City of Boston / Nurse
Role across City of Boston
Nurse
Provide direct patient care — assess conditions, administer treatment and medication, and coordinate with physicians.
184 people hold the Nurse role across 111 departments in City of Boston, with a median total compensation of $119,955. Among 10 jurisdictions where this role is reported, City of Boston ranks #5 by median pay.
- Employees
- 184
- Median pay
- $119,955
- Departments
- 111
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #5 of 10
Compared with the local labor market
Nurse pay vs. the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area
Across all employers in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 64,240 people — is $106,180. City of Boston pays a median base salary of $117,309 for this role, 10% above that figure — about the 56th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where City of Boston sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Registered Nurses across every employer in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows City of Boston’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 3,379,720 people — is $97,550. City of Boston’s median base salary is 20% above that national figure, about the 78th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 175 of 184 people in this role paid at least $25,000 in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at City of Boston is $119,955, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
Nurse pay in other jurisdictions
Where Nurses are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Nurse roles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.
Within City of Boston
Departments with this role
Largest City of Boston departments for this role
Departments in City of Boston employing the most people in this role. Each bar links to that department’s page for the role.