New Graduate RN Salary by State: Starting Pay in All 50 States (BLS May 2025)

A registered nurse at the start of a career in California is paid more than a nurse at the midpoint of a career in 47 states. This guide shows what a new registered nurse can expect to earn in every state and the District of Columbia, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, the newest state-level wage data the government publishes. Every figure is a BLS estimate; nothing here is self-reported, blended from salary sites, or taken from job postings.

How to read "new grad" pay in government data

The BLS does not survey new graduates separately. What it publishes, for every state, is the full distribution of what registered nurses earn, including the 10th percentile (the wage below which the lowest-paid tenth of the state's RNs fall) and the 25th percentile (the lowest-paid quarter). A nurse in a first job, with no experience steps, charge pay or certification pay yet, is paid at or near the bottom of the employer's scale, so that 10th-to-25th-percentile band is the best public measure of starting pay. It is not a survey of new graduates and this page never presents it as one: a new graduate hired onto nights in a high-paying hospital can start above the 25th percentile, and an experienced nurse in a low-paying setting can earn below it. Treat the 10th percentile as the floor an offer is unlikely to fall under and the 25th percentile as a realistic first-year figure.

National starting pay for registered nurses (May 2025)

The BLS counts 3,379,720 registered nurses employed in the United States. The 10th percentile annual wage is $68,940 ($33.14 an hour) and the 25th percentile is $80,330 ($38.62 an hour). The median, the midpoint of all RNs, is $97,550 ($46.90 an hour), and the mean is $101,420. So a typical starting band nationally runs from the high $60,000s to about $80,000 a year, with a path to the high $90,000s as experience, shift and specialty pay come in.

Which states pay new RNs the most?

California has the highest starting pay in the country by a wide margin. Its 25th percentile wage, $122,440 a year ($58.87 an hour), is higher than the median RN wage in 47 states and D.C.; only Hawaii, Oregon and Washington have a midpoint above it. Even California's 10th percentile, $101,260, clears $100,000. The ten states with the highest 25th percentile wage:

1. California: $122,440 a year ($58.87 an hour); 10th percentile $101,260
2. Oregon: $107,220 a year ($51.55 an hour); 10th percentile $95,280
3. Washington: $103,100 a year ($49.57 an hour); 10th percentile $89,630
4. Hawaii: $101,200 a year ($48.65 an hour); 10th percentile $82,500
5. New Jersey: $99,710 a year ($47.94 an hour); 10th percentile $83,060
6. Alaska: $97,700 a year ($46.97 an hour); 10th percentile $85,030
7. New York: $94,840 a year ($45.60 an hour); 10th percentile $79,760
8. Minnesota: $88,940 a year ($42.76 an hour); 10th percentile $79,960
9. Massachusetts: $87,460 a year ($42.05 an hour); 10th percentile $80,310
10. Nevada: $86,850 a year ($41.76 an hour); 10th percentile $79,500

In eight states the 10th percentile alone is $80,000 or more: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, New Jersey, Hawaii, Connecticut and Massachusetts. A first RN job there starts where the national median was a few years ago. Browse the openings on our board for RN jobs in California, Oregon, Washington and New York.

Which states pay new RNs the least?

Alabama has the lowest 25th percentile wage, $63,500 a year ($30.53 an hour), and its 10th percentile, $58,150, is one of the three lowest floors in the country, with South Dakota ($54,040) and West Virginia ($57,210). Eight states have a 25th percentile under $70,000, all of them in the South, the Plains and the Upper Midwest. The five lowest:

1. Alabama: $63,500 a year ($30.53 an hour); 10th percentile $58,150
2. Mississippi: $64,930 a year ($31.22 an hour); 10th percentile $60,610
3. South Dakota: $65,070 a year ($31.29 an hour); 10th percentile $54,040
4. Arkansas: $66,640 a year ($32.04 an hour); 10th percentile $60,780
5. West Virginia: $68,160 a year ($32.77 an hour); 10th percentile $57,210

The spread between the top and bottom of the table is almost two to one: a first-year nurse in California is paid about $59,000 a year more than one in Alabama for the same license and the same exam. Housing costs close some of that gap, but not all of it (more below).

New grad RN salary in all 50 states (and D.C.)

Ranked by the 25th percentile annual wage, the realistic first-year figure. "10th percentile" is the floor, "Median" is the midpoint of all RNs in the state (the pay a nurse grows into), and "RNs employed" is the BLS employment estimate. Each state's name links to our guide to nursing jobs and pay in that state.

Twenty-three states and D.C. have a 25th percentile at or above the national figure of $80,330; the line falls between Pennsylvania (24th, at $80,610) and Montana (25th, at $80,210). The middle of the table is crowded: from Vermont at 17th down to Georgia at 33rd, the 25th percentile moves less than $3,200, so for a new graduate choosing between, say, Pennsylvania, Texas and Illinois, the state line matters far less than the employer, the unit and the shift.

How far starting pay is from the midpoint

The gap between a state's 25th percentile and its median tells a new graduate how much room there is to grow without moving. It varies more than the starting pay itself:

• Steep ladders. In Hawaii the median is $35,120 above the 25th percentile; in Oregon it is $21,790, in Washington $21,100, in Rhode Island $18,800 and in California $17,830. A new nurse in these states starts well below what colleagues with a few years earn, and the raises that come with experience, nights, charge duties and specialty certification are large.
• Flat ladders. In Ohio the median is only $3,310 above the 25th percentile; in Utah it is $4,550, in Indiana $4,750, in South Carolina $5,040 and in Montana $5,070. Most RNs in these states earn close to the starting band, so a new graduate is paid almost what a typical nurse makes, and the way to a materially bigger paycheck is a change of setting, a specialty or a state, not years of service.

Where the first jobs are

Pay and headcount do not line up. California is the only state that is both a top-five payer and a top-five employer. The six states with the most registered nurses:

• California: 338,940 RNs, 25th percentile $122,440
• Texas: 271,380 RNs, 25th percentile $79,170
• Florida: 229,940 RNs, 25th percentile $78,660
• New York: 205,810 RNs, 25th percentile $94,840
• Pennsylvania: 146,520 RNs, 25th percentile $80,610
• Ohio: 143,730 RNs, 25th percentile $79,200

Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois together employ more than 1.1 million registered nurses, a third of the country's total, and five of the six start new nurses within a few hundred dollars of $80,000. A larger market means more residency programs, more units hiring at once and more negotiating room. See RN jobs in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, or every registered nurse job we list.

Do new nurses get paid overtime?

Yes, if they are paid by the hour, which nearly every bedside new graduate is. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, as the U.S. Department of Labor explains for the health care industry, a nonexempt employee is owed time and one-half the regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek. Hospitals and residential care facilities may instead, with the employee's agreement before the work is done, use the "8 and 80" system: a fixed 14-day period in which overtime is owed for hours over 8 in any day and over 80 in the period. An employer may use one system for some employees and the other for others, but never both for the same nurse. The regular rate includes shift differentials and non-discretionary bonuses, so overtime worked on a night shift is paid at one and a half times the night rate, not the base rate. Three 12-hour shifts a week do not reach 40 hours, so a fourth shift is where overtime usually begins for a full-time nurse on a weekly schedule; under 8 and 80, every 12-hour shift already carries four overtime hours, which is why employers on that system often pay their 12-hour staff a blended rate. Salaried nurses in management or advanced-practice roles can be exempt and receive no overtime.

Job outlook for registered nurses

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 3,465,400 registered nurse jobs in 2025 and projects employment to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations, adding 194,700 jobs. Growth is the smaller number: the BLS projects about 180,800 openings a year over the decade, most of them to replace nurses who retire or leave the occupation. The typical entry-level education is a bachelor's degree, and the 2025 median pay is $97,550.

What the numbers don't tell you

• Cost of living. BLS wages are gross pay, not adjusted for housing or taxes. California, Hawaii, Washington, New Jersey, Alaska and New York lead the starting-pay table and are among the most expensive places to rent; Minnesota, Nevada and Delaware sit in the top 12 with cheaper housing. Compare what is left after rent, not the headline figure.
• Setting and shift. The state figures blend hospitals, outpatient clinics, home health, long-term care and schools. Hospitals are where most new graduates start and where differentials for nights, weekends and holidays are most common; those differentials are inside these averages, so a new nurse on nights in a mid-ranked state can land above the state's 25th percentile in year one.
• Residency programs. A nurse residency pays a first-year wage, sometimes with a retention agreement attached. The wage is the starting band; what you are buying is the training and the unit placement.
• Compact licensure. A multistate license from a compact home state lets a new graduate take a first job in any other compact state without a second license. Of the ten highest-paying states only Washington and New Jersey are in the compact; Massachusetts has enacted it but is still awaiting implementation, and California, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska, New York, Minnesota and Nevada have no compact legislation pending, so seven of the ten need their own license. See our graduate's guide to compact states and the compact nursing states list.
• The midpoint is the target, not the start. The national median ($97,550) is $17,220 above the 25th percentile. Our highest-paying states for nurses ranks every state by mean pay, the view that matters once the first years are behind you, and LPN salary by state covers the other license.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Registered Nurses (29-1141), read 14 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 Occupation Profiles, Registered Nurses national estimates, read 14 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Registered Nurses, 2025 pay and 2025-35 projections, read 14 October 2026.
• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet 54: The Health Care Industry and Calculating Overtime Pay, revised July 2009, read 14 October 2026.
• National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Nurse Licensure Compact member states map, current status, read 14 October 2026.