Metropolitan Areas
Working in a metropolitan area could mean a substantial wage increase for RNs in comparison to more rural salaries. The top-paying metropolitan area, Vallejo-Fairfield in California, had an average annual wage of $120,540. The other top three metropolitan areas were also in California, with an average annual wage of $117,590 in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area and $106,730 in the Oakland-Fremont-Hayward region. In contrast, the Northern Mountains regions of California, the best-paying of the nonmetropolitan areas, reported an average annual wage of $9