Nurse Salary – Does It Pay Well?

Choosing a career as a nurse is an excellent choice, and it is a noble path for someone who is caring and compassionate about others and their needs. Nursing can also be financially rewarding as well as personally satisfying.

Before making your choice as to which nursing career path to follow, there are many important factors that can determine and influence your nurse salary. It is extremely important that you thoroughly research these factors before making a final choice as to which path you will take.

What Factors Influence A Nurse’s Salary?

There are many factors that influence a nurse’s salary immensely. As with any career, geographic location is a huge determinant on salary and job placement in nursing. The local economy of the area in which the nursing job is located will also greatly affect the salary that you will be paid. This is all determined by the cost of living in that area. Every area is different, so you will want to research this aspect extremely carefully.

It is common knowledge that rural areas pay lower wages than bigger metropolitan areas. This is another thing to consider. Are you willing to live in a huge city to be a nurse and make more money, or would you rather live in a smaller area yet be paid lower wages? Later it will be discussed how in some instances rural areas pay more. It depends on a wide range of factors.

Currently Los Angeles pays the highest median wages for registered nurses, while Chicago only pays mid- range wages. Statistically, the 4 highest paying areas for registered nurses are California, Portland, Honolulu and New York.

It is interesting to note that nurses who have the same level of training, skills and experience are paid higher in the Northern states than they are paid in the southern United States. Also, male nurses seem to receive a higher pay in salary than female nurses.

Nursing Education And Salary

Of course education and skill level is a very important factor in determining how much money you will earn as a nurse. By furthering your education in nursing, it will affect your salary greatly. For example a staff nurse makes about $15,000 dollars less per year than a nurse manager does.

Experience in nursing is one of the most important things to remember when you consider pay wages. If a nurse has been working for an extended period of time, especially in the same hospital, he or she will make far more than a nurse just starting out in that facility, even though they have the same training in school.

Medical benefits are something else that goes into play when determining nurse salaries. More than likely anywhere you work as a nurse you will receive benefits, but some places pay far more for them. There is a huge differentiation between locations. Also, if you are willing to work the midnight shift as a nurse, you can expect higher wages along with nights, holidays and weekends.

Starting Salaries for Nurses

Keeping in mind the factors just discussed, there are some general guidelines you can go by to figure your starting salary as a nurse. Even though the aforementioned factors play a key role, the average starting salary for a nurse who chooses to work in a city hospital is around $20 dollars per hour. Interestingly, if you would like to start out at a higher wage, choosing a rural area can sometimes be your best option. This is because these rural areas often have a difficult time finding nurses to hire because of the geographic location they are in.

The more remote the area is the better chance you will have at earning higher starting wages as well. For example, Alaska pays their nurses far more than they do in Houston. This is because of the weather and the remote location of Alaska. As mentioned earlier, the starting pay for nurses in California is higher than anywhere else in the country. This is mainly because of the cost of living in California. You need to remember that although your starting pay may be higher, it will cost you more to live in California. This is very important to think about.

Nurse Salary Summary

If you want to find a good nursing jobs with the best chance at a higher pay, it would a good idea to research the areas where there is a shortage of nurses.  You can most definitely expect to be paid more if an area is desperate for nurses to work in their facilities. In fact, many hospitals in these areas of nursing shortages even have state sponsored programs that will actually pay off or at least pay some of the loan from nursing school as an incentive to attract nurses to work in impoverished areas.

It is important to mention that there are many areas of nursing one can go into. The higher the skill and education level, the higher the pay. Some hospitals will actually provide financial aid for you to further your career and will pay the tuition for a nurse to receive advanced training.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider before embarking on a career as a nurse. The first thing to do is carefully contemplate on all of these variables and also think about what you want out of your career as a nurse. Is higher pay more important to you? Is it more important for you to receive great benefits? It all depends on what is important to you as an individual. The first and foremost thing to keep in mind is what the career as a nurse entails. It isn’t about money or esteem. It is about being a compassionate individual who truly has a heart for helping others. If your intentions are to be a compassionate care taker, then any job as a nurse has the potential of being emotionally fulfilling as well as financially rewarding for you.