Registered nurse salary by city: RN pay in 10 major U.S. metros, ranked

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA pays registered nurses the most of any big U.S. metro: a median of $216,740 a year (≈$104.20/hour), with San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA next at $186,610. Among the 10 large metros below, Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX is lowest at $97,890, essentially the U.S. median of $97,550. These are the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures (May 2025), covering 646,480 RN jobs across the 10 metros.

RN salary in 10 major metros, ranked

Median annual pay for registered nurses, from highest to lowest, with the hourly equivalent and the range most nurses fall in. Every metro name links to its full page with all percentiles and local employers.

Three things stand out. First, the two Bay Area metros are in a league of their own: San Jose’s median is $119,190 above the national figure, and even its 25th percentile ($165,050) beats the 90th percentile in 7 of the other nine metros. Second, 6 of the 10 metros (Boston, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Chicago, Austin) sit in a tight band from $97,890 to $106,180, so moving between them changes the median by at most $8,290. Third, the spread inside a metro can matter more than the metro itself: in Boston, the 75th percentile is $47,200 above the median, the widest gap of the ten, versus just $6,770 in San Jose.

RN pay vs. the local median job

A high nominal salary isn’t the whole story. One way to compare across cities with the same data source is to divide the RN median by the median for all occupations in that metro, a rough gauge of how nursing pay ranks against local wages. Nationally, the RN median is 1.91× the all-jobs median ($50,980).

By this measure, San Jose and San Francisco still lead (2.58× and 2.51×), but the order below them reshuffles. Dallas and Phoenix rank higher on this measure than on raw pay, because typical local wages there are lower. Boston (1.59×) and Denver (1.62×) come last: their nurse pay is only modestly above the national median while other local jobs pay well. This isn’t a cost-of-living adjustment (BLS wage data doesn’t include housing costs), but it shows where an RN paycheck goes furthest against the local labor market.

CNA → LPN → RN → NP: the pay ladder by city

For nurses weighing another credential, the same BLS survey shows what each rung pays in the same metro. Medians below; links go to each role’s local page where BLS reports at least 1,000 jobs.

Going from LPN to RN is worth the most in San Jose (+$121,420, or 127%) and the least in Chicago (+$22,420). The RN-to-nurse-practitioner step is a different story: it’s smallest in San Jose, where NPs earn only 7% more than RNs ($14,820), and largest in Boston (+39%, $41,300). Where RN pay is already very high, the financial case for an NP degree is thinner. Nationally, NPs earn a median of $132,300. See the full nurse practitioner salary page; the LPN and nursing assistant figures in the table link to each metro’s page.

What sponsored nurse offers show (DOL filings)

Employers that sponsor nurses on H-1B, E-3 or H-1B1 visas must file each position’s wage with the U.S. Department of Labor. In fiscal year 2026 through Q3 there were 860 certified full-time filings for registered nurses, a tiny slice next to the 3,379,720 RN jobs BLS counts. Their median offered base wage was $84,490 (middle half $76,424–$92,914), $13,060 below the BLS national median. One likely reason: 68% of these filings were at DOL wage level I or II (entry or qualified), and only 3% at level IV.

Only 3 of the 10 metros have 20 or more of these filings at employers Outpaid indexes: Seattle (24 filings, median $107,037 vs. BLS $128,260), New York (45 filings, median $93,600 vs. BLS $119,720) and Chicago (67 filings, median $83,200 vs. BLS $100,490). In each, sponsored offers came in below the local BLS median.

Employers with 12+ certified full-time RN filings, FY2026 Q1–Q3. Several are staffing or international-recruitment agencies, which place nurses at client hospitals.

How to use these numbers in a raise or offer conversation

• Use your metro, not the national figure. A $97,550 offer is the U.S. median, but it would sit near the bottom of the range in San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle and New York, where the 25th percentile is already higher.
• Compare base to base. BLS excludes overtime and shift differentials, so compare these figures to your base hourly rate, then negotiate differentials separately.
• Anchor on the 75th percentile if you’re experienced. The middle-half ranges above are what most nurses earn; an experienced nurse asking for the local 75th percentile (for example $110,630 in Dallas–Fort Worth or $108,430 in Chicago) is asking for a rate a quarter of local RNs already earn.
• Bring a source. Government data is harder to dismiss than a job-board estimate. Every number here comes from BLS or DOL, with sources linked below.

Want to know exactly where your pay lands? The free Outpaid salary checker ranks your base pay against these BLS percentiles and DOL filings in about 30 seconds, on your device. If you want it as a printable report to bring to a review, The Leverage Dossier ($14, 7-day money-back guarantee) is on the pricing section.

Methodology and sources

• Metro pay: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025, metropolitan area file, cross-industry estimates for SOC 29-1141 (registered nurses), 29-1171 (nurse practitioners), 29-2061 (LPNs/LVNs), 31-1131 (nursing assistants) and 00-0000 (all occupations). Metros are BLS/OMB metropolitan statistical areas, e.g. “New York” means New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ, and San Francisco and San Jose are separate areas.
• What “wage” means: per the BLS OEWS FAQ, straight-time gross pay. It excludes overtime, shift differentials, on-call pay and non-production bonuses, and does not cover the self-employed. Hourly figures are the annual median ÷ 2,080 hours, BLS’s full-time convention. OEWS pools six survey panels over three years, so it lags fast-moving pay changes, and BLS advises against year-to-year comparisons.
• Sponsored offers: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, LCA disclosure data, FY2026 Q3 (decisions Oct 2025–Jun 2026). Certified, full-time filings only; wage = midpoint of the filed range (or the single rate), annualized at 2,080 hours for hourly filings. These are offered base wages for visa-sponsored positions, not what all nurses at an employer earn. Metro and employer breakdowns use the employers in Outpaid’s index; small counts are noisy.
• Checks: all BLS figures were recomputed from the raw BLS download and matched the values used here; the LCA national figures were recomputed from the raw DOL file. Outpaid doesn’t edit or estimate any number on this page. See our full methodology and open data.

Related: Boise pay rankings, including nurses · Registered nurse salaries in every U.S. metro · LPN / LVN salary by city · Nursing assistant (CNA) salary by city · Nurse practitioner salary by city · All salary pages

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025; U.S. Department of Labor OFLC LCA disclosure data, FY2026 Q3 (certified, full-time). Base wages only. Not financial advice.