Nurse Practitioner Salaries In California

There are more than 205,000 practicing nurse practitioners in the United States; nearly 20,000 of them are located in California.

Nurse practitioners, also called advanced practice nurses or primary care nurses, are highly educated nurses who can diagnose illnesses and prescribe medications.

The current national shortage in physicians makes the role of nurse practitioners vital, especially in California, where there are twenty-one cities with populations of more than 200,000 people. 😉

The average Nurse Practitioner Salary in California is higher than the national average for these professionals.

So, What do Nurse Practitioners in California Earn?

The salary for these professionals depends upon several variables including the industry, the company size, the location, nurse experience and education.

Salary also cannot be considered by itself because most employers offer bonuses and benefits that increase the amount earned.

Salary varies from rural to urban as well, and is dependent upon whether nurses are in administration or education versus actual patient contact. 🙂

Anaheim is a Good Representative City

With a population of 345,000, mostly urban dwellers, there is a great need to augment the medical professional population. According to Angie’s List, there are 43 nurse practitioners in Anaheim.

The median salary for a nurse practitioner in Anaheim is $106,430. The low range salary is $91,453 and, at the high end, 10 percent earn more than $124,000. That only represents base salary however.

Bonuses average a bit over $400. Social Security benefits are $8,178, the 401K employer contribution adds another $3,848, pension amounts to $6,735 and discretionary off-time pay is $13,157. 🙂

That adds up to $146,368 per year. While other cities in California vary slightly (the median wage in Fontana is $106,540) wages are still above the federal level.

Nurse Practitioner Salary in California varies by Industry

Nurse Practitioners who work in management positions in scientific and consulting business often earn an hourly wage of $51.26. That translates to more than $106,000 a year without benefits and bonuses. Specialty and Psychiatric nurse practitioners (with the exception of those who work in substance abuse hospitals and residential drug treatment facilities) earn $50.26 an hour. If practitioners work in a mental health practitioner office, they earn, on the average, $49.91. Those who work in substance abuse and residential facilities are listed as earning $48.19. Salaries of nurse practitioners who work in local government-run facilities and those who work in private hospitals earn average salaries of $47.20 and $43.23 respectively. Those nursing practitioners working in education earn slightly lower wages unless they are in administration.

Specialist Nurse Practitioners Earn More

Within those specific industries, nurse practitioners who take the time to get special education in an area of medicine earn significantly higher wages. Advanced practice nurses who are trained to become experts in their fields and who base their practice ion research and on theory are called Clinical Nurse Specialists.

This is a specialized nurse practitioner who functions more in administration, research and in organizational development and supervision and whose specializations include things like infectious disease control and perinatal care. 😀

California clinical nurse specialists earn a top wage of $72.19 per hour, or $150,155 per year. Again, this is only base pay and does not include bonuses or benefits which can add another 40 percent to the wage.

Nurse practitioners can also specialize. Those who work as emergency room nurses earn average salaries of $49.87 hourly.

Neo-natal specialists earn $47.91 and those nurse practitioners who specialize in retail clinics have an average hourly wage of $46.84.

Specialists in gerontology earn $45.43 an hour and those who work in mental health facilities, $41.47. Another specialty, which varies widely in salary, is corporate wellness.

These nurse practitioner specialists work for corporations, administering their employee health programs, diagnosing and treating illness and workplace-related injuries, educating employee groups about workplace safety and developing safety protocols.

Dependent upon the size of the corporation wages can reach $160,000 annually.

Nurse Practitioner Salary Varies with Experience

Actually, this is only partly true. Experience does play a role in establishing base pay, but only for the first five years. Recent studies indicate that, while nurse practitioners in career entry positions earn less, the salary distribution has equaled out after the first five years.

Nurse practitioners with five years of experience made $40.84 an hour and those with twenty years of experience made $42.56.
The Base Salary Increases for Nurse Practitioners with More Education.
This is definitely true.

Certification in a specialty, as already discussed, leads to a higher salary.

In addition, professionals who go on to earn doctorates or JD degrees can work in governmental or private industry positions, even helping develop healthcare policy and response for international organizations. They also work as nurse lawyers.

Current concerns over virally-transmitted diseases and epidemics are discussed in teams consisting, in part, of nurse practitioners with higher degrees. 😀

The top salary for a nurse practitioner with a JD degree was $201,696.

California Nurse Practitioner Salaries are higher than the National Average

A map of nurse practitioner salaries shows no places in California that pay less than the national average, and many regions pay more. New York has the highest wages-$114,000.

Mississippi comes in at $113,000 and Massachusetts with $111,000. California employs the highest number of nurse practitioners in the nation and comes in at a respectable $107,000 salary.

That number is ten percent above the national average.

Nurse practitioners alleviate the critical shortage of medical personnel by taking on many of the physician’s responsibilities.

In addition, they are found working in universities and in local, national and global health agencies.

Many things influence the salaries of these professionals, including the industries in which they work and the regions of the country where they are employed.

Family nurse practitioners have become indispensable to rural areas where it is difficult to attract physicians.

The Nurse Practitioner Salary in California, one of the highest in the country, is indicative of how the contributions of these professionals are valued. 😀