Registered Nurse Salary
< This was going to be a page that talked about travel nurse salaries but it became one about registered nurse salaries. I did some research and it became clear that while travel nurses enjoy a number of perks from travel pay to completion bonuses that the salaries being reported to the U.S. Department of Labor and the various states reflect the average registered nurse salaries. These are usually reported as hourly or annual averages. The most current information from the government is 2003. I have not found anywhere where the registered nurse salaries and the travel nurse salaries are seperated out. Typically a travel nurses hourly rate is whatever the rate is in the area they travel too. It is usually the perks such as housing, double time for over time and bonuses that really increase the wages. National Registered Nurse SalariesIn 2003 the US Department of Labor statistics reports that there are more than 2.2 million registered nurses working in nursing. The annual mean registered nurse salary is $51230. This is calculated based on a full time registered nurse working 40 hours a week for a total of 2080 hours per year. This is a mean hourly registered nurse salary of $24.63 per hour. If you are like many nurses and you work three twelve hour shifts per week for a total of 36 hours per week you will only work 1872 hours per year. This translates into fewer dollars, $46107 annually. Remember these are averages with the lowest wage being several dollars less and the top wage potentially several dollars more. For example Alabama has a mean hourly wage of $21.54 per hour while California is $29.94. Literally, what this means is that a registered nurse in Alabama may have a starting wage as low as $15-16 per hour while a nurse with 10 years experience in California might be making $30-$35 per hour. I won’t discuss relative issues such as cost of living here. I have a brother who is convinced that the cost of living in California is not substantially higher than where I live in a semi-rural community in Washington State. BenefitsHave you ever wondered what some of the benefits are that come with your
registered nurse salary? Benefits like vacation, sick leave, education days,
401K or 403B and social security just to name a few. For a quick analysis check
out my
registered nurse salary benefits page State Registered Nurse Salaries
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