The BLS OEWS is the gold standard for nurse salary benchmarking — it surveys 1.1 million employers, covers 800+ occupations, and produces the state-level and national-level RN wage figures that hiring managers, unions, and travel agencies use to anchor their pay structures. The prior cycle (May 2024 OEWS, released April 2, 2025) put the national RN mean at $98,430/year ($47.32/hr) and the national median at $93,600/year.
The May 2025 figures released this week update those benchmarks with 12 months of additional wage data. For working nurses, the OEWS matters for three practical reasons:
- It's the primary data source most employers use to set "market rate" pay ranges in salary studies — your manager's comp analysis almost certainly references it
- It anchors travel nurse bill rates, which track to BLS state-level means plus agency margin
- It's the dataset union negotiators cite at the bargaining table when arguing that CBA rates have fallen behind market
What the Prior Cycle Showed — The 2024 Data
For context, the May 2024 OEWS showed these national nursing benchmarks:
California led with $148,330/year RN mean, followed by Oregon at $123,990, Washington at $112,180, Alaska at $110,690, and Hawaii at $114,916 (adjusted). The lowest-paying state was South Dakota at $66,580, with Mississippi ($76,330) and Iowa ($74,290) at the bottom of the lower 48.
Why This Data Cycle Matters More Than Usual
The May 2025 OEWS is the first cycle to fully capture the wage impact of the major 2025 labor settlements: Kaiser Northern California (22.5% over the contract life, $25/hr CA floor), Providence Oregon (20–42% over the contract life), Minnesota Nurses Association (10% over 3 years), and the New York City multi-hospital strikes that concluded in February 2026 with new contracts.
Those contracts covered roughly 60,000 nurses at major health systems — enough scale to move state-level BLS averages meaningfully. California, Oregon, Minnesota, and New York should all show notable upward movement in the new release. Watch those states' RN mean figures when the detailed OEWS tables become available at bls.gov/oes.
BLS data is always a lagging indicator — it captures what employers paid last year, not what you can negotiate today. But it's the most defensible benchmark when you're making the case for a raise. Pull your state's updated figures and compare them to your current hourly rate. If you're below the state mean for your specialty, you have a concrete number to put in front of HR.
How to Use the New Data
The state-level detail won't be publicly searchable immediately — it typically takes a few weeks after the headline release for the full occupational-by-state tables to be indexed and accessible at bls.gov/oes/current. When they're up, the registered nurse table is SOC code 29-1141. Your state's mean annual wage and percentile distribution are the most directly actionable figures for salary negotiation.
For specialty context: BLS publishes RN wages as a single occupation, not by clinical specialty. ICU, ER, L&D, and other specialty figures come from aggregator sources (ZipRecruiter, Vivian, Glassdoor) that triangulate from job listings and self-reported data. BLS is the floor and the market benchmark; aggregator specialty data fills in the specialty premium above that floor.
If you're benchmarking your pay right now, use the May 2024 OEWS state figures as a floor and apply an estimated 3–5% inflation adjustment for the May 2025 update (consistent with the trend from the 2023→2024 cycle). In high-strike states like California, Oregon, and New York, the adjustment may be 5–10% given the union contract activity captured in this cycle.
The States to Watch in the New Release
Based on labor activity in 2025, five states are likely to show the most significant upward movement in the May 2025 OEWS compared to the prior cycle:
- California: Kaiser NorCal's 22.5% contract settlement affects roughly 21,000 nurses. Combined with ongoing CNA/NNU contract actions, California's mean should push meaningfully above the $148,330 May 2024 figure.
- Oregon: Providence Oregon's 46-day strike in early 2025 ended with immediate 16–22% raises and total increases of 20–42% over the contract life. The largest healthcare strike in Oregon's history, covering 5,000 nurses across 8 hospitals.
- New York: The January 2026 NYC multi-hospital strike (NewYork-Presbyterian, Montefiore, Mount Sinai) resulted in new 3-year contracts — but the settlement dates are too recent for the May 2025 OEWS survey period, so this may not show up until the May 2026 cycle.
- Minnesota: The MNA settlement (July 2025, 15,000 nurses, 10% over 3 years) falls squarely in the May 2025 survey period. Twin Cities and Duluth systems should show wage increases.
- Wisconsin: New NP full practice authority (enacted 2025) and the state's #2 national ranking for CRNA pay per TheCRNA.com data may both be reflected in updated figures.
The BLS OEWS is released with a lag — May 2025 data reflects what employers paid during the May 2025 reference period, collected and processed through early 2026. The full state-level detail tables typically become searchable at bls.gov/oes within 2–3 weeks of the headline release. Bookmark your state's occupational wage page and revisit it regularly over the next month as tables come online.