Alaska RN Salary - How Much Do RNs Make in AK?
As of May, 2018, Alaska was the third highest-paying state for registered nurses according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The average annual RN salary in Alaska was $83,370 or $40.08 an hour. The Fairbanks area is the highest paying area in the state, offering an average annual wage of $92,660 per year and $44.55 per hour. These figures are significantly higher than the national average earnings for registered nurses which were $65,470 annually and $31.48 hourly. The high wages in Alaska may be due to a shortage. The state employed only 5,790 nurses in May 2018.
The range for an RN salary in Alaska is very large. Those with earnings in the bottom tenth percentile of the state make $61,720 a year. The 25th percentile earns $70,020 or less. Earnings at the 75th percentile are $96,730 or more annually. Workers in the 90th percentile make $110,700 or more per year.
Individuals who are considering relocating north to take advantage of the potentially high RN salary in Alaska will find that there are many advantages to moving to this state including recreation and air quality. The cost of living in Alaska is higher than the U.S. average. The cities with the highest cost of living are Juneau and Anchorage, where the average home costs $241,000.
Anchorage employs the majority of the registered nurses in Alaska. This city is the largest in Alaska with 291,826 residents as of 2010. Anchorage contains more than 40 percent of Alaska’s total population. This one city employed approximately 3,640 nurses as of May, 2018, which is more than half of the state’s total employed registered nurses. In comparison, the Fairbanks area of Alaska employed 660 RNs while the Railbelt/Southwest nonmetropolitan area employed 890.
Resources
- https://www.anchorage.net/discover/about-anchorage/
- BLS