Public Health Nurse

Across all employers in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ area, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 197,740 people — is $119,720. Department of Health/Mental Hygiene pays a median base salary of $59,758 for this role, 50% below that figure — below the 10th percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 409 of 519 people in this role paid at least $25,000in 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 Department of Health/Mental Hygiene is $82,989, 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.

This role is reported in 15 jurisdictions. In New York City, the median of $82,989 ranks #8 of 15. See Public Health Nurse across all of New York City →