Compared with the local labor market
Registered Nurse pay vs. Minnesota
Across all employers in Minnesota, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 70,110 people — is $101,510. Human Services Department pays a median base salary of $85,918 for this role, 15% below that figure — about the 20th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Human Services Department sits in the local pay range
$79,960
$88,940
$101,510
$114,760
$132,430
Human Services Department median · $85,918
The bar is the range of annual wages for Registered Nurses across every employer in Minnesota, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Human Services Department’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. Human Services Department’s median base salary is 12% below that national figure, about the 33rd percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$68,940
$80,330
$97,550
$112,350
$137,470
Human Services Department median · $85,918
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 Minnesota range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 329 of 403 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 Human Services Department is $88,277, 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
Registered Nurse beyond Minnesota
This role is reported in 15 jurisdictions. In Minnesota, the median of $90,863 ranks #7 of 15. See Registered Nurse across all of Minnesota →
Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role
Median total compensation for comparable Registered Nurseroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.