Colorado nurse salary 2026: RN, NP & travel pay

Colorado's RN figure of ~$86,900 is the most asterisked number in this salary series. BLS excluded Colorado from the primary May 2025 OEWS release — again — due to UI data system quality issues. That makes the statewide average a supplemental estimate with more uncertainty than any other state in this guide. What aggregator data shows is more useful: UCHealth's Anschutz Medical Campus posts $39–$48/hr for BSN RNs, CommonSpirit's Colorado network runs $36–$45/hr, and travel nurses average $2,156/week — a $112,112 annual equivalent that clears the BLS headline by over $25,000. On the CRNA side: $260,630 (TheCRNA.com 2026), above the national mean. On the NP side: Colorado has had full practice authority since 2015 — no supervised transition period, no collaborative agreement, no 3,840-hour countdown. And the Colorado Hospital Association's Mercer workforce projection that flagged a 10,000-nurse shortage by 2026? That's now.

Colorado Nurse Salary at a Glance — 2026

RN Salary in Colorado: Denver Metro, Front Range, and the Western Slope

The BLS May 2025 supplemental estimate puts Colorado RN wages at roughly $86,900 — but treat this number as a floor with a wide confidence interval, not a definitive statewide average. Colorado's UI data quality exclusion from the primary OEWS release has occurred in multiple recent cycles, meaning the BLS figure is derived from supplemental modeling rather than full employer survey data. Employer-reported pay ranges from job postings and aggregators are a more reliable real-time signal for Colorado nurses evaluating offers.

UCHealth anchors the top of the Colorado RN market. UCHealth's Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora — the state's flagship academic medical center, co-located with Children's Hospital Colorado — posts BSN RN wages of approximately $39–$48/hr depending on unit, experience tier, and clinical ladder placement. UCHealth runs Colorado's highest-complexity clinical programs: Level I Trauma, heart/lung transplant, bone marrow transplant, complex neurosurgery, and pediatric subspecialties through Children's Hospital. Shift differentials (nights $3–$5/hr, weekends $2–$4/hr) add meaningfully to base pay for 12-hour bedside nurses. UCHealth has multiple Front Range campuses beyond Anschutz — Fort Collins, Greeley, Colorado Springs — with wages that track slightly below the Aurora academic flagship.

CommonSpirit Health operates Colorado's second-largest hospital network following the 2022 merger of Centura Health and SCL Health into CommonSpirit's national system. The Colorado network includes St. Anthony Medical Campus in Lakewood (Colorado's only other Level I Trauma Center alongside Denver Health), St. Joseph Hospital Denver, St. Mary's Medical Center in Grand Junction, and multiple suburban Front Range hospitals. CommonSpirit Colorado RN wages generally run $36–$45/hr — competitive with the market but modestly below UCHealth's academic premium. Grand Junction's St. Mary's serves the Western Slope, where RN wages tend to run $3–$6/hr below Denver metro at equivalent experience levels.

Denver Health is Denver's county-funded safety-net hospital and Level I Trauma Center. Denver Health serves primarily uninsured and Medicaid patients, and its nurses are represented by SEIU Healthcare 105 — Colorado's most prominent healthcare union. Union contracts at Denver Health anchor base wages in the $36–$44/hr range with structured step increases, stronger overtime protections, and staffing committee provisions that staff nurses at other systems don't have. Denver Health's ICU and trauma programs — it operates one of the busiest Level I Trauma Centers in the Mountain West — produce strong CRNA application candidacy and critical-care experience comparable to UCHealth Anschutz.

HealthONE, HCA Healthcare's Colorado affiliate, operates five major Denver-area hospitals: Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, Rose Medical Center, Sky Ridge Medical Center, and Spalding Rehabilitation. HealthONE posts RN wages in the $36–$44/hr range and is the single largest travel-nursing consumer in the state — Presbyterian/St. Luke's alone listed 94 travel nursing jobs on Vivian as of May 2026. The HealthONE network provides volume employment across the entire Front Range, and its HCA affiliation makes it a reliable contract source for nurses who work through HCA-preferred agencies.

Colorado Springs is a distinct labor market with lower wages than Denver metro — typically $3–$6/hr below comparable Denver-area rates at equivalent experience levels. UCHealth Memorial Hospital (Colorado Springs), CommonSpirit Penrose-St. Francis, and AdventHealth Centura serve a market with lower housing costs than Denver but also lower clinical complexity on average. Colorado Springs is an active travel-market destination for nurses seeking adventure-accessible living (proximity to Pike's Peak, Garden of the Gods, skiing) with lower cost-of-living than Boulder or Denver proper.

Colorado's state income tax is a flat 4.4% — one of the lower flat rates in the Mountain West. Unlike neighboring California (9.3%+ top bracket) or Minnesota (9.85%), Colorado's flat rate applies uniformly regardless of income level. Denver does not impose a separate local income tax surcharge, meaning the 4.4% state rate is the combined rate for Denver-area nurses. This improves real take-home relative to comparable-wage markets in higher-tax states.

Travel Nurse Salary in Colorado

Colorado travel nurses averaged $2,156/week on Vivian Health as of May 2026 — an annual equivalent of approximately $112,112 for full-year contract workers. ZipRecruiter's posted base rate (excluding tax-free stipends) averages $106,342/year. The travel premium over the BLS baseline RN figure reflects genuine scarcity — particularly in rural and mountain communities — and meaningful Denver metro demand from HealthONE's high-volume HCA-affiliated network.

Colorado is a full eNLC compact member. Use the travel nurse stipend calculator to break down your total package. Nurses holding a multistate license from any of the 40+ compact states can activate Colorado contracts without a separate state license endorsement, cutting contract start time from 8–12 weeks (standalone license) to 2–4 weeks from credentialing. This matters for nurses targeting Denver metro HealthONE contracts, which post and fill quickly. High-demand feeder states — Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee — are all compact members.

Mountain resort community hospitals are where Colorado travel premiums are most pronounced. Vail Health, Valley View Hospital (Glenwood Springs), Summit Health (Frisco/Breckenridge area), and the network of critical-access hospitals in the San Juan Mountains and along I-70 rely heavily on travel nurses because local housing costs — driven by resort and outdoor recreation demand — price out permanent RN hires. ICU and ER nurses at these facilities see all-in rates of $60–$80/hr; the lifestyle appeal of mountain living compresses the travel premium somewhat (nurses accept slightly lower rates for the location), but the contracts still clear the Denver metro average.

Specialty travel rates in Denver reach up to $3,584/week for standard nursing contracts and $3,708/week for OR nurses per Vivian May 2026 data. ICU travel contracts in Denver (Presbyterian/St. Luke's, Swedish, Children's Colorado) typically run $55–$70/hr all-in. NICU travel contracts at Children's Hospital Colorado are among the most competitive in the Mountain West given the specialized NICU case volume.

The Colorado shortage context is relevant for travel nurses: the Colorado Hospital Association commissioned a Mercer workforce projection that estimated a 10,000 RN shortage in the state by 2026. That shortage is now present. Travel nurses entering the Colorado market are filling real structural gaps — not just seasonal overflow — and that structural demand means contract renewal rates and post-contract permanent offer rates are higher in Colorado than in states without active shortages.

Nurse Practitioner Salary in Colorado: Full Practice Authority Since 2015

Colorado NPs average $129,750/year ($62.38/hr) per BLS May 2025 OEWS — modestly below the national NP mean of $137,300, but in an FPA state where negotiating leverage is structurally stronger than in collaborative-practice states. Colorado granted full practice authority to NPs approximately a decade ago, making it one of the most established FPA markets in the Mountain West. Unlike newer FPA states — Wisconsin requires 3,840 supervised hours and a 24-month transition before independent practice — Colorado NPs practice independently from the moment of licensure. No collaborative agreement, no transition window, no administrative overhead of maintaining a supervising physician relationship.

There is one caveat specific to controlled substance prescribing: Colorado requires NPs who prescribe Schedule II through V controlled substances to complete a mentorship with a physician or NP with full prescriptive authority within three years of initially issuing controlled substance prescriptions. This mentorship requirement does not restrict general clinical practice — NPs can diagnose, treat, order diagnostics, and manage patients without any physician involvement. It applies specifically to the controlled substance prescribing pathway and is designed to ensure clinical competency for the highest-risk prescription classes. For most primary care, acute care, and specialty NP practice, this requirement has minimal operational impact.

Colorado's NP market is strongest in primary care, behavioral/mental health, and rural FQHC settings. The Colorado shortage of 10,000 RNs is most acute in rural and frontier communities on the Western Slope, Eastern Plains, and San Luis Valley — exactly the settings where FPA NPs can practice independently without a physician co-located on-site. National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan forgiveness is available for NPs practicing at federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Colorado, a meaningful financial lever for NPs with DNP or MSN debt. UCHealth, CommonSpirit, Denver Health, and numerous community health centers in Colorado are established NHSC-eligible employers.

NPs evaluating Colorado versus neighboring states: Wyoming ($148,340/yr, FPA) and New Mexico ($136,620/yr, FPA) both offer higher nominal NP wages, but Colorado's Denver metro cost of living and healthcare infrastructure — academic medical centers, Level I Trauma centers, subspecialty programs — provides practice depth and career development that lower-wage Mountain West states can't match. Colorado's long-established FPA also means employers have fully integrated independent NP practice into their models, rather than still navigating a transition.

CRNA Salary in Colorado: UCHealth Anschutz and the Mountain West Premium

Colorado CRNAs average $260,630/year ($125.30/hr) per TheCRNA.com 2026 data — meaningfully above the national CRNA mean of $248,320 and ranking Colorado in the upper tier nationally. The premium reflects several structural factors concentrated in Colorado's medical complex and geographic market.

UCHealth Anschutz Medical Campus is the primary CRNA demand anchor. As a Level I Trauma Center running high-complexity cardiac surgery, solid organ transplant (kidney, liver, pancreas), bone marrow transplant, and complex neurosurgical procedures, Anschutz requires CRNAs capable of managing the full anesthetic spectrum — not community-hospital generalists. Co-located Children's Hospital Colorado adds pediatric cardiac anesthesia and high-acuity pediatric surgical case volume, creating additional CRNA specialty demand that further concentrates premium compensation at the Aurora medical campus. Children's Hospital Colorado is a top-10 nationally ranked children's hospital and one of the most complex pediatric programs in the Mountain West.

CommonSpirit Health's St. Anthony Medical Campus in Lakewood operates Colorado's only other Level I Trauma Center, maintaining CRNA demand for trauma anesthesia coverage. Denver Health, with its high-volume Level I Trauma program and surgical case load, adds further CRNA employment. Together, three Level I Trauma Centers in the Denver metro — UCHealth Anschutz, CommonSpirit St. Anthony, and Denver Health Medical Center — create a competitive multi-system CRNA labor market that drives wages above the national mean.

Mountain resort community CRNAs are the market's premium outlier. Vail Health's Shaw Regional Cancer Center and surgical programs, Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, and Summit Health in Summit County all operate year-round surgical programs serving resort community populations that skew toward high-income, insured, and electively surgical. These facilities cannot attract CRNAs through metropolitan lifestyle appeal — they compete on compensation, schedule variety, and outdoor recreation access. Locum CRNA placements in these mountain communities run $130–$170/hr for short-term assignments, with full-time offers that include housing allowances and mountain recreation lifestyle packages. Experienced CRNAs willing to leave the Denver metro for a mountain community hospital can negotiate substantially above the statewide average.

New CRNA graduates evaluating Colorado should note (and compare to our Wisconsin CRNA guide, where the state ranks #2 nationally) that the UCHealth Anschutz/Children's Colorado ICU pipeline produces strong CRNA application candidates. Two to three years in UCHealth's Level I Trauma ICU, cardiac ICU, or NICU provides the critical-care case volume and complexity that doctoral CRNA programs at the University of Colorado College of Nursing seek in applicants. Colorado's above-average CRNA wage makes the education investment return straightforward.

ICU and ER Nurse Salary in Colorado

Colorado ICU nurses average $114,548/year ($55.07/hr) — a 31.8% premium over the baseline RN mean. This is one of the larger ICU-to-baseline spreads in the Mountain West, driven by the complexity premium at UCHealth Anschutz's CTICU, Trauma ICU, NSICU, and transplant ICUs, as well as Children's Hospital Colorado's PICU and CICU. The premium also reflects what the baseline RN figure doesn't fully capture: because Colorado's BLS statewide RN average is a suppressed supplemental estimate, the apparent ICU-to-baseline gap may be overstated. The real premium for ICU over bedside at Denver-area hospitals is likely 15–25%.

Colorado has no statewide hospital nurse staffing ratio mandates. ICU staffing at UCHealth Anschutz and Denver Health follows internal policy and AACN guidelines — typically 1:2 for stable ICU patients, 1:1 for post-operative cardiac, unstable, or high-acuity cases. HealthONE's ICU staffing follows HCA corporate standards. No state legislation imposing ratio mandates has been enacted as of June 2026, though national advocacy for hospital staffing ratios (the Schakowsky-Padilla-Merkley Nurse Staffing Standards Act, S.1709/H.R.3415) remains active in Congress.

ER nurses average $91,206/year ($43.85/hr) in Colorado — about 5% above the state RN mean. Level I Trauma ER nurses at UCHealth Anschutz, CommonSpirit St. Anthony, and Denver Health earn above the statewide ER average; Level II Trauma and community ED nurses at HealthONE and UCHealth suburban campuses earn at or near the average. Mountain resort community ERs at Vail Health and Valley View run higher ER rates due to geographic premiums. For travel nurses targeting Colorado ER contracts, Level I and Level II Trauma designations command the highest contract rates — UCHealth Anschutz (Level I), Denver Health (Level I), CommonSpirit St. Anthony (Level I), HealthONE Swedish Medical Center (Level II), and Sky Ridge Medical Center (Level II) are the premium ER travel targets.

Major Hospital Systems in Colorado

Ranges based on ZipRecruiter 2026, Indeed employer posting data, Glassdoor 2026, and Vivian Health 2026 submissions. BSN RN mid-career rates. New graduates start at the lower bound; experienced specialty-certified nurses reach the higher end. UCHealth and Children's Hospital Colorado ranges reflect academic clinical ladder tiers with shift and experience differentials.

Colorado Is an eNLC Compact State

Colorado is a full member of the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact. Nurses holding a multistate license from any eNLC member state can practice in Colorado without a separate endorsement. For travel nurses, this means contract start within 2–4 weeks of credentialing rather than the 8–12 week wait for a standalone state license. Colorado's compact membership is particularly valuable given the number of high-volume travel-nursing consumers in the state — HealthONE/HCA's Denver network fills contracts rapidly through preferred agency pipelines.

Colorado nurses holding a primary Colorado residence and multistate license can practice in neighboring compact states without separate applications. Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, and Nebraska are all eNLC members — giving Colorado-based nurses a substantial Mountain West and Plains travel market on a single license. Nevada and Arizona are also compact members, extending the accessible western travel corridor further.

Nurses relocating to Colorado from non-compact states (California is the most common source given Denver-area lifestyle appeal) must apply for a Colorado RN license and automatically receive a multistate license upon establishing Colorado as their primary state of residence. California nurses leaving a $150,280/yr market for Colorado's ~$86,900 baseline may see a nominal wage reduction, but Denver's lower state tax rate (4.4% vs. California's 9.3%+ on comparable income), absence of California's commute/housing cost premium for many neighborhoods, and the quality of UCHealth/Children's clinical experience often make the move financially neutral or positive in real terms after 2–3 years.

2026 Market Context: Shortage, CMS Policy, and the Nursing Workforce Outlook

The CHA/Mercer shortage is here: The Colorado Hospital Association's commissioned Mercer workforce study projected a shortage of 10,000 RNs in Colorado by 2026 — a figure that was widely cited in 2022–2023 planning discussions and is now present-tense. The shortage is most acute in rural Colorado (Western Slope, Eastern Plains, Southern Colorado), where community hospitals and critical-access facilities cannot compete on wages with Denver metro employers, and in specialty units statewide where new-graduate pipeline supply hasn't kept pace with retirements and expanded bed capacity.

Federal minimum staffing repeal impacts LTC: Effective February 2, 2026, the Trump administration repealed the Biden-era CMS nursing home minimum staffing mandate — eliminating the 24/7 RN on-site requirement and rolling back minimum nursing-hours-per-resident-per-day standards. For Colorado LTC nurses, this creates a complicated market: facilities that were building toward the mandate are no longer legally required to staff to it, which may limit LTC RN demand growth in some facilities. However, the Joint Commission's new 2026 National Performance Goal 12 (NPG 12) requires accredited hospitals — not nursing homes — to meet nurse staffing standards, maintaining hospital-sector demand pressure.

SEIU Healthcare 105 and labor activity: Denver Health's SEIU Healthcare 105 contract is the primary union benchmark for Colorado nursing wages. SEIU 105 represents healthcare workers at Denver Health and several other Denver-area facilities. Union activity in Colorado nursing has been less dramatic than in California, Oregon, or New York, but the SEIU 105 presence at the state's most visible public hospital gives organized labor a structural foothold in the Colorado market. Nurses at non-union Denver-area systems (HealthONE, CommonSpirit) benefit indirectly from the wage-floor effect of the Denver Health union contract.

Cost of living context: Denver's median home price exceeds $550,000 — approaching coastal-metro levels that the state's nursing wages don't fully offset. Boulder's housing market is even more expensive. Nurses choosing Colorado over lower-COL states like Indiana, Ohio, or Tennessee should factor Denver-area housing carefully: the 4.4% state tax advantage and outdoor recreation quality of life have real value, but the wage-to-housing ratio in Denver proper is less favorable than in comparable Midwest markets. Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and Grand Junction offer Colorado practice experience at significantly lower housing cost.