There were more than 1,388,000 nursing assistants employed in the United States as of May 2024 according to the latest occupational employment data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Approximately 214,470 of those employed as nursing assistants lived in the Mid-Eastern U.S., a region that includes five states and the District of Columbia.  BLS data reveals the region to be one of the better regions of the country for nursing assistant pay.  Every Mid-Eastern state, expect Delaware, registered a nursing assistant's annual mean wage level that was above the national average, and two states in the region ranked among the ten best states nationally for that pay metric.  A closer examination of BLS data from May 2024 provides the following details about nursing assistant pay in the Mid-Eastern U.S.:

Nursing Assistant Pay in the Mid-Eastern U.S.

State	# Employed	Annual Mean Wages	Wage Rank*
DC	2,550	$47,480	30th
DE	5,660	$40,120	6th
MD	24,230	$42,070	22nd
NJ	31,310	$44,480	14th
NY	85,310	$47,530	5th
PA	65,410	$41,700	24th
U.S.	1,388,510	$41,173	-------

(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on August 13, 2026