Tennessee will pay you $291,200 to practice advanced nursing. Alabama will pay you $90,000 for the same credential. The spread is $201,200, and both states share a border. The national nurse practitioner job market currently lists 1,748 positions across 48 states and the District of Columbia, with 717 positions disclosing compensation data. The market reveals a profession caught between standardization and wild geographic arbitrage, where your zip code matters more than almost any other variable.
👉 Explore Nurse Practitioner job market insights and trends

The Nurse Practitioner Job Market at a Glance

Total listings: 1,748. Listings with salary data: 717. Full compensation range: $65,000 to $1,250,000 (the upper figure reflects outlier specialty or ownership structures). Average salary range: $143,947 to $186,390.

The floor is low enough to raise questions about scope and hours. The ceiling is high enough to suggest equity participation or procedural subspecialties. The average range suggests a mature, competitive market where most full-time positions settle between $120,000 and $200,000, with meaningful premiums available for dermatology, pain management, and underserved rural placements.

States represented:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

👉 Browse Nurse Practitioner physician job opportunities

How States Stack Up

Overperformers: Tennessee ($208,000 to $291,200) leads the nation, though the figure rests on a single listing and should be treated as aspirational rather than structural. Kentucky ($187,200 to $271,093) offers the second-highest average with slightly more data confidence. Delaware ($188,400 to $264,400) punches well above its size, rewarding practitioners willing to work in a small state with limited openings. North Carolina ($174,833 to $226,646) combines top-decile pay with 118 total listings, making it the rare high-volume, high-compensation market. Montana ($173,333 to $226,347) and Indiana ($171,550 to $228,035) both clear $170,000 on the low end, pricing in rural scarcity and recruitment difficulty. Ohio ($163,116 to $256,516) offers the most statistically reliable premium, backed by 19 salary listings. Wisconsin ($166,508 to $233,355) and Minnesota ($165,232 to $230,113) round out the upper tier with cold-weather premiums intact. South Carolina ($167,400 to $231,000) and Virginia ($165,940 to $208,884) both exceed national averages despite being in competitive Southeastern markets.

Near-average performers: Washington ($142,730 to $170,950) sits just below the national average low, but 57 salary listings make it one of the most transparent and predictable markets in the country. Pennsylvania ($142,944 to $188,860) tracks almost exactly with the national mean. Florida ($145,600 to $188,050) offers stability and volume without upside. California ($146,105 to $184,230) pays slightly above average across 217 listings, but cost-of-living adjustments erase the nominal premium. Illinois ($147,995 to $187,198) and Oregon ($146,941 to $193,494) both hover near the midpoint. Maine ($148,956 to $189,956), Arizona ($148,857 to $206,683), and Idaho ($147,733 to $217,547) all cluster in the $145,000 to $150,000 starting range. Texas ($151,328 to $211,741) and Missouri ($155,467 to $209,600) offer modest premiums without breaking into the top tier. Georgia ($156,000 to $205,300) and Mississippi ($155,880 to $189,467) both pay slightly above average, though Georgia’s 24 salary listings provide far more confidence than Mississippi’s three.

Underperformers: Alabama ($90,000 to $160,000) anchors the bottom, paying $54,000 less than the national average on the low end. Colorado ($121,618 to $152,023) pays below-average wages in an above-average cost-of-living state, a mismatch worth scrutinizing. Rhode Island ($121,120 to $160,440) and Michigan ($121,667 to $191,667) both start in the low $120,000s, well below national norms. Massachusetts ($123,989 to $158,365) offers the worst value proposition in the dataset, combining high living costs with below-average compensation across 35 salary listings. Hawaii ($125,000 to $142,500) pays island wages without the island premium. New York ($127,236 to $160,474) underperforms badly given its cost structure, averaging $16,711 below the national mean across 84 salary listings. Connecticut ($129,199 to $170,200), New Jersey ($128,391 to $157,490), and Vermont ($128,034 to $158,129) all fall short of $130,000 on the low end. Nevada ($129,074 to $167,008), Maryland ($130,900 to $164,250), and West Virginia ($132,450 to $164,400) round out the bottom third. District of Columbia ($120,000 to $160,000) offers a single data point, but it’s a discouraging one.

Volume leaders: California leads with 217 listings, followed by New York (127), North Carolina (118), Washington (93), and Florida (89). California pays slightly above average but nothing exceptional. New York pays below average across high volume, a red flag for recruitment. North Carolina stands alone as the only top-five volume state that also pays top-decile wages. Washington and Florida both offer predictability and volume without premium compensation.
👉 Compare Nurse Practitioner compensation and opportunities by region

What This Means If You’re a Physician

If your priority is maximum compensation, target Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware, or Ohio. The highest-paying position in the dataset is a dermatology role in Vienna, West Virginia, offering $200,000 annually, proof that subspecialty roles in small markets can command premiums that exceed high-volume metro areas. (Vienna has a population of 10,000. The dermatology job pays more than the New York average.)

If your priority is maximum optionality, focus on California, New York, North Carolina, Washington, or Florida. These five states account for 644 of the 1,748 total listings. North Carolina is the only volume leader that also pays above-average wages, making it the best large-market opportunity in the country.

If your priority is balance, consider North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, or Montana. All four offer above-average pay, reasonable listing volume, and lower cost-of-living than coastal markets. North Carolina provides the most job options. Ohio provides the most statistically reliable salary data. Wisconsin and Montana price in weather and geography, but the premiums are real.

Cost-of-living mismatches worth scrutiny: Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, and Hawaii all pay below-average wages in above-average cost markets. The compensation gap in Massachusetts is particularly glaring given the concentration of academic medical centers and the state’s reputation for healthcare employment.
👉 Search Nurse Practitioner jobs by location and compensation

What This Means If You’re a Recruiter

Salary transparency rate: 41.0% (717 listings with data divided by 1,748 total listings). This is low enough to create friction in candidate pipelines and high enough to establish clear market benchmarks. Employers withholding salary data in this environment are self-selecting for candidates who either lack better options or are willing to tolerate informational asymmetry.

Candidate pipeline implications: High-volume states with below-average pay (New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut) will need to lead with non-compensation value propositions: academic affiliation, subspecialty training opportunities, or lifestyle appeal. New York’s 127 listings at $127,236 average low will struggle to compete with North Carolina’s 118 listings at $174,833 average low unless the role or location offers something salary cannot.

Volume-pay misalignments: New York lists 127 positions but pays $16,711 below the national average. California lists 217 positions but offers only modest premiums that evaporate after cost-of-living adjustment. Both states will face outmigration pressure as practitioners discover they can earn $40,000 to $60,000 more in North Carolina, Ohio, or Wisconsin without sacrificing job availability. Recruiters in underperforming high-volume markets should expect longer time-to-fill and higher declination rates unless compensation structures adjust.
👉 Post Nurse Practitioner positions on PhysEmp

What’s Driving the Numbers

Subspecialty and procedural roles command meaningful premiums, but the effect is inconsistent.

The $200,000 dermatology position in Vienna, West Virginia, represents the premium that procedural subspecialties can command even in low-population markets. Dermatology, pain management, and aesthetic medicine consistently pay above the average range when disclosed. However, the lack of subspecialty-specific salary transparency in the dataset makes it difficult to quantify the premium with precision. The market rewards procedural competence and revenue generation, but employers are not yet consistently pricing or advertising that premium in job postings.

Part-time and per-diem roles distort the floor, but not as severely as in physician markets.

The $65,000 floor likely reflects part-time or limited-scope positions, but the clustering of full-time offers between $120,000 and $200,000 suggests the market has a well-established full-time baseline. Unlike physician markets, where part-time roles can create dramatic floor distortions, the nurse practitioner market appears to have more standardized expectations around full-time equivalency. The outlier $1,250,000 ceiling almost certainly reflects ownership, profit-sharing, or a data entry error, and should be disregarded for benchmarking purposes.

Underserved and rural markets price in scarcity, but not uniformly.

Montana, Kentucky, Delaware, and Tennessee all offer top-decile compensation despite low listing volume, clear evidence that rural and underserved markets are willing to pay premiums to attract talent. However, Alabama, West Virginia, and Mississippi all remain near or below national averages despite similar geographic and demographic profiles. The difference appears to hinge on state Medicaid reimbursement rates, scope-of-practice laws, and hospital system capital availability. Scarcity creates pricing power only when the employer has the revenue model and regulatory environment to support it.

The volume-pay relationship is inverted, and that inversion is accelerating.

Traditional labor economics would predict that high-volume markets pay premiums due to demand density. The nurse practitioner market shows the opposite: California, New York, and Florida all combine high listing volume with average or below-average pay. North Carolina is the lone exception, offering both high volume and high compensation. The inversion suggests that supply saturation in coastal markets has compressed wages, while undersupplied interior markets have maintained pricing power. Practitioners who optimize for salary rather than geography will increasingly move to second- and third-tier markets, further compressing coastal wages and inflating rural premiums.

The Bottom Line

The nurse practitioner job market is large, transparent, and geographically bifurcated. Coastal markets offer job density but wage compression. Interior markets offer wage premiums but limited openings. North Carolina is the rare state that offers both. Subspecialty roles in small markets can outpay generalist roles in large ones, and the $201,200 gap between Tennessee and Alabama proves that borders matter more than credentials.

You can make $291,200 in Tennessee or $90,000 in Alabama with the same degree, and the market will call both of those numbers rational.
👉 Browse all Nurse Practitioner physician jobs
👉 Upload your CV to get matched with opportunities
👉 Set alerts for new Nurse Practitioner roles

Salary data based on 717 listings with disclosed compensation. Figures may reflect part-time or specialized roles. This report is informational and should not replace professional judgment or financial planning.