Sunday, November 20, 2022

20 Best Metropolitan Markets for Nursing Assistant Pay

In Nursing Assistant Pay in the Top 20 Metro Markets, we learned that the major U.S. metro areas are big employment centers for nursing assistants. However, a more thorough examination of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals that better pay, sometimes a lot better, for nursing assistants is often found in smaller population centers. May 2021 (BLS) data indicates that only six of the top 20 U.S. metro areas were among the 20 best metropolitan markets for nursing assistant pay:

20 Best Metropolitan Markets for Nursing Assistant Pay

Metropolitan Area # Employed Annual Mean Wages
1 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 4,940 $47,690
2 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (#) 10,220 $47,500
3 Alaska non-metro 570 $45,430
4 Salinas, CA 810 $44,210
5 Fairbanks, AK 190 $43,880
6 Napa, CA 550 $42,310
7 New York-Newark-Jersey City (#) 81,890 $41,940
8 Anchorage, AK 1,000 $41,580
9 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 310 $41,070
10 Santa Rosa, CA 1,010 $40,770
11 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (#) 13,850 $40,590
12 Salem, OR 1,210 $40,560
13 Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade 4,630 $39,910
14 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 7,430 $39,590
15 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 870 $39,520
16 Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA 1,040 $38,990
17 Boston-Cambridge-Nashua (#) 26,580 $38,880
18 Minneapolis-St.Paul-Bloomington (#) 13,160 $38,750
19 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (#) 38,030 $38,690
20 Northern Valley California non-metro 670 $38,610
National 1,314,830 $33,250

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

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on November 16, 2022