Neonatal Nurse Salaries in the US: What Is the Average Income in Each State?

A neonatal nurse or a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse works with newborns since their birth, up until the age of two. This could mean healthy babies, as well as prematurely born babies or babies born with diseases or malformations.

Neonatal nurses have various duties, from bathing, weighing and measuring the newborns, to checking vital signs, maintaining IV lines and drawing blood.

They assist births, but they can also witness the untimely deaths of infants, which is why NICU nurses must always be calm and composed. They also have to provide support for the families of the babies in times of distress, so empathy and sensitivity should come naturally to a neonatal nurse.

nicu nurse salary

What Are the Steps to Becoming a Neonatal Nurse?

In order to do this, you must first become an RN, so the first step towards this profession is earning an Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). Then you need to pass the NCLEX® Exam and get certified as a registered nurse (RN).

Do you want to become a neonatal nurse? Enroll in our RN-to-BSN Program!

As an RN, you need to gain at least two years of experience working with newborns. You can do this by working as a nurse in various departments such as pediatrics, maternal nursing, labor and delivery nursing, and well baby nursing.

After two years worth of clinical experience caring for newborns, you can work as a neonatal nurse. You don’t need a certification to do this, but if you want to broaden your career options, you can get certified in neonatal nursing, to validate your knowledge.

If you want to take your career a step further, you can choose to become a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. In order to do this, you must earn a Master’s of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree and get specialized in neonatal nursing.

According to their duties, neonatal nurses can be divided into three categories:

Level I neonatal nurses care for healthy babies;
Level II neonatal nurses are in charge of prematurely born and sick babies;
Level III neonatal nurses care for severely ill infants that need constant supervision.

How Much Do Neonatal Nurses Earn?

neonatal nurse salary in the us

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that between May 2016 and May 2017, registered nurses of all specializations brought in a median salary of $70,000 per year. However, the job platform ZipRecruiter states that the average annual income for neonatal nurses in the US is $98,417, with a monthly wage of $8,201 and an hourly wage of $47.

They also published data on the average neonatal nurse salary in each American state. Since ZipRecruiter is a recruitment platform, all the data is in accordance with the market reality.

According to them, the highest paying state for neonatal nurses is New York, with an annual salary of $108,499, and the lowest paying state is North Carolina, with a yearly wage of $78,345.

Here is a list of all fifty states of the USA and their specific median wage for neonatal nurses, ranked from highest to lowest:

New York

Hourly Wage: $52.16
Annual Salary: $108,499

Massachusetts

Hourly Wage: $52.01
Annual Salary: $108,172

Maryland

Hourly Wage: $48.82
Annual Salary: $101,538

California

Hourly Wage: $48.27
Annual Salary: $100,399

Vermont

Hourly Wage: $48.04
Annual Salary: $99,915

West Virginia

Hourly Wage: $47.85
Annual Salary: $99,528

Alaska