National Average Salary for Registered Nurses
The national average, or mean, salary for registered nurses in the United States in May 2008 was $65,130 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics. On an hourly basis, the national average wage for registered nurses in May 2008 was $31.31 per hour.
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Mean Wage Calculation
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In May 2008, there were 2,542,760 registered nurses employed in the United States, and the national mean wage was determined by adding the wages of all registered nurses and dividing it by the total number of nurses. Annual mean wages were determined by multiplying the hourly rate by 2,080 hours, the number a person working full-time, year-round would be expected to make, not including overtime.
Wage Range and Distribution
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The national median hourly wage for registered nurses was slightly lower than the mean, at $30.03 per hour, which works out to $62,450 per year. The median wage is the one at which there are equal numbers of registered nurses making higher and lower wages. The lowest-paid 10 percent of registered nurses earned $20.87 per hour or less, or $43,410 per year or lower, while the highest-paid 10 percent of registered nurses earned $44.35 per hour ($92,240 annually) or more.
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Top Industries
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The top five industries in terms of the number of registered nurses employed were general medical and surgical hospitals, offices of physicians, home health care services, nursing care facilities and employment services. Of these, only the general medical and surgical hospitals industry and the employment services sector had mean salaries higher than the national average, at $31.97 per hour, or $66,490 per year in hospitals, and $33.23 per hour, or $69,110, annually in the employment services industry.
Highest-Paying Industries
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The highest-paying sector for registered nurses in 2008 was the motion picture and video industry, with a mean hourly salary or $37.35, which equates to $77,690 per year. However, only 30 registered nurses were employed in this industry.
Top-Paying States
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California, which had 240,470 people employed as registered nurses in May 2008, was the highest-paying state for this occupation, with an hourly mean wage of $39.92 and a mean annual salary of $83,040. The others in the top five were Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maryland and New York.
Top-Paying Metropolitan Areas
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The five highest-paying metropolitan areas for registered nurses are all in California, with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara topping the list at an average hourly salary of $50.19 or $104,400 per year in 2008. Visalia-Porterville was the only other metropolitan area with an annual mean salary in six figures, at $103,660 per year or $49.84 per hour.
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References
- Photo Credit nursing duties image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
