.
HDFXDWGRN said:
Central California, 36 hour/week on 12 hour shifts, 10 years RN experience, operating room, $56 hourly pay, $double time pay after 12 hours, $8/hour for on call, $6/hour night shift differential, no weekend differential, health insurance for me alone costs $60/month, dental, vision, 401K with 6% match, 6.48 hours PTO every 2 weeks, 18 paid hours per year for education, a few more small benefits.....

Hovel of a house 1800 sq ft $750.000. All relative.

Specializes in ICU.
Buyer beware said:
Hovel of a house 1800 sq ft $750.000. All relative.

It's not all relative. In and around San Fran, San Diego, or L.A., yes, but not where we live. In the midwest where pay is dismal, a comparable house is close to what it is here. Plenty of nice homes in my ZIP code for less than $350,000. I lived and worked in 9 states and D.C. This is by far the best pay for the lowest cost of living. A new nurse at our facility starts out with 4.5 weeks PTO a year. Takes me 20 minutes to drive to work, no traffic jams, toll roads, etc.

Buyer beware said:
Hovel of a house 1800 sq ft $750.000. All relative.

Poster stated his location, why did you refer to a different location?

California is huge with a very diverse demographic. I live an hour from this referenced poster. We rent out a nice newer home for $1,300/month. $56/hr plus all of the differentials and benefits is a good lifestyle and no where remotely to the costs of living in the Bay Area.

Edit.

this might be more accurate than I first thought. I can't quite work the interactive feature on my iPad, I'll try again on a computer.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

Tampa FL

$27.63 base + 19% night diff + 25% weekend diff

3 years RN/BSN

Med Surg

Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.
Buyer beware said:
Hovel of a house 1800 sq ft $750.000. All relative.

You are quoting San Francisco housing costs....central California is about 4 hours from there and you can get a nice home around 300k. I live in Northern California, 2 hours from the Bay Area, I make 77$ an hour on swings, fully benefitted. My mortgage is a whopping 290k.

Can't justify other states because my cost of living is quite similar to what I've seen in other locations, but the wages are not.

Specializes in ICU.

This is awesome and very helpful. It looks like for my degree, years of experience, and where I live, I make a few thousand more than the average you found as my base pay, and a whole lot more with the overtime I rack up. That makes me feel better about my pay.

Lpn, diploma, new grad. 2 jobs: charge nurse psych facility 24.50/ hr no differential double time OT. Skilled home care 25.50/hr 3.00 weeked/night differential +5 an hour for each patient added to monitor at once. Scottsdale, az