Nursing Salariess in Southern California

The wage a nurse can expect to earn depends on various factors. The most important factors will be the training and title of the nurse, the position he or she is filling, how many years he or she is already working at this position, and of course also the location of the job. In places where the demand is higher, or where the general salaries are higher, the nurse can also expect to get a higher salary.

Southern California is an area with higher-than-average salaries, so that nurses can also expect to gain higher wages than in other parts of the country, even higher than the northern side of California. The exact figures can of course vary, we will try to give here some of the common numbers reported in various nursing forums. If you are considering moving to Southern California for these wages, please remember that the cost of living in this area is also high, so you have to take this into your financial plan. Some nurses report that the difference in salaries between Northern and Southern California do not match the difference in living standards, so that it is more beneficial for a nurse to look for a job somewhere in the central or northern parts of the state.

Although many places nowadays prefer not to hire nurses which have only a Practical Nurse certificate (LPNs or LVNs), there are such positions available in some of the southern California hospitals. A fresh graduate of a practical nursing course may expect a salary starting at $17.5 per hour, and during the consecutive years this salary can go up even to $30, depending on the responsibilities this nurse will be given with the job and the number of night shifts done.

With a Registered nurse certificate, the nursing salaries will of course go up. Newly graduates of an RN course can expect to start with an hourly salary of $30, and this can go up after a few years to a nice salary of $45 or even $50 per hour, or even more. A nurse starting off with a BSN degree will of course have a better stand than those with only an Associate degree, but the differences are not so big.