Registered Nurse Salary in Florida

Quick answer

If you searched registered nurse salary Florida, the number you want is almost certainly the BLS median for SOC 29-1141 (Registered Nurses). In PayAtlas’s Florida file (OEWS, survey year 2024), that median is $77,710 per year—about $37.36 an hour if you divide by 2,080 paid hours.

That is gross wages before tax. It is not what every new graduate signs for on day one, and it is not what a travel nurse sees on a weekly Instagram screenshot. It is the statistical midpoint for RNs employed in Florida across hospitals, clinics, home health, staffing agencies, and every other employer category rolled into one occupation code.

What “average registered nurse salary in Florida” actually means

People use “average” and “median” interchangeably online. BLS publishes both for many occupations; this page leads with the median because it is the standard “typical worker” statistic in OEWS tables.

For Florida RNs in this dataset:

The middle half of earners fall between $67,530 and $92,290—a $24,760 band. That width matters: Florida nursing pay is not a single number stamped on a license.

When someone asks for nurse salary in Florida or average nurse salary in Florida, they often mean this RN median. Licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants, and nurse practitioners are different occupations with different licensure and different BLS codes. We cover those below only as comparisons, not as substitutes for the RN figure.

Hourly vs annual: how to read the paycheck math

Hospital job postings usually show hourly base rates; wage surveys report annual wages. BLS derives hourly figures from annual pay divided by 2,080 hours unless the release lists hourly directly.

At the statewide median:

• Monthly (annual ÷ 12): about $6,476
• Weekly (annual ÷ 52): about $1,494

A staff nurse on three 12-hour shifts can work more than 2,080 paid hours in a year once overtime and bonus shifts enter the picture. OEWS medians may not fully reflect nurses who routinely pick up extra shifts—the survey captures what employers report as wages, not every possible hour you could work.

Night and weekend differentials add cash on top of base rates. Those premiums help explain why two RNs with the same job title at the same hospital can take home different annual totals even when the posted “base” hourly rate matches.

Florida RN salary by experience

BLS does not publish a formal “years of experience” table for every state. PayAtlas maps percentile and experience bands in the occupation JSON to give you anchors—not a hospital step schedule.

A new ADN or BSN graduate in Orlando should not expect $77,710 automatically. Many first offers sit closer to the $60,210 entry band or a hospital’s published “Year 0–1” step, which can be above or below that percentile depending on the system and unit.

Conversely, a charge nurse with a decade in a Miami ICU may already exceed the statewide median without being an outlier—specialty, certification, and shift mix all pull individuals away from the middle.

Where Florida pays more (and where jobs cluster)

Metro medians in this file follow federal statistical area definitions—not city limits. Commuting across county lines is normal; the MSA name is the label BLS uses.

South Florida leads on median pay in this slice—about $3,240 above the statewide midpoint. That gap is real but smaller than the spread between Florida and California ($124,000 median in the cross-state table). Do not move to Miami solely on a $3,000 median difference without running rent, commute, and child-care numbers.

Employment counts show where the jobs are: Miami and Tampa together account for more than half the metro employment listed here. More openings usually mean more negotiating room—but also more applicants per posting.

Salary by healthcare setting

The same RN license can point to very different work weeks. BLS splits employers into industry categories; each has its own median in this file.

General medical and surgical hospitals still employ the largest share of Florida RNs in this breakdown. The Employment Services row—BLS industry code for staffing and temporary-help firms, where many travel and agency contracts are classified—shows the highest median ($85,240) but a smaller employment count. That fits what nurses see in practice: agency weekly rates can look generous while staff roles carry steadier benefits.

Long-term care and physician-office medians trail acute care. That does not make those jobs “bad”—hours, patient ratios, and commute differ. Compare total packages, not just the middle column.

Florida tax context (why net pay surprises people)

Florida has no state income tax on wages. Federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare still apply. For many RNs relocating from New York ($100,370 median in this cross-state file) or New Jersey ($98,620), the missing state withholding is meaningful even when Florida’s nominal median is lower.

Property taxes and insurance costs vary by county. PayAtlas’s Florida salary hub includes a cost-of-living index and tax overview—use it next to this page, not instead of it.

How Florida compares to other states

Selected medians for the same SOC code:

Florida sits below large coastal states and close to Georgia, not at the bottom nationally. Cost of living, union presence, and hospital market concentration explain much of the gap—none of which appear as line items in a single median cell.

Related nursing roles (different licenses, different pay)

Searchers often land on an RN page while thinking about advanced practice or support roles. These medians come from the same BLS program but different occupation codes:

Queries like nurse practitioner salary Florida or nurse anesthetist salary Florida belong on those occupations—not folded into the RN median above. CRNA pay reflects graduate education, certification, and anesthesia practice; conflating it with staff RN wages makes every comparison meaningless.

PayAtlas does not yet publish separate Florida pages for LPN, CNA, or neonatal specialty wages. For NICU nurse salary (staff and travel benchmarks), see the NICU Nurse Salary guide. For pediatric nurse salary, see the Pediatric Nurse Salary guide. When other specialty pages exist, they will link from here.

Travel nursing and contract work

Florida’s seasonal population swings and perpetual staffing shortages keep travel and agency contracts common. Weekly contract quotes are not comparable to BLS annual medians without deliberate math: multiply by realistic weeks worked, subtract housing stipend tax treatment, and compare benefits you give up from a staff job.

For a full walkthrough of how travel packages are built—taxable wages, stipends, bonuses, and offer comparison—see the Travel Nurse Salary guide.

The $85,240 employment-services median in this file is a survey anchor, not a promise of $3,000/week gross on a 13-week assignment. Always annualize offers the same way before ranking them.

What moves your offer (beyond the median)

Unit and specialty. Med-surg, telemetry, ICU, ED, labor & delivery, and procedural areas price differently on hospital grids even under one SOC code.

Credential. BSN-preferred or BSN-required postings are common in Florida health systems; certification (CCRN, CEN, etc.) can shift starting steps.

Shift. Permanent nights and weekends still command differentials in most hospitals.

Employer type. Non-profit system, for-profit chain, public hospital district, VA federal facility—each has its own pay plan. VA roles may follow federal scales; see the GS pay scale guide only when the employer is actually federal.

Sign-on bonuses spike during shortages. They are often taxable lump sums, not base-rate increases, and may carry payback clauses if you leave early.

A realistic read for job seekers

Use $77,710 as a benchmark when evaluating Florida offers—not as a guarantee. If a hospital offers $32/hour base (~$66,560 at 2,080 hours) plus night differential, you may still land near the entry percentile until experience steps kick in. If you are at $45/hour base with five years in a high-acuity unit, you are already above the statewide median on wages alone.

Read the setting and metro tables on this page before you argue about “Florida underpays nurses.” The state is large, the employers are heterogeneous, and the BLS median is doing exactly what it is designed to do: describe the middle of a very wide distribution.

Common mistakes

1. Quoting travel weekly pay as if it were staff annual salary.
2. Using ICU job-posting rates as the statewide RN median.
3. Comparing CRNA or NP compensation to staff RN offers without naming the license.
4. Ignoring shift differential and overtime when converting hourly to annual.
5. Forgetting that OEWS excludes most benefits—health insurance and retirement match still matter.

Related pages

• Florida salary hub — cost of living, taxes, multi-sector pay
• Pharmacist salary in Florida — another licensed healthcare median for comparison
• Teacher salary in Florida — public-sector pay outside nursing
• GS Pay Calculator — federal civilian roles only (e.g., VA), not private hospital staff RNs