RNs, does your salary let you live cormfortably?

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How are you RNs does your salary let you live cormfortably. What is the median salary now. States such as NY and CA thank you!

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

Jon, this is a pre-nursing forum. Most of the readers here are students who are preparing for nursing school. Your question is best asked where you will find more registered nurses reading. Perhaps the mods can move? I will suggest that they do that.

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Thread moved to General Nursing forum.

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Specializes in Legal, Ortho, Rehab.

I've worked in Cali. I knew RNs making $50+/hr, BUT, they had years behind them, and worked registry (kinda like agency work). I can't speak for NY. However, keep in mind that in CA and NY cost of living is high, and the universe evens things out.

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True. I checked on salary.com but i dont trust it even though it may be 85% accurate. I want to know real life wages in CA and NY

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Most salaries in NYC are around 70-74K a year not including night diff, if you work nights you could make around 80 and this is as a new grad. Some hospitals add on 1,000 a year for every year of experience. These salaries are lower if you live upstate NY.

This is considered a comfortable salary depending on what you want. If you make $39 bucks an hour, after taxes you'll bring home around $3500 a month. Rent for a STUDIO will run you about 800-1100 a month (and I'm not even talking about Manhattan). If you have no prior debt then you can live pretty well off of it depending on your lifestyle. However if you have car insurance, credit card loans, school loans ect you might have a tough time. You'll be much better off if you're not paying the bills alone. I plan to stay with my parents a year after I get my first job so I can save some money (but I told them I would pay rent even if they didn't ask me to) and pay back my student loans before I consider moving out on my own. I'm pretty good at stretching money so I think I can live pretty well off this but I'm also single with no kids, no car, no prior debt aside from school loans.

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Thats good. Now i know that i can live comfortable while i take classes to become an NP.

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Specializes in ICU.

For California, salaries can vary GREATLY in different parts of the state. Some places you start at $24 or so an hour, and others at $50 an hour, for hospital jobs for new grads. So you really really have to look at what part of the state you're thinking about.

And then also take into consideration that cost of living can vary greatly in different parts of the state. I live in Central CA, where cost of living is decent for CA (ex. $750 for a 2 bedroom apartment, you can get a NICE 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house in a good neighborhood for $200,000) and wages range from high 20s to mid 30s for new grads, just depending on the hospitals in this area.

Versus in for example SF, where yes, you'll probably make $45-50 an hour, but you also may be paying $1200 for a very small apartment.

California can't be generalized into an "average salary" and "average cost of living", it is too big and too diverse.

But a plus side for Cali..... nurse/patient ratios are a law. Med/surg is 5:1, ICU (where I work) is 2:1.

That's a big plus in my book, I hear stories of nurses talking about taking 8 or 9 patients on med/surg and I can't even imagine. Kudos to them for being able to handle it.

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I have a friend who makes $25/hr base and $7/hr for nights and $7/hr for weekends. He typically works all nights and most weekends and works five 12-hr shifts a week so he's got more $$ then he knows what to do with! (Single, under 30, no kids). This is in Ohio.

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Wow i would do the same thing to

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

You can definitely live comfortably as a nurse. I work in the DC Metro area and make around $65,000/year. I am able to live comfortably, and save some money for grad school.

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Would any of you consider becoming an NP or any of the other advanced practice

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