Saturday, November 5, 2022

20 Best Metropolitan Markets for LPN Pay

As we examined in LPN Pay in the Top 20 Metropolitan Areas, the biggest U.S. metropolitan areas are normally the home to the largest number of licensed practical nurse (LPN) jobs. However, a deeper dive into data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals that better average pay is often times found in smaller metro areas. May 2021 (BLS) data indicates that only five of the largest metro areas in the country were among the 20 best metropolitan markets for LPN pay:

20 Best Metropolitan Markets for LPN Pay

Metropolitan Area # Employed Annual Mean Wages
1 Napa, CA 340 $76,890
2 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 2,680 $75,880
3 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (#) 7,450 $75,410
4 Santa Rosa, CA 790 $71,180
5 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 860 $70,720
6 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA 440 $68,940
7 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 290 $66,800
8 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (#) 3,810 $66,380
9 Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade 3,800 $66,090
10 Carson City, NV 100 $65,460
11 Alaska non-metro 110 $65,230
12 Hanford-Corcoran, CA 290 $64,640
13 Fairbanks, AK 60 $64,460
14 Yuba City, CA 230 $64,020
15 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (#) 29,750 $63,990
16 Stockton-Lodi, CA 1,240 $63,660
17 San Diego-Carlsbad (#) 5,930 $63,620
18 Anchorage, AK 300 $63,410
19 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 1,080 $62,630
20 Boston-Cambridge-Nashua (#) 10,370 $62,470
National 641,240 $51,850

(#) a top 20 U.S metro population area

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on October 31, 2022