Where Nurses Actually Take Home the Most: Every State, After Taxes
Registered nurses' median pay (BLS OEWS, May 2025) run through 2026 federal and state tax law — single filer, standard deduction. Published 2026-08-31.
The finding
“High-tax states eat the salary” is the standard objection to nursing-pay rankings. The computation says otherwise: California pays its registered nurses a median of $140,270 and — even after the highest state income tax bracket structure in the country — they still take home $98,325, the most in the nation and $38,858 more than Alabama nets. Put differently: a California nurse's after-tax pay exceeds the median American nurse's pay before taxes ($97,550).
| # | State | Median pay (gross) | Take-home | Kept | Δ vs gross rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $140,270 | $98,325 | 70.1% | · |
| 2 | Washington | $124,200 | $96,157 | 77.4% | +2 |
| 3 | Hawaii | $136,320 | $95,593 | 70.1% | -1 |
| 4 | Oregon | $129,010 | $88,973 | 69.0% | -1 |
| 5 | Alaska | $109,480 | $85,849 | 78.4% | · |
| 6 | Nevada | $103,670 | $81,762 | 78.9% | +3 |
| 7 | New York | $109,440 | $80,404 | 73.5% | -1 |
| 8 | New Jersey | $106,500 | $79,157 | 74.3% | -1 |
| 9 | New Hampshire | $99,700 | $78,969 | 79.2% | +7 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | $104,550 | $77,374 | 74.0% | -2 |
| 11 | Connecticut | $102,740 | $77,032 | 75.0% | -1 |
| 12 | Arizona | $99,500 | $76,550 | 76.9% | +6 |
| 13 | Rhode Island | $100,640 | $76,452 | 76.0% | · |
| 14 | Texas | $95,970 | $76,345 | 79.6% | +8 |
| 15 | Colorado | $100,260 | $75,660 | 75.5% | -1 |
| 16 | Washington DC | $102,540 | $75,220 | 73.4% | -5 |
| 17 | Minnesota | $101,510 | $74,863 | 73.7% | -5 |
| 18 | Maryland | $99,790 | $74,656 | 74.8% | -3 |
| 19 | Pennsylvania | $96,430 | $73,708 | 76.4% | +1 |
| 20 | Delaware | $99,520 | $73,615 | 74.0% | -3 |
| 21 | Vermont | $97,460 | $73,421 | 75.3% | -2 |
| 22 | Wisconsin | $95,530 | $72,353 | 75.7% | +1 |
| 23 | New Mexico | $94,340 | $71,907 | 76.2% | +1 |
| 24 | Illinois | $95,990 | $71,752 | 74.7% | -3 |
| 25 | Michigan | $94,300 | $71,413 | 75.7% | · |
| 26 | Georgia | $93,550 | $70,410 | 75.3% | +1 |
| 27 | Virginia | $93,600 | $70,110 | 74.9% | -1 |
| 28 | Idaho | $92,460 | $70,084 | 75.8% | · |
| 29 | Florida | $84,190 | $68,058 | 80.8% | +5 |
| 30 | Wyoming | $83,760 | $67,755 | 80.9% | +5 |
| 31 | Tennessee | $81,500 | $66,165 | 81.2% | +10 |
| 32 | Nebraska | $84,730 | $65,462 | 77.3% | -1 |
| 33 | Ohio | $82,510 | $65,389 | 79.3% | +5 |
| 34 | Montana | $85,280 | $65,367 | 76.7% | -4 |
| 35 | North Carolina | $84,350 | $65,314 | 77.4% | -2 |
| 36 | North Dakota | $80,730 | $65,309 | 80.9% | +7 |
| 37 | Maine | $86,990 | $65,303 | 75.1% | -8 |
| 38 | Indiana | $83,500 | $65,139 | 78.0% | -2 |
| 39 | Utah | $84,600 | $64,539 | 76.3% | -7 |
| 40 | Oklahoma | $82,920 | $63,978 | 77.2% | -3 |
| 41 | South Dakota | $78,060 | $63,745 | 81.7% | +8 |
| 42 | Missouri | $81,780 | $63,456 | 77.6% | -2 |
| 43 | Louisiana | $80,230 | $63,251 | 78.8% | +1 |
| 44 | Kentucky | $81,040 | $63,123 | 77.9% | -2 |
| 45 | South Carolina | $82,360 | $62,986 | 76.5% | -6 |
| 46 | West Virginia | $80,130 | $62,274 | 77.7% | -1 |
| 47 | Iowa | $78,630 | $61,810 | 78.6% | +1 |
| 48 | Arkansas | $78,940 | $61,498 | 77.9% | -1 |
| 49 | Kansas | $79,320 | $61,005 | 76.9% | -3 |
| 50 | Mississippi | $77,090 | $60,711 | 78.8% | · |
| 51 | Alabama | $77,080 | $59,467 | 77.1% | · |
What the Δ column shows: the tax haircut changes take-home levels but barely changes the ranking — the states that pay nurses most before taxes still pay most after. No-income-tax states (e.g. Washington, Alaska) climb a few places; high-rate neighbours slip. Taxes are not why nursing pay differs by state; the labor market is.
Does cost of living erase the gap?
Partly, and this report deliberately does not model it — rents are survey data, taxes are law. What the computation establishes is the piece that is exact: what each state's tax code takes from a nurse's median pay. Housing costs are a separate, real subtraction on top — see the methodology for what is and is not included.
Why single filer with standard deduction?
It is the one assumption that can be computed identically for all 51 jurisdictions without inventing household types. Married or itemizing nurses keep more nearly everywhere, but the ranking is robust to the filing assumption.
Where do these salaries come from?
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025), state median for registered nurses (SOC 29-1141), run through the same tax engine as every page on this site — full detail on the registered nurses salary page.
Cite this report
Net Pay Tally (2026), “Where Nurses Actually Take Home the Most: Every State, After Taxes.” BLS OEWS May 2025 state medians for registered nurses, net pay computed under 2026 tax law, single filer with standard deduction. https://netpaytally.com/reports/nurse-take-home-pay-by-state — data free to reuse with attribution. Method: netpaytally.com/methodology.