Like all careers, a nurse salary depends on a number of various factors. Some of these factors include a nurses’ level of education or the degree type, years of experience in a chosen field, the state or city where you work, type of work you do, and the specialty you choose to pursue.

In 2006 a registered nurses’ hourly rate in California was around thirty-one dollars and eighty-eight cents while in Florida it was twenty-three dollars and twenty-six cents. Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania averaged in at twenty-five dollars. In 2004 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the average nurse salary for registered nurses was fifty-two thousand three-hundred and thirty dollars per year. The bottom ten percent averaged in at thirty-seven thousand dollars and the top ten percent was at seventy-four thousand seven-hundred and sixty dollars. The 2006 nurse salary from the United States Census Bureau stated that registered nurses earned fifteen-thousand dollars a year more than Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN).

A nurse salary also depends upon the different health care industries available to work in. Employment services averaged in about sixty-three thousand one-hundred and seventy dollars while the General Medical and Surgical Hospitals were at fifty-thee thousand four-hundred and fifty dollars. Home Health Care Services, Offices of Physicians, and Nursing Care Facilities all averaged in about forty-eight thousand.

Different nursing jobs may also affect a nurses’ salary. In 2006, nurse practitioners in California made around eighty thousand dollars while Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania all came around seventy thousand dollars. Nurse Anesthetists working in California during 2006 earned around one hundred thousand dollars, in Pennsylvania and Florida they earned one hundred and five thousand dollars, and lastly in Texas they earned one hundred and twelve thousand dollars five hundred dollars.