The best and worst states to be an RN in 2012
Where the highest nursing salaries are
California continues to rank as the highest-paying state for RNs, with the annual pay across all of the state’s major cities ranging from around $90,000 to more than $100,000. The BLS reports the following as the mean hourly wages for RNs in the states that are currently paying the most:
- California: $42.06 hourly mean wage
- New York: $35.58 hourly mean wage
- Texas: $31.82 hourly mean wage
- Pennsylvania: $31.29 hourly mean wage
- Florida: $30.29 hourly mean wage
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Cynthia Dusseault is a professional freelance writer with both a health and an education background. A former medical radiation technologist and elementary school teacher, she realized that no matter what she did, she was drawn to any task that involved writing, so she decided, over a decade ago, to write full-time. Since then, she has written for a variety of magazines and websites including Nursing PRN, National Review of Medicine, University Affairs, Your Health, Education Leaders Today, Today's Parent, Children's Playmate, WeightWatchers.ca and many more.
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South Alabama is over-saturated with RNs, and due to this, the pay rates are very low and positions can be difficult to come by. Raises were suspended at my Hospital of employment in 2007 and have not resumed. Speaking to other nurses in the area, I have found them to be in similar situations. We can only hope the situation will turn around soon, but I would look into this before considering relocating to the Mobile area.
I have to disagree with your article. Nuses in Denver who are new grads and have families are stuck. They churn out hundreds of new grads every 4 months without a thougt as to where they will find work. They report getting at least 120 to 200 applications for each position. Have you read the medscape article? I can tell you that it is the truth.
Somewhere it should be added in for the REASON Calif. is highest paid…Because it costs soooo darn much to live there! Nurses shouldn’t flock to CA just because the wage LOOKS higher…once you factor in state income tax, ect. one realizes you MUST make atleast 100K and even then, you are lucky if you can afford groceries! We left CA in 2006 and moved to WA…my husb & I combined pulled in over 175K and I worked TWO nursing jobs just to pay bills and we NEVER saw our kids because we were working ALL the time just to live! In Seattle, our cost of living was cut by 2/3s. Yes two-thirds. My wage is less but we actually take home more! Plus we are able to watch our boys grow up..in fact, my husband (who works for Costco) was able to go parttime! Our kids became the biggest winner in this move and I can honestly say it was the BEST move we ever made!
Nursing is a field that is predominantly female to date, whether we like it or not. I made the decision, with my then husband, to stay home with the children. Now that I need to return to work as a single mother, the doors are all shut for me because I was out of work so long. I find nursing to be family unfriendly. Am I being “punished” for having chosen to stay home with my boys? I have no family that could have helped at the time and was unable to work, in part, because of serious marital problems. I hear about the horrible shortage of nurses yet no one will hire me. I believe that there are many nurses like me out there who have no voice. I have met some that have had to lie to get hired. The options are unacceptable. Hospitals will hire a new grad over me. What is the difference really? I have offered to work for less pay but have been rejected over and over again. Saadly , I have been a patient recently several times and clearly the new graduates have less skill than I. For a profession that is predominantly female, it is a very hostile towards mothers. When I graduated from nursing school, I had never even given someone an injection, yet new grads have open doors. Furthermore, some of the new grads are much younger and will have families and there will be much more mobility among them. I keep hearing about the nursing shortages, yet no one will hire me. How could I tell my children or others that nursing is a great career, when I have not found that to be true? I cannot. I would actually discourage any young person from going that route.
RN
Registered Nurse
I have to totally disagree with Florida being a great place to be a nurse. Were did they come up with nurses making an average of $30 an hr (must live in the wrong part of Florida) I have been a nurse for 13 years and have worked in Florida for almost 8 years and I don’t make that much. In fact I still make less than what I did when I moved down here. I was told the cost of living is less, like heck it was. People seem to think because you are a nurse you can find a job anywhere that their is a shortage of nurses really were because I can’t seem to find a job that pays what I need in the field that I wont.
RN
Registered Nurse
I’m also in the Mobile area. I have been a nurse for 23 years. Took off a few years ago to take care of a sick family member. Now I’m having a difficult time finding a job. There are too many nursing schools here. The pay is bad. And I don’t see things changing here anytime soon. I’m afraid the only alternative is to move, but now is not the time to sell a house. Unemployed and stuck between a rock and a hard place. All I have to say, if you have a job right now be thankful.
I definitely agree with Texas being on the best places to go list! I recently moved to Houston from Cleveland, Ohio where I had been laid off (yes RNs are getting LAID OFF)…Even prior to that, jobs were scarce and raises were suspended. I was making 25.00/hr in the ICU! I currently work a Med/Surg/Tele floor in Houston and make 31.00/hr… The cost of living is very reasonable (property taxes are a little high in some places I hear), and there are no state income taxes. I found that there is still lots of competition for jobs despite the huge amount of renowned medical facilities here, and I expect it to get worse as these schools continue to harvest new grads like crops!!! I have very few complaints though!
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