Registered Nurse Salary in Los Angeles, CA

Why Los Angeles pays Registered Nurses 25% above the United States median

A typical registered nurse in Los Angeles, CA earns about $136,000 a year — 25% above the United States median for the same occupation. That premium is real cash, but Los Angeles’s cost-of-living index is 100 (100 = US baseline), so the extra pay has to be judged against rent and prices, not collected as a pure raise.

Registered nurses provide and coordinate patient care across clinics, hospitals, and community settings. Nursing pay in Los Angeles, CA moves with setting (hospital vs clinic), shift differentials, and overtime — the $136,000 median is a full-time base-ish figure, not a 1.0 FTE guarantee without extras. Specialty units are how nurses reach $136,000 without leaving the metro. Employers screening registered nurses in Los Angeles, CA still list Patient care, Clinical assessment, EMR, and Empathy as core. The local band runs from about $101,000 at the 10th percentile to $174,000 at the 90th.

The percentiles on this page are observed metro figures for Registered Nurse in Los Angeles, CA, not a national median multiplied by a pay index. That matters: you are looking at how this labour market actually priced the role, including local industry mix. They are still estimates of the market — not a promise of what one employer will offer.

Among the 9 United States metros we can compare for this role, Los Angeles posts the highest median. The next metro, Washington DC, sits at $132,000 (-3% vs Los Angeles), while San Antonio sits at $81,300. Use those gaps to test a relocation thesis: a 15% cash raise that lands in a much more expensive metro can disappear in rent.

Los Angeles’s COL index (100) sits nearer the global baseline, so headline and adjusted pay are not far apart ($136,000 vs $136,000). Rent still matters: the 1-bedroom model is $1,650 / month, about 17% of take-home, with leftover near $6,050.

If you are comparing a Los Angeles office offer with a location-flexible one, the United States national median for this role is about $109,000. Local pay is 25% higher — a $27,000 gap. Remote employers often anchor to the national figure; on-site employers in Los Angeles are anchoring to this page.

World Bank consumer-price inflation for United States was about 2.9% in 2024; an illustrative model tied to inflation and the occupation’s outlook suggests pay has risen about 15% over the last few years. H-1B / employment-based green card is the usual skilled-hire route (selective for typical hires): Most skilled foreign hires enter via employer-sponsored H-1B (lottery-capped) or specialty routes; permanent residence usually follows an employment-based petition. At 1.5× United States GDP per capita, this median is around a typical national living standard. Unemployment was about 4.2% in 2025. None of that is tax, immigration, or career advice — run the calculators and confirm rules officially.