With the threat of nursing shortages looming, employers in many cities have upped salary offerings, leading to some cities having better living-cost-adjusted wages for nurses than others.
Indeed recently broke down the 15 cities in the U.S. where nursing salaries go the furthest by calculating the average hourly salary for RNs in each city and adjusting the salaries based on cost of living. Cost of living information was provided by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Nine of the top 15 cities are in California, which is also the state with the highest RN salary overall.
Here are the top 15 cities, listed with their average salary adjusted for cost of living.
1. Fresno, Calif. — $81,344
2. Bakersfield, Calif. — $80,731
3. Modesto, Calif. — $80,368
4. Sacramento, Calif. — $76,870
5. Portland, Ore. — $73,958
6. Riverside, Calif. — $73,742
7. Phoenix, Ariz. — $72,548
8. Anchorage, Alaska — $68,158
9. Houston — $67,101
10. Seattle — $65,856
11. Oxnard, Calif. — $65,402
12. Santa Rosa, Calif. — $65,113
13. Los Angeles — $65,092
14. San Diego — $65,092
15. Atlanta — $63,862