In South Dakota, traveling nurses earn $2,415 a week, or $60.37 per hour for a 40-hour work week, which is $27.20 more than the hourly wage for nurses overall and higher than the national pay gap between traveling nurses and all RNs.
Nationwide, nurses on travel contracts in the Midwest earn the highest salaries compared to permanent nurses. Travel nurse salaries are especially high in the region because the low cost of living often results in lower compensation for residents. Offering higher wages for travel nurses in high-demand areas of the Midwest will help attract more nurses to these states, which are not the most popular for interstate migration. The Midwest has a higher rate of nurses per capita than other regions of the United States, resulting in an overall lower demand for travel nurses.
Conversely, the pay gap is smallest in Hawaii and along the West Coast, the states with the highest nurse salaries. These areas have a relatively high cost of living, especially in cities, and strong nursing unions that push for better pay and benefits for nurses.
West Coast states are home to top nursing and medical schools and major healthcare employers such as Kaiser Permanente (California), University of Washington Medical Center, University of California Hospitals, and other large healthcare facilities. California nurses also benefit from legally mandated minimum staffing levels that help prevent overwork and burnout.
Regardless of where they operate, travel nurses can usually earn significantly more than staff. These contracts have some downsides, including a lack of stability, the challenge of learning a new workplace every few months, and fewer opportunities to build lasting relationships with colleagues and patients. But they also offer the opportunity to visit new places, learn skills relevant to different roles, meet many people, and build wealth.
Travel nurses and other temporary contract staffing have created significant costs for hospitals in 2020 and 2022. Many hospitals are already in a precarious financial position and may need to rethink their staffing strategies to be more sustainable. Nevertheless, travel nurses will likely remain an important part of the U.S. healthcare industry as a nursing shortage and an aging population increase dependency on caregiving.
This story features data reporting and writing by Paxtyn Merten and is part of a series leveraging data automation across 51 states.
This article originally appeared on Vivian Health and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
