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Salary trends, relocation guides, financial tips, and career advice from the MapMyPay team.
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
A nurse commitment clause is the line in an offer that says how long you owe the employer, and most of us read it last, after the bonus figure has already done its work. A $10,000 signing bonus with a five-year commitment attached is worth about $100 a month after withholding. Federal rural health money now requires that exact five-year term on any bonus it funds, so I want to show you the one division that prices the years before you sign.
Sep 7, 2026
Kaiser pays a new Northern California nurse about $85 an hour and a new Portland nurse about $53, even after a fresh raise. Here is the gap, why Providence out-pays Kaiser in Portland, and what a Portland nurse actually keeps.
Sep 7, 2026
The cost of a missed shift is a number most nurses never work out until they need it. On September 15, more than 2,800 nurses and health care workers are set to strike or picket at six hospitals in four states. Each of them has to price a lost shift first. The same math applies to a called-off shift, a sick day, or a low-census cancellation.
Sep 6, 2026
The most expensive drive in nursing is not the interstate move you spend a year planning. It is 11 miles of the Post Road in Fairfield County, Connecticut, where nurse take home pay by suburb swings $2,433 a month on a paycheck that never changes. I went looking for the biggest raise a nurse could get without changing jobs, and I found it in the rent column.
Sep 6, 2026
A nurse in Santa Barbara pays Bay Area prices but earns Central Coast wages, and keeps the least in the state. Here is the full comparison, and three ways to fix the math.
Sep 4, 2026
Nurses walked out at four Prime Healthcare hospitals yesterday morning. Before those lines came down, their union named six hospitals in four states for a bigger action on September 15. The Prime Healthcare nurse strike is a developing story, so I went after the part that holds either way. I priced what every nurse in it keeps after taxes and rent.
Sep 3, 2026
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