How Much Do Nurses Make? RN Salary
Wondering how much nurses make? I worked as a bedside RN myself and now work as a nurse practitioner — so I have firsthand experience with RN pay, plus plenty of colleagues who've helped me understand the full picture.
Is money why nurses do what they do? Of course not — nurses get into nursing because they care and want to help people. But let's be honest: it's also a career with decent pay, good benefits, and strong job security. Money is a serious consideration before any career decision, so here's a realistic look at what you can expect to earn.
How Much Do Nurses Make?
You can google this and get a general estimate, but the problem is it's not specific to you or your earning potential. A quick search on Glassdoor reports the average RN salary in the US at about $65,870/year. But nurses are almost never paid a true "salary" — they're paid hourly.
Most hospital RN jobs are 36 hours per week, or 1,872 hours per year. By that math, Glassdoor's figure works out to an average of about $35.19/hour. I have colleagues who make this — and others who make far less. So that number alone doesn't tell you much, especially as a new grad. Medscape's RN/LPN Compensation report put the average RN hourly rate around $38/hour, but again that blends every setting and experience level together.
Factors That Influence Nurse Pay
To understand how much you can make, consider your education and certifications, where you work, which clinical setting, how much experience you have, what kind of contract you have, and which shift you work.
1. Education & Certifications
The type of education and certifications you hold directly affects your pay.
Degree
Bedside RNs can hold various degrees — diploma, ADN, BSN, MSN, even doctorates like the DNP. Most bedside RNs hold a BSN or lower; those with a master's or above usually work in management, infection control, or education rather than at the bedside. About half of bedside nurses have a BSN, which can mean higher pay than an ADN or diploma RN.
That ~$5K/year gap may not sound like much, but it can equal a few more dollars an hour.
Certifications
Nurses can take certification exams to specialize — for example the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) or Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN). As an incentive, many facilities pay a few more dollars per hour for holding a specialty certification.
2. Experience
A major driver of RN salary is experience. As in most fields, the more experience you have, the more you can make — both because of the knowledge you bring and because experienced RNs know their worth and negotiate better.
That's nearly a $20K/year difference for experience per Medscape, and Glassdoor supports a similar $15–20K spread. The same pattern holds true for nurse practitioners.
3. Location
Where you practice has a huge effect on RN salary. How much do nurses make in California versus Indiana? NYC versus rural Texas? Geography is one of the biggest variables in your paycheck.
That's a $64K pay difference based purely on location (per Glassdoor). But cost of living matters — you may not have as much disposable income at $115K in San Francisco as the number suggests. In general the West Coast offers the best pay, followed by New England and the NYC area, while the Midwest and rural states tend to pay less. Even within one state, urban areas generally pay more than rural ones.
4. Clinical Setting
Your clinical setting affects pay regardless of experience or location. The highest-paying settings are inpatient hospital roles — which usually means 12-hour shifts, frequent weekend coverage, and sometimes on-call. Other settings pay less but often come with better schedules and less stress.
The setting can swing your pay by almost $20K/year ($65K vs $83K), so it's a significant choice — and the lower-paying roles often trade salary for schedule and quality of life.
5. Contract & Shift
Your contract matters too. Are you salaried or hourly? Full-time, part-time, or per-diem? Per Medscape, salaried RNs made $83K vs $78K for hourly employees. Interestingly, that data showed no difference between full-time, part-time, and per-diem hourly rates — though in my experience, per-diem nurses are often offered a higher hourly rate since the hospital isn't paying for benefits.
Some facilities offer special schedules that pay more. While working through my NP program, I took the "weekends only" schedule — every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (36 hours) — and earned an extra +$10/hour for it. As a travel nurse, you can expect to make much more, though benefits tend to be weaker.
Don't Forget Shift Differential
Night shift comes with pros and cons, but one perk is usually a shift differential — a few extra dollars an hour after 11 p.m. Over a year that often adds up to a few thousand dollars more.
What I Made as a Bedside RN
For a real-life example: I started as a bedside RN on a med-surg floor in 2014, at a small hospital in western Pennsylvania. Rates there were not good and very different from where I work now in urban New Jersey.
Here are some realistic starting hourly rates for new graduate RNs:
If you're also curious how much nurse practitioners make, you can check that out here.
