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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022
| Contributor Information
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
When it comes to nurses, some specialties earn more than others. Registered nurses (RNs), the largest group, have seen their earnings rise for the past 2 years while the earnings of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) have remained stagnant.
In our Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022, we surveyed 4922 US nurses (3444 RNs and 1478 LPNs) about their earnings, work environment, degrees, certifications, and supplemental income. We offer a breakdown of earnings within various categories to provide a better picture of the income potential of these major nursing specialties.
(Note: Some totals in this presentation do not equal 100% owing to rounding.)
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Among full-time employees, over half of RNs are employed in hospital settings, while LPNs are concentrated across skilled nursing facilities, medical offices/urgent care, hospital-based outpatient settings, or clinics and home health/visiting nurse settings.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
RNs' total earnings increased slightly from last year's report ($83,000 in total compensation), while LPNs' earnings are flat. Compared with last year, RN bonuses, overtime, and other compensation are down.
"Many hospitals struggled financially due to reduced surgeries and fewer outpatient visits, which resulted in net losses," says Margaret Thew, RN, DNP, FNP-C, who is medical director for adolescent medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "[Nurse salaries were] another casualty of the losses healthcare organizations felt from the pandemic."
Joel Theisen, BSN, RN, CEO and founder of Lifespark, which offers home- and community-based services, says that supplemental funding from the Paycheck Protection Program that helped healthcare employers through the pandemic has been used up and "most organizations are losing money or are way down from pre-pandemic profits. The overall employee costs are not sustainable/viable, and where price adjustments cannot be made to pass along costs, I believe the compensation trends will continue to come down over time."
Katie Boston-Leary, RN, PhD, director of nursing programs for the American Nurses Association (ANA), says retention bonuses and annual performance bonuses may have come down but signing bonuses of $20,000-$30,000 for new nurses entering a competitive market continue in the face of staffing shortages. She doesn't see the trend changing, though she admits that it's not sustainable because there should be more of a focus on increasing base pay and improving benefits.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Both full-time and part-time/per diem RN hourly wages increased slightly from last year's report ($40 and $42 per hour, respectively). Only full-time LPN hourly wages increased from the last report ($25 per hour); part-time and per diem rates were the same.
For the most part, hourly wages have been incrementally increasing across the board for RNs and LPNs over the past 6 years.
Male and female RNs reported an increase in hourly base rate from 2020. Both genders earned an average base rate of $44 an hour in 2021 and a median hourly base rate of $41.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Salaried nurses continue to have higher incomes than those who are paid hourly. Salaried RNs make about 8% more than their hourly counterparts, whereas salaried LPNs make about 20% more.
Boston-Leary explains that salaried nurses tend to be administrators and managers, while most bedside acute-care nurses work hourly so that they can receive overtime pay. "Nurses don't want it any other way. If they got a salary, it would leave money on the table they would not get paid for," she says.
Theisen says, "Salaried employees should make more, in my opinion. They are usually working more hours per week and committed fully to the organization they support. They are expected to do what it takes to ensure the work is done and many times do additional functions that are not directly compensated, like 'on-call' or attend[ing] additional training, meetings, etc."
He adds that salaried employees also "have longer lengths of service and set the culture of the organization and team dynamics. The benefit of hourly is the personal flexibility and opportunity to work for multiple organizations."
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Risa Kerslake, RN, BSN, says newer nurses may not think they are getting paid enough because they are weighing the stress of the job compared to the salary. "Newer nurses can struggle more to get the time off they want, as well as the shifts that work best for them since nurses with more seniority get first pick," she notes.
"In addition to the day-to-day challenges that nurses face, newer nurses don't yet have the experience of years of 'real-world' nursing and can face anxiety and stress in getting thrown into tough patient care situations."
Thew says that, in some cases, staffing shortages led to increased workloads and mandatory overtime, which also influenced pay satisfaction.
Boston-Leary cites results of the American Nurses Foundation's Pulse on the Nation's Nurses workplace survey, conducted this summer, which also found that nurses, especially newer ones, are dissatisfied with their earnings. Some of the dissatisfaction stems from benefits such as health insurance, childcare, retirement, savings plans, and student loans cutting into their wages, with high operating costs being passed along to the nurses, she explains.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
At least half of RNs and LPNs surveyed saw an increase in their income in 2021 compared with 2020, with 9%-13% seeing a decrease.
This year, more RNs and LPNs saw an increase than in 2020 (RNs: 65% vs 56%; LPNs: 55% vs 50%).
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
RNs in hospital inpatient care rank among the highest-earning, while those employed in schools and public health settings rank lowest. The gross income of hospital inpatient care RNs increased from last year's report.
Earnings generally increased in all practice settings over the past 6 years.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
LPNs working in skilled nursing facilities lead in earnings. The gross income of non-hospital-based-medicine LPNs increased from last year's report.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Male nurses tend to move up the career ladder faster and earn more than female nurses, Boston-Leary notes. This is partly due to female nurses balancing or hesitating to take on leadership roles and additional responsibilities, as most women hold primary caretaker duties after work, whether raising children or caring for aging family, she says.
Males comprised 10% of the RN respondent pool and 9% of the LPN respondent pool.
Among full-time employees, the annual gross income for male RNs and LPNs continues to exceed that of their female counterparts, by about 16% for LPNs and 6% for RNs. This mirrors a trend observed last year too. Overall compensation for male and female RNs and female LPNs increased from 2020.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Among full-time employees, male RNs work for hourly wages more often than their female counterparts. Male nurses also reported taking charge-nurse responsibilities and working extra shifts and overtime more often than female nurses.
Male nurses are more often employed in inpatient units than female nurses, and more than half of male nurses work in urban settings, which is a significantly greater number than for female nurses.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
RNs most often hold a bachelor's degree. This year's findings mirror those in last year's report.
Boston-Leary says bedside nurses tend to have bachelor's, RN, or associate degrees, and while she welcomes more nurses having dual degrees, she's also concerned about the diminishing pool of nurses needed to treat patients at the bedside. And with fewer faculty and preceptors to educate nurses, she's also worried about filling the nursing pipeline.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
RNs with a doctoral degree have the highest earnings of all their peers. Those with associate or bachelor's degrees reported higher earnings than in last year's report ($77,000 and $81,000, respectively).
And those with diplomas from an RN program also saw earnings increase from 2020 ($74,000).
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Among the more than half of full-time RNs who hold a specialty certification, income increased 5% from last year's report ($88,000).
"It is very important for nurses working in a specialty area to obtain these certifications in order to provide the best and safest care to this population," Thew says.
Specializing in a particular area allows nurses to "benefit from the additional knowledge obtained by the certification to care for this special population," she adds. "Hospitals also benefit from having nurses obtain a certification because they can leverage these nurses to be leaders on hospital units, and when the hospitals apply for national certifications it is looked at favorably."
Still, most nurses gain certifications for their own fulfillment and growth and not based on job requirements, Boston-Leary says. It proves professional competence and expertise, she adds, and certified nurses tend to be celebrated at their institutions.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
As in previous years, the longer in practice, the higher the income. RNs in practice 5 years or less saw earnings increase from last year ($65,000) as did LPNs in practice for 21 years or longer ($50,000).
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
RNs and LPNs not in unions — a large majority of both sets of nurses — saw increases in salary from last year ($81,000 and $49,000, respectively).
Salaries for both specialties, whether union members or non-union, increased over the past 5 years.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
RN earnings are highest among the Pacific, New England, and Mid-Atlantic regions, and among the lowest in the West North Central and East South Central regions.
Earnings in most regions — except the Pacific, New England, and Mid-Atlantic — increased from 2020.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
LPN earnings are highest among the Pacific, the East North Central, and the Mid-Atlantic regions. Earnings in the West North Central and South Atlantic are among the lowest.
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
As in last year's report, full-time salaries generally decrease as a geographic area becomes less densely populated. Income for rural LPNs increased from last year ($44,000).
Income for RNs in urban, suburban, and ex-urban areas also increased from 2020. And both specialties saw rising income in each of the communities over the past 6 years.
The majority of RNs and LPNs work in urban and suburban settings (78% and 70%, respectively).
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
More than half of RNs and nearly half of LPNs earn supplemental income.
Male RNs are more likely to earn supplemental income (67%) than are female RNs (51%). The same can be said for male LPNs (61% vs 48% of female LPNs).
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
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Medscape RN/LPN Compensation Report 2022
Roni Robbins | September 30, 2022 | Contributor Information
Are Growing Hospital Expenses Due to Rising Nurse Salaries or Poor Planning?
While hospitals are struggling to manage labor costs, payers and employers aren't footing the bill. Meanwhile, nurses are leaving the profession after 2 years of battling a pandemic.Medscape Medical News, May 2022
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Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.
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