Oregon Among America’s Top Five Best Paying States for Nursing

Our healthcare heroes have been on the frontline fighting COVID-19—keeping our communities as safe as possible. With 2.9 million nurses working in the United States—the team at Business.org wanted to know which states pay their nurses the most.

To do this, they compared the average nursing salary to the average income in each state, then found how many hours nurses need to work to afford their rent.

As you can see in the graphic above, the percentages show how much more a nurse's salary is compared to the average salary of all occupations in that state.

In Washington, a nurse makes under forty percent (38.9%) of the average of all occupations in the state, but just to the south in Oregon, nurses make a whopping seventy-two-and-a-half percent (72.5%) of the average of all Oregon occupations.

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Nationally, nurses make an average salary of  $77,460—or an hourly wage of $37.24. That’s 45% more than the average salary for all other occupations across the country.

From Business.org:

• Nurses work an average of 29.5 hours to afford a month’s rent—the national average income requires 42.7 of work to afford rent.
• Hawaii tops their list, with nurses making 89% more than other occupations with a total salary of $104,060.
• Washington D.C ranks last on the list. Nurses in D.C. make only 5.6% more than the average salary for all other occupations.
• California boasts the highest wage per hour for nurses—$54.44.
• South Dakota has the lowest wage per hour for nurses—$28.63.