How realistic is this...

the pay is very high in new york and CA because the cost of living is much higher.. take a look on craigslist and research how much apartments/houses cost in those areas.. it pretty much equals out.

Make sense, but as a single person with no family is that is still pretty good pay?

I'm from NY - I relocated to GA a few years ago because the cost of living in NY was just way too much for me and what I was trying to achieve.

IMO - it tends to balance itself out for the most part (except buying a home and size)- In GA I will be paid less but my cost of living is less. IN NY you get paid more but the cost of living is significantly more. When you take everything into consideration, its not like NY nurses are coming off way better than everywhere else because you have to factor in cost of living. But even for NY, I think nursing salaries are still pretty decent.

Another thing to consider- And since you are not yet in nursing school, hopefully by the time you finish, the economy will be much better. The job market is tough all around and sometimes its harder in some places than others. I'm hearing all the time that it is super hard in NY for new grads. I would not move to NY without a job. Its a tough place to be unemployed.

Oh wow thanks that's helpful. I have a question, do you have a family? I keep thinking of things as me being single without any children, I know life is unexpected but I know I want kids in my late 20's (like 28), and a child alone a lot of money. Just curious.

I have a son in college. Sure being single with no kids, your expenses will be less than someone with kids. No matter where you are. However, you really have to factor the housing market and overall cost of living if you plan to move to NY or the West Coast. Its not that its harder to be a nurse in those places thats why they are paid more. Its that the cost of living/housing is a lot more in those places.

what everyones kind of getting at here is even if you are single, you most likely wont be better off at the places that pay $60 hour for a nursing job because a studio apartment in those places is about $1000+ a month.. thats 52,000 a year to live there. i live in PA, the starting salary for new grads in my area is about 22/hr, and i recently BOUGHT a 4 bedroom house for around 60,000. so my house cost about what renting a small studio apartment in NYC costs for a year.

it may be benificial to maybe live somewhere cheaper like NJ, and commute to NY or Philly for a high paying job, but still be able to take advantage of lower costs of living, but like PP said it is very hard to get a new grad job in some of these places anyway. and the commute is probably aggravating.

Exactly Ashley. When I lived in NY. Quite a number of people I knew lived in the Poconos, NJ or way upstate NY (upstate NY is nothing like NYC) and commuted.

Also, OP - salaries across the country reflect the cost of living for that state. It doesn't really matter what the profession is. If you look at teaching salaries in NY, it will be more than teaching salaries in GA. Even for the blue collar, not so glamourous jobs. One of my family members cleans hotel rooms in NY - she makes $18 per hr doing that. Here in GA - she checked because she was trying to transfer - she would make $10 per hr in GA- same hotel chain. Its all about what it costs to live in that state.

oh yeah i forgot about the Poconos, a lot of people commute to NY from there and it is a beautiful place to live!

Not sure if anyone mentioned this - but CA and NY are two places where it's more difficult to find a nursing job right now.