Map My Pay

08/30/2026

A new Stanford nurse starts near $92.77 an hour on days. The base scale climbs to $125.93 after 30 years. Nights add 18 percent, so a new nurse earns $109.47 an hour. Per diem pays the most, and a 5-year nurse earns $143.14 an hour on per diem nights, while the top of the scale reaches $163.60.

Every figure here comes from the signed Stanford and CRONA contract.

Reaching Clinical Nurse III or IV places you at Step 5 or higher on the same scale and unlocks $1,500 a year in certification pay. But the higher rate comes from per diem, nights, weekends, or certifications.

New grads get in through a 12-month residency that hires in cohorts twice a year. The application window is about one week. You need an actual California RN license number by a hard deadline, and an interim permit does not count. That timing is what cuts strong candidates every cycle.

After Bay Area taxes and rent, a nurse near campus keeps about $90,759 a year, barely half the check. The same nurse who rents in Modesto keeps about $21,876 more, and can actually own a home out there.

Comment "BLOG" and I'll send you the article with the full breakdown of every step.

Comment "MMP" and I'll send you our app so you can to see what your own city or hospital allows you to keep after taxes and rent or mortgage.

08/25/2026

A brand new Kaiser nurse in California out-earns a New York nurse with 35 years on the job.

That actually shocked me when I first found that out over a decade ago. NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the most famous hospitals in the country, in the most expensive city in the country. You'd think the pay would also be the highest. It isn't...

These numbers come from two signed union pay scales. Kaiser Permanente Northern California under the California Nurses Association, and NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia under the New York State Nurses Association.

Base pay per hour:
- Kaiser new grad: $85.48
- NYP staff nurse, day one: $65.20
- NYP staff nurse at 35 years: about $82.55, still under a Kaiser new grad
- Kaiser tops out around $123.03 in base pay. With nights and every weekend, a top Kaiser nurse reaches about $151 to $162 an hour
- Even a Kaiser new grad on nights and weekends, about $110 an hour, beats a 35-year NYP nurse with nights and a BSN at about $86

Cost of living doesn't save New York either. The median rent in the city runs about $3,705 a month, higher than San Jose. After taxes and rent, a NYP nurse keeps somewhere in the mid $30,000s to $40,000 a year. A Kaiser new grad keeps about $66,600 in San Jose and about $89,600 in Fresno.

Another notable finding to me is that NYP pays its CEO more than Kaiser pays its CEO, around $26 million against about $16 million, at the hospital that pays its nurses less.

Both sets of nurses are union nurses under the same national union, National Nurses United, paying similar dues. But California has a staffing law and a high-wage market because the nurses are fighting for these things in larger numbers. New York does not have the same law, and it is nearly impossible for nurses there to strike because they're already living paycheck to paycheck year-round due to the high living costs and low wages.

The name of a hospital and its popularity shouldn't be your only reason for wanting to work there.

Comment "MMP" to compare your pay against cost of living in any hospital or city.

Comment "BLOG" for the full Kaiser vs NYP breakdown.

08/23/2026

The majority of nurses got a raise this past year. So many still feel broke by the end of the month, and the math explains why.

A Los Angeles, CA nurse earns a median of $138,010. A Houston, TX nurse earns $97,810. That is a $40,200 gap.

Then taxes and rent land:
🏥 LA keeps $61,057 a year after taxes and rent
🏥 Houston keeps $58,476
💸 The $40,200 gap shrinks to $2,581, about $215 a month
📉 California takes 31.9% in taxes; Texas has no state income tax

A bigger paycheck is not the same as more money. What you keep is the number that matters.

💬 Comment 'BLOG' and we'll send you the full breakdown.
💬 Comment 'MMP' to see what your city pays

08/18/2026

A brand new nurse at El Camino Hospital starts at $83.20 an hour.

El Camino Hospital and the Professional Resource for Nurses signed a 2023 to 2026 contract that covers Registered Nurses at both campuses, Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Every covered nurse is on the same grid, and the numbers below come straight from that signed contract.

Who this does not apply to: nurses at other Bay Area systems. PRN is a local, independent union that bargains for El Camino RNs only. A nurse doing the same bedside job at a bigger system down the road is on a different contract, so don't expect these rates everywhere.

Here's what their pay looks like, as of July 6, 2025:

💵 New grad (Clinical Nurse I): $83.20/hr
💵 Clinical Nurse II, Step 2 start: $89.40/hr
💵 Nights add 20%, so a top-step nurse hits $140.14/hr
💵 Three 12s, a day-shift new grad earns $155,750/yr
💵 Three 12s, a night-shift new grad earns $186,900/yr
💵 Per diem adds 20% to 25% on top of base

The typical US nurse earns about $91,000 a year. An El Camino new grad passes that before the summer of their first year. Most nurses in this country aren't anywhere near a scale like this.

But... it's important that we look at the cost of living. In Mountain View, the rent runs about $4,040 a month. Even then, an RN renting there keeps roughly $88,700 a year after taxes and rent. That leftover is about the size of the entire US nurse median, kept after their two biggest expenses. Buying is a different story here, and is virtually impossible for a nurse.

I built Map My Pay because I watched too many nurses look at an hourly rate and assume they'll be rich, without factoring in other things like income taxes and the cost of living. The app shows your exact rate based on your years, your hours a week, and your shift, then what you actually keep after rent and taxes in that city.

Comment 'MMP' and I'll send you a link to our app so you can see how your pay compares against the cost of living in any city, or so you can see what your rate would look like at a hospital like El Camino.

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08/16/2026

A brand new nurse in California can out-earn a Montana nurse with 24 years on the job.

These are two signed union contracts, not recruiter numbers. One is Kaiser Permanente Northern California under the California Nurses Association. The other is Holy Rosary Healthcare in Miles City, Montana under MNA Local #44. Every Kaiser hospital up here pays the same grid. Holy Rosary pays the Miles City scale.

One thing before the numbers. This is Northern California Kaiser. That is a different union and higher pay than Kaiser in Southern California. This is also one rural Montana hospital, not every hospital in the state. It is the same nurse job, but not the same license, since California is non-compact and Montana is a compact state.

💵 New grad base: $85.48 in California vs $34.62 in Montana
💵 Five years in: $105.04 vs $37.77
💵 On three 12s, that is about $160,000 a year in California and about $65,000 in Montana
💵 Per diem day rate: $106.85 vs $39.81
💵 The California new grad out-earns a 24-year Montana nurse by almost $33 an hour

Most nurses are on neither contract. The US median sits near $91,000 a year. If you are a Montana nurse looking at that California column, you are not doing anything wrong. You are on a different contract in a different place, and that place sets the ceiling.

Cheap rent doesn't close this gap. Miles City rent runs about $899 a month. A new grad there keeps about $36,800 a year after taxes and rent. A Kaiser new grad keeps about $89,600 in Fresno. Even in San Jose, the priciest rent on the list, a Kaiser new grad keeps about $66,600. Where you sign moves your pay more than another year of experience does.

Map My Pay shows your exact rate from your years of experience, your hours, and your shift. Then it shows what you keep after rent and taxes in any city.

Comment "MMP" to compare your pay against cost of living in any city.

NursePay

08/12/2026

08/09/2026

I've been a nurse for 13 years. Here's what I've been paid:

💵 $37/hr — first job, Jamaica Hospital
💵 $47-50/hr — NY Presbyterian (with differential)
💵 $65/hr — Sutter Roseville, night shift
💵 $82/hr — Kaiser, plus amazing benefits
💵 $143/hr — now, as a per diem nurse

But this video isn't about my raise. It's about something that should scare every nurse.

There are apps now called the "Uber of healthcare." Shift Key, Care Rev, and others. They promise flexible shifts. But they're using AI to pay nurses as little as possible.

Here's what I read:

⚠️ They pull your resume, work history, and often your credit report
⚠️ The algorithm uses it against you
⚠️ Nurses with high debt and low credit get lowball offers
⚠️ They target the most vulnerable nurses on purpose

And it gets worse:

🔻 Some apps make nurses bid against each other for one shift
🔻 Ten nurses, one shift, lowest bid wins
🔻 Haven't worked all week and rent is due? You take the $40 shift just to put food on the table

If you don't know your real take-home after taxes and cost of living, that's why we built MapMyPay. We give you these numbers for 21,000+ cities, and allow you to check your wage base on experience, hours worked per week, and your preferred shift, so you never accept a lowball offer blind.

👉 Comment "MMP" and I'll send you the link. Also in bio.

08/08/2026

Most nurses treat the night differential like a little bonus for a rough schedule. It is bigger than that.

The typical nurse in the US earns about $93,600 a year. Work that same job on nights and the differential adds roughly $8,400 to $12,600 on top, depending on the hospital. In California union hospitals it runs closer to $22,000.

Over a 30-year career that is $250,000 to $660,000 in extra pay, before you invest a dollar of it. Invested, it can grow into the same range as going back to school for a bigger title.

Here is the part the paycheck does not show. Years of night shift wear on your body. The research ties long-term nights to a higher risk of heart disease, a probable link to cancer, and more diabetes and broken sleep. The money is partly paying you back for that.

So treat the differential like hazard pay. If you invest the extra instead of spending it, you can buy your way back to day shift, or fewer shifts, years sooner.

Comment "MMP" and I will send you the tool to see what your own city and hospital pay across all nine nursing roles.

Comment "BLOG" and I will send you the full breakdown with the numbers.