RN Salary in Washington: A $124,200 Median, 4th Highest in the U.S.

The median rn salary in Washington is $124,200 a year, or $59.71 an hour for a registered nurse, according to BLS OEWS data (May 2025, occupation 29-1141). The mean is close behind at $121,540, meaning the distribution is not wildly skewed by a small number of extremely high earners. Most Washington RNs cluster near that middle figure rather than a small elite pulling the average up.

The real story is the spread. The 10th percentile earns $89,630 and the 90th percentile earns $161,910, a gap of more than $72,000. That is not noise, it reflects genuinely different jobs. Nurses at the bottom of that range are typically new graduates still on orientation-level pay, RNs working in long-term care or skilled nursing facilities where reimbursement rates are lower, or nurses in rural counties where hospital systems have less pricing power and a lower cost of living to offset it.

At the top, the 90th percentile represents senior acute-care nurses in specialty units (ICU, ED, OR), nurses stacking night and weekend shift differentials on top of base pay, and RNs in overtime-heavy union hospital settings in the Seattle-Tacoma corridor. The 75th percentile, $134,240, is a more realistic target for an experienced generalist RN with five-plus years in a hospital setting than the 90th is.

The 25th percentile sits at $103,100, which functionally represents a normal, several-years-in wage for Washington RNs rather than a new-grad number. If you are earning below that as an experienced nurse, your setting or shift pattern is very likely the reason, not your skill level.

Washington ranks #4 of 51 states (including D.C.) for median RN pay, and the Washington RN salary sits $26,650 above the U.S. median of $97,550. For a full breakdown of how every state compares, see the national RN salary guide. That single ranking, fourth in the country, is the reason Washington shows up constantly in nurse relocation conversations.

The neighbor comparison is where the decision actually gets made. Oregon's median is $129,010, still $4,810 above Washington's. If you already hold licensure in both states and live near the Washington-Oregon line, that gap is real but modest; one better differential shift or unit assignment in Washington can erase it, especially once Washington's lack of state income tax is weighed against Oregon's.

Idaho is a different conversation. Idaho's median RN salary is $92,460, a full $31,740 below Washington's. That is not a gap you close with a better shift or a specialty certification, it is a structural difference in what the market pays. A Washington RN salary is simply worth pursuing over an Idaho one unless a specific non-financial reason, family, a very cheap Idaho housing market, a slower pace of practice, outweighs more than thirty thousand dollars a year.

The honest verdict: crossing from Idaho into Washington for work is almost always worth a realistic commute or move. Crossing into Oregon from Washington to chase its slightly higher median rarely pencils out once Oregon's state income tax and generally higher cost of living in its metro areas are weighed against a roughly $5,000 difference.

Think of the Washington RN salary distribution as a ladder with four rungs: $89,630 (10th percentile), $103,100 (25th), $134,240 (75th), and $161,910 (90th). A new graduate typically starts near the bottom rungs and climbs through a combination of tenure, shift selection, and credentialing, not through years alone.

Shift differentials matter more than most new nurses expect. Hospitals in Washington pay extra for nights, weekends, and holidays, and a nurse who consistently works those shifts in a busy acute-care unit will out-earn a day-shift peer with identical experience. This is the fastest, lowest-friction way to move from the 25th percentile toward the median without changing jobs or adding a credential.

Certifications are the next lever. Specialty credentials like CCRN for critical care, CEN for emergency nursing, or OCN for oncology signal to unionized and Magnet-status hospital systems that a nurse belongs in a higher pay tier, and many Washington hospital systems have bargained wage scales that explicitly reward certification with a pay step increase.

Setting changes push nurses the rest of the way. Moving from a skilled nursing facility to an acute-care hospital, or from a rural facility to a unionized urban system in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue corridor, is often the single biggest jump available to a working RN, bigger than any raise negotiated within the same job. For a sense of which programs feed into these stronger-paying systems, the best RN programs in Washington are a reasonable starting point for nurses still choosing where to train.

There is an honest hierarchy here, and it starts with the credential that changes everything: becoming a nurse practitioner. The Washington NP median is $156,100, which is $31,900 a year above the Washington RN median. Nowhere else on this list produces a raise that size. See the full nurse practitioner salary breakdown, and start with nurse practitioner programs if graduate school is on the table.

But the NP route is not for everyone. It requires graduate school, a shift from bedside practice to a prescribing and diagnosing role, and years of additional schooling and clinical hours. Nurses who love direct bedside care, who are within a few years of retirement, or who cannot take on graduate school debt or the time commitment right now should not chase it just because the number is bigger. A strong Washington RN salary at the 75th percentile, $134,240, is still a very good outcome without ever leaving bedside nursing.

The second lever is finishing a BSN if you trained as an ADN. Many Washington hospital systems, especially Magnet-status and larger urban systems, cap career-ladder pay steps or leadership eligibility at the BSN level. RN-to-BSN programs let a working ADN nurse finish that credential without leaving the workforce, and it is also a prerequisite for the NP route.

Third, specialty and setting switches, moving into a higher-paying unit like ICU, ED, or OR, or out of long-term care and into acute-care hospital work, move a nurse up the percentile ladder without any additional degree. Fourth, travel contracts can pay well above the numbers on this page for a defined assignment, but travel pay is volatile, contract-by-contract, and not reflected in BLS median wage data, so treat it as a supplement to a career plan, not the plan itself.

Washington employs 69,260 registered nurses, ranking #18 of 51 states for total RN employment, a mid-size, not enormous, labor market relative to its high pay. That combination, a strong Washington RN salary in a market that is not flooded with nurses, is exactly the setup that gives working RNs leverage in negotiating shift, unit, and pay.

For LPNs considering the jump, the math is direct. The Washington LPN/LVN median is $83,150, and RNs earn $41,050 more per year at the median. That gap is large enough that, for an LPN with the time and financial ability to bridge to an RN license, it is very likely worth it, more so in Washington than in a lower-paying RN state.

Nationally, RN job growth is projected at 6 percent from 2022 to 2032, a healthy but not explosive rate, and Washington's demand should track that broader trend given its hospital-dense urban corridor and aging population.

The clear next step: if you are an LPN, evaluate an RN bridge program. If you are an ADN-prepared RN, look at BSN completion. If you are a working RN eyeing the ceiling above bedside pay, start with the best RN programs in Washington and work backward toward a plan, generalist to specialist, RN to BSN, RN to NP, that matches the raise you actually want.