Historically, nursing has been seen as a stable career with ample room for career growth. Today, these sentiments have grown even stronger, and many are now becoming aware of the amazing salaries that those in nursing and advanced nursing positions can command.
However, not all nurses — even those in the same positions — enjoy the same lucrative salaries. The truth is that geography can play a significant role in how much nurses working in the American healthcare system can make. Understanding the factors that impact how much nurses can command in different states can provide one with a more nuanced understanding of healthcare in the modern age.
Here is an exploration of the reasons behind varying nursing salaries across states.
Why Do Nursing Salaries Vary So Widely Depending on the State?
Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet answer to this question. Rather, there are a wide variety of factors that impact how much nurses can make in a particular state. To truly gain a better grasp of this situation, it’s important to understand the main factors affecting nursing salaries.
Here are a few of the most important factors impacting nursing salaries across different states.
Cost of Living
As with many different roles, the cost of living in a particular state often has a significant impact on nursing salaries. In other words, salaries are typically higher in places where the cost of living is high and lower where the cost of living is low.
It comes as no surprise then that states such as California and Hawaii consistently rank in the highest percentile for nursing wages and states such as South Dakota and Alabama rank the lowest. This being the case, those interested in pursuing nursing careers must be cognizant of wages in different areas before committing to the role.
In some extreme cases, registered nurses in some states command higher salaries than advanced nurse practitioners in other states. This highlights the fact that discrepancies in nursing salaries can be significant and must be considered. However, while cost of living usually plays a key role in nursing salaries, it’s far from the only factor.
Demand for Nurses
While it’s helpful to look at nursing wages by state, these comparisons don’t always paint an accurate picture. While some states have higher populations and more demand for nurses as a whole, other states have a higher demand for nurses in particular cities while other parts of the state are less populated.
The bigger the population in an area, the more nurses are needed to provide patients with care. As a result, medical institutions offer higher wages to nurses in order to meet demand. As many learn in Intro to Economics classes, supply and demand is at the root of pretty much all economic transactions.
Nurses looking to command the highest salaries in their careers should be aware of this fact when deciding where to practice. Over the course of an entire career, choosing the right location with a high demand can result in nurses making significantly more money.
Finding the Best of Both Worlds
For nurses in the midst of choosing where they want to practice, it’s important to take many factors into account. These will affect their quality of life as well as job satisfaction.
As has been noted, nurses in areas with higher costs of living command higher salaries. While it’s always nice to command a high salary, it may not be as meaningful as it seems at first glance if everything is expensive and buying a home is incredibly difficult.
This being the case, some states with decent nursing salaries and relatively affordable costs of living may be the best options for nurses. Some great states that nurses should consider working include:
Texas: The nursing outlook in Texas is great for new and aspiring nurses. While the median income of nurses is only marginally higher than the country average in current times, this is expected to change drastically. The reason for this is that many nurses are reaching retirement age and the demand for nurses in Texas is expected to grow significantly over the next decade. As such, it’s more than likely that nursing salaries will grow significantly in this state with a relatively affordable cost of living.
Colorado: Much like Texas, Colorado has many areas that are extremely affordable compared to states like California. In addition, nurses in Colorado currently earn more than the national median wage for registered nurses, making it an amazing place to have a nursing career.
Virginia: The nursing outlook in Virginia is amazing when it comes to places to practice. Not only is the cost of living in Virginia affordable, but it’s also one of the highest-paying states for registered nurses today. As more and more nurses reach retirement age in the coming years and demand for nurses grows, it’s likely that these wages will steadily increase giving nurses amazing, stable, and lucrative careers in the state.
Nurses Can Have Vastly Different Salaries Depending on Location
While nursing is a stable career no matter where one practices, how lucrative this career path is can vary widely depending on the state one practices in. While some states provide the highest salaries, the cost of living makes these salary boosts less meaningful. As such, it’s important for nurses and aspiring nurses to have a clear understanding of nursing salaries in different states as well as the cost of living in various locations.
This story originally appeared on CareerAttraction