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Salary trends, relocation guides, financial tips, and career advice from the MapMyPay team.
Back in September 8, MultiCare told Washington state it will cut 138 jobs by New Year's Day. The biggest group on the list is 22 clinical assistant nurse managers, and the notice says none of the people being cut have a union or bumping rights. That notice shows what an assistant nurse manager promotion leaves behind. I read the contracts and ran the pay to see if the raise makes up for it.
Sep 17, 2026
Two new graduate nurses can start at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, CA the same week and earn different pay from the first shift, because the County contract sorts them by degree before experience. The BSN graduate starts as a Staff Nurse III at $63.99 an hour and the ADN graduate as a Staff Nurse I at $54.75. Here is the BSN vs ADN nurse salary ladder, how long the gap lasts, and what the degree costs.
Sep 16, 2026
LA County nurse pay does not change when you change hospitals. A Registered Nurse II earns the same $8,267.15 a month at Harbor-UCLA in Torrance, LA General in Boyle Heights, Olive View in Sylmar, or Rancho Los Amigos in Downey, because all four run on one SEIU 721 grid. That grid clears $99,206 a year at Step 1. Since the pay is fixed, I ran what the same check leaves in each city after rent.
Sep 16, 2026
Prime Healthcare nurses at six hospitals in four states were set to strike or picket on Tuesday. The day before, the nurses' union said federal labor officials had blocked a nurse union election in Evanston, IL. The fight shows which nurses can lose pay the fastest, so I ran the numbers on that loss.
Sep 15, 2026
A Sacramento County nurse salary tops out four years after hire. A County nurse who starts this fall reaches Step 9 in 2030 and stays there, apart from the yearly raise written into the union agreement. The number that top rate lands on was settled the day she picked a posting, because the classification sets the scale and the steps only move her inside it. This piece puts the two Registered Nurse scales side by side and names the one placement rule a new hire can still use.
Sep 14, 2026
A nurse salary in Salinas vs the Bay Area looks settled the moment you see the two starting rates. Natividad Medical Center starts a Staff Nurse II at $65.50 an hour. A Kaiser NorCal new grad starts at $85.48. That is $19.98 an hour between them, and almost every nurse I know would stop reading there. I pulled the Monterey County contract, the County salary data, and the rent for both cities. The finish is much closer than the start.
Sep 13, 2026
Washington per diem nurses found out on September 9 what their 2027 coverage will cost. The state approved a 22.2% average increase for everyone who buys their own health insurance in 2027. The per diem nurse is the one nurse on the unit who does. I went per diem myself in July, so I ran what the increase does to the extra pay we get for skipping benefits.
Sep 10, 2026
Union contract back pay is money a nurse gets for the months she worked while her unit was still at the table. No federal law requires anyone to pay it. It is also one of the first things a hospital asks a bargaining team to drop. This week, two groups of Allina Health workers are walking out with no first contract between them. One waited a year. The other waited three, so I ran what that wait is worth.
Sep 9, 2026
The first paycheck carrying the new nurse contract raise at Michigan Medicine lands on September 18. I took the 13.25 percent that ran in every headline and worked out what it puts in a nurse's account each month. Four of the five numbers that decide the answer are smaller than the one on the flyer.
Sep 8, 2026
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