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Top 10 Best and Worst States to Be a Nurse
NursingLink.com and CareerVoyages.gov
There is a projected need for 1,001,000 nurses needed in the United States by 2016. Nurses are one of the most in demand professions in America, but with so many job openings, it begs the question: Where should you work? NursingLink is committed to providing its members with the most most pertinent career research available. Below is the 10 best and worst places to be a Nurse based on salary and job openings.
Top 10 Highest Nurse Paying States
| State | Salary (hourly) |
| 1. California | $25.45 |
| 2. Hawaii | $24.76 |
| 3. Massachusetts | $23.38 |
| 4. New Jersey | $23.33 |
| 5. Alaska | $23.09 |
| 6. Delaware | $22.98 |
| 7. Oregon | $22.91 |
| 8. Nevada | $22.83 |
| 9. Maryland | $22.79 |
| 10. Connecticut | $22.62 |
Lisa072288
almost 5 years ago
2 comments
PLEASE HELP! I am 19 years old and I am attending a community college taking my gen eds. I want so badly to transfer to a four year school and become a nurse. I would love to be a nurse practitioner, that works in the labor and delivery unit (fingers crossed). I am just having a hard time finding answers. Everyone I talk to basically puts me down saying "nursing programs are very selective, and with you being a transfer student it is going to be very hard to get accepted". I just don't understand how I am going to complete my goal. If anyone has answers, please let me know!
Thanks you
clnc_fnp
almost 5 years ago
6 comments
I am a nurse pracitioner and make 90,000.00 per year and most of the other NP's here do also, I do not think this article is correct. I also feel that if schools would provide evening and weekend classes, so working women who want to become nurses could attend, we would impace the shortage in nursing. There also needs to be flexibility for the students to do clinicals in local facilities especially in the current economic crisis we are in. There are a great deal of things that could be done, which over the past 35 years of my experience in nursing has never been addressed. Grass root efforts should take place in every state to improve the ability for anyone who wants to be nurse to become one.
lippy
almost 5 years ago
2 comments
I agree. Health care in the US would not be like it is if a nurse was president
wildnursexxx
almost 5 years ago
10 comments
Nurses from everywhere need to band together instead of tearing each other apart and rally for higher wages and benefit plans. I feel we as nurses could mandate and control health care in the United States. Let's have a nurse run for President!!!!
wildnursexxx
almost 5 years ago
10 comments
I work in Michigan and found these results unbelievable. Was this for hospitals only and how much experience are they talking about? I make over $96,000 annually in the home care industry as a Director. This article says it all-we're underpaid.
theala
almost 5 years ago
418 comments
I lived in North Dakota for two years. One job, I got $12/hour, less than I'd made as an LPN in Maryland. The employers treat staff like crap: mandatory overtime, heavy loads, sending people home for low census AFTER they show up to work. I was so glad to leave. In California I made on average $7/hour more than the chart lists.
prisonprincess
almost 5 years ago
8 comments
I'm an RN in mn, work in a prison, and make $35.04/hr
Butterfly8
almost 5 years ago
18 comments
I made 23-25 dollars as an LPN. As a RN, I now make 30 dollars as a base rate. Most hospitals in Philadelphia start graduate nurses at 25 -25.50/hr. Thoses rates are extremely low. And what about Texas. I heard Texas paid their nurses the best.
Account Removed
almost 5 years ago
At a local hopsital where i used to work, we had a lot of overseas nurses being recruited for big bucks, more pay that the regular nurse, needing presepturing with our nurses not getting extra pay for this and their incentive to come here included their spouses coming along and thus after a short period of time and great pay compared to their countries, we have new citizens and our nurses are out of a position and pay. Why not up our anti- pay us more, offer us the Fresh Time, which is O/T after your 3 12's for the extra money. Crazy No? Why are we treated so bad for putting ourselves on the line daily and more so now a days to disease and such, do we get hazardous duty pay as the military does? I don't think so.... and why not?
nbb
almost 5 years ago
6 comments
I'm Shocked, I have been hearing for the last 3 years that the average Nurse in the state of California starts off making around $70,000 a year.
nbb
almost 5 years ago
6 comments
I'm shocked, I have been hearing for the last 3 years that the average Nurse in California starts off making $70,000 a year.
jesusfreak
almost 5 years ago
18 comments
I live in Michigan and make $24-25/Hr. Some Hospitals here have nice incentives for night shift! Alot of Hosptials period though are being staffed by agency because in this profession, lets face it, we need higher pay! Right now Agency is the way to go! 38-42/per hour
veemoney117
almost 5 years ago
2 comments
I don't understand.. If the shortage is so severe and nurses are leaving the field for better pay.. Why not raise the salary? How do administration expect for a ANY nurse in this time of inflation and resession to stay within the nursing field if the pay stays the same and how we are treated in the field? Short staffed, under appreciated and low pay.. Come on!!! Wake up!!
ayg1968
almost 5 years ago
6 comments
I am in Mississippi (as an RN floor nurse) and am making 22.50 after only 3 years as an RN. These salaries seem awfully low for areas where the cost of living is so much higher than here in Mississippi. I think I will stay in Mississippi where property and goods are much cheaper.
mwaldron14905
almost 5 years ago
2 comments
NYS has one of the greatest nursing shortages of the country. We are down 8.7% and its only getting worse. The only way to make decent money as a nurse is in the government were they start around 35-40k per year, I thought about going into the field and changed my mind based on the pay scales for our community (Elmira NY). Instead,
I just graduated college with a B.S. degreei in Human Services due to the fact that we have a shortage of CASAC's (Cred, Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselors), which is what I am working towards now.