Comparing A Nurses' Salary

janetrose · Jan 18, 2013

I never really give much thought to the pay spread. A nursing assistant makes less than me and says they do most of the work. Whatever. I know the truth is the more you make the more you spend.

Feliza · Jan 18, 2013

I make >$100,000 working part time as a nurse practitioner. Love my job. The money is secondary bonus.

jennifer Martinez · Jan 24, 2013

Are you an actual nurse or an assistant?

Loodlow · Jan 24, 2013

I am finally making a 6 figure salary, but have 30 years experience and work in management. I would prefer working with patients but it would be hard to give up the income.

Batya · Aug 7, 2016

The problem with looking at salaries is there will be a wide range of looking at the entire U.S. A nurse here in Georgia will not make nearly the same as a nurse in California due to cost of living. Even a nurse in Augusta, Ga can expect to make less than a nurse in Atlanta, Ga.

Eljay60 · Oct 16, 2016

Nursing starting salaries aren't horrible, particularly for an Associate degree. The problem is there is virtually no increase for experience. In other professions, moving to a different employer usually means a salary bump; in bedside nursing, your ten years of ICU experience get you one step above a new grad on the pay scales. And as the joke goes -What do you call a nurse with a bad back? Unemployed.....

MionePhoenix · Oct 16, 2016

I'm a new grad RN and make just shy of $48000 gross.

mmorani44 · Oct 17, 2016

Where are all of these nurses working that are only making 30 to 65,000 a year. I have only been a nurse for 9 years and currently gross 90,000.00 in a small community hospital NEAR Boston. Those salaries are an insult considering what we do.

txangel67 · Nov 30, 2016

kabooski said:

30K to 60K is such a wide net, which means this is nothing more than a recruiting drive. I predict starting wages to stay frozen, if not actually decline. It's all about supply vs demand. There is too much supply; I remember the good-old-days, when one would be offered $5000 sign-on bonus.

Supply in my area is low. And 60k is starting pay.

Nursinggal79 · Nov 30, 2016

I'm an lpn and i make over 35,000 a yr. I wouldn't start off at a lower salary than i make now. Rn's in hospitals make about 25 or more an hr so how is that only 30,000 a yr?

anitalaff, BSN, RN · Nov 30, 2016

I'm a new grad RN and I work as an RPN and an RN in the community (depending on level of care required) so my wages are mixed. Also, community work has a reputation for lower pay than hospital work. The situation in my area is that hospitals are eliminating RN positions, and using RPNs and PSWs to do the work (that's another story). It looks as though my annual will be around 50k this year.

VegGal, BSN, RN · Dec 9, 2016

Brian said:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports employment among Registered Nurses will grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2018. They also report that large metropolitan cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, etc will be hiring the most nursing jobs.
According to PayScale, new Registered Nurses (RNs) earn between $30,233 - $63,540 per year (2012). That's not bad compared to other professions.

How do you feel about your salary compared to other professions?

As a new RN (without a BSN when I first started), but with several years of LVN experience, I started at about 75K based on an hourly wage of 40 hrs/wk, in a suburb of Los Angeles. The cost of housing is very high of course, when compared with a couple other states where I've lived, and state taxes are high as well, so I'm not sure if the extra money makes up for these higher expenses, but I'm grateful for it.

Friends in other fields of work, for example a tech writer, an engineer and a geologist in my area, all with over 15 years of experience each make between 90K (geologist and engineer) and 115K (tech writer), so I think my wage is fair when considering their years of experience.