Where these numbers come from
This board carries roughly 55,000 active travel contracts, refreshed nightly from agency and hospital feeds. As of August 2026, 38,726 of them list a weekly rate. The medians below are computed directly from those priced contracts; not from a survey, not from last year's BLS release, not from what a recruiter told someone on a forum.
That distinction matters. Survey numbers lag the market by months and skew toward whoever bothered to respond. A median across tens of thousands of live contracts is simply what the market is paying right now.
The national median across all priced contracts is $2,172 per week as of August 2026. Use that as your baseline: a contract meaningfully above it is a strong rate, and one well below it needs a reason; location, an easy unit, or a first contract you're taking for the experience.
Median weekly pay by state, August 2026
These are the large-volume states; each has roughly 900 or more priced contracts live, enough that the median means something. Smaller states can post eye-catching rates on a handful of crisis contracts, but a median built on thin volume isn't a number you should plan around.
Two things stand out. California leads the large states at $2,505 a week, and it also has the most priced contracts, so the high rate isn't scarcity, it's structural. Texas runs about $300 a week under the national median yet has among the most contracts on the board, which makes it the volume play: easier to land something fast, at a lower headline rate.
The California-vs-Texas spread is $635 a week; roughly $8,255 over a standard 13-week contract. Whether that gap survives taxes and housing costs is a different question, covered below.
Why the same job pays $635 more in California
Four forces drive the state-to-state spread:
- Cost of living. Stipends are pegged to local housing and meal costs, so expensive metros push the weekly package up. A chunk of California's premium is compensating you for California rent.
- California's mandated staffing ratios. California requires minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by law, which keeps demand for licensed RNs persistently high; hospitals can't quietly stretch the nurses they have.
- Demand vs supply. Rates rise where hospitals can't fill units locally and fall where travelers are plentiful. This is also why rates move week to week; the board refreshes nightly, and so does the market.
- State income tax. Texas and Florida have no state income tax. That means the take-home gap between a Texas contract and a California one is smaller than the gross gap suggests; sometimes much smaller once you run the numbers.
One more practical filter: where you can actually start. If you hold a compact license, you can begin work in compact states without waiting on a new license. Check the compact license state list before you fall in love with a rate in a state that will take eight weeks to license you.
How to compare two contracts properly
Weekly gross is a headline, not an answer. Two contracts at the same gross can differ by hundreds of dollars a week in take-home once you account for the taxable-vs-stipend split, state income tax, and what housing actually costs at the destination.
Do it in two steps. First, understand how the package is built (base rate, housing stipend, meals stipend), which is covered in our travel nurse pay guide. Then put both offers into the travel pay calculator side by side and compare what lands in your account, not what the recruiter leads with.
If this is your first contract, read the first travel contract guide before you sign anything; the pay package is only one of the things worth checking.
Where to browse the contracts behind these numbers
Every contract used to compute these medians is live on the travel board, filter by state and specialty, and the listed rate is right on the card. Listings update nightly, applying is free, and applications go directly to the employer or agency.
Deciding between destinations? The state-specific guides go deeper on what it's actually like to work there: California, Texas, and Florida.
And if these numbers have you wondering whether travel beats your staff job at all, start with staff vs travel nursing, you can check staff pay scales for comparison on the wages page.