What California Pays New Grad Nurses

New grad nurses on night shift at Kaiser in Northern California make $96.11 an hour. That’s about $6,921 every two weeks as a staff nurse, with no side hustle. I found out pay like this existed on one trip to Roseville.

These rates are from May 2025, when this was first written. Pay changes every year, so check current rates in Map My Pay.

We thought we were moving to the Bay

When Monica and I decided to leave New York, we thought we were headed to the Bay. We’d heard nurses in San Francisco made some of the top wages in the country.

We booked a trip to Northern California to scout neighborhoods and hospitals. Once we saw the cost of housing, we knew the Bay wasn’t going to work.

That’s when we reached out to an old friend. He and his wife were both nurses, and they had moved to California a few months before. I’d heard they were somewhere near Sacramento, so we asked to meet up. He told us to swing by.

A new house in Roseville

We figured he was renting an apartment, or maybe a condo with the kids. We were way wrong.

We pulled up to a new neighborhood in Roseville with fresh pavement, wide sidewalks and two-car garages. Every house looked brand new. We thought maybe he was staying with family.

Then he and his wife welcomed us in and told us straight up: “We bought this house. We moved here from New York eight months ago.”

That stopped me cold. In eight months, they’d gone from NYC renters to California homeowners. I had to ask how. That’s when he told me what nurses were making at Kaiser Permanente.

Back then, night shift paid $83 an hour

He wasn’t on some special contract. He was a full-time staff nurse on nights with no side hustle. He told us new grads started only a few dollars less. It was all in the union contract.

So I found the contract online and started reading. I’d never seen pay like that in black and white, especially for bedside nurses.

That was the moment everything shifted for Monica and me. We came to California thinking we’d move to San Francisco. We left knowing we’d build a life in Sacramento. I wrote more about that day in the day I learned California nurses make over $100 an hour.

What new grads at Kaiser make now

If the pay was life-changing back then, it’s even better now. Here’s what new grad nurses on night shift at Kaiser NorCal earn:

This is not travel nursing or a short-term contract. It’s what staff nurses are paid, in writing, in the union contract, every two weeks. For how this compares to Southern California, read Kaiser NorCal vs SoCal nurse pay.

Most nurses never find out this exists

Before that trip, Monica and I were both full-time nurses in NYC. We were always working, paying down debt and trying to save.

We had no idea a different zip code could change our whole financial life. We didn’t know new grad nurses in California were out-earning experienced nurses in most other states. They were also working fewer hours and buying homes in their first year. It was hidden in plain sight.

The math still shocks me

In many cities, even experienced nurses walk away with less than $2,000 a month after housing. In Northern California, new grads are walking away with over $4,000 a month after their mortgage. That’s the difference, and that’s the chance in front of you.

If Sacramento is on your list, read should nurses still move to Sacramento.

About eight years later

We’ve been in California for about eight years now. We’ve paid off over $128,000 in debt. We’ve built a life with time, space and room to breathe with our money.

It all started with that one visit to Roseville. If we hadn’t seen it for ourselves, I’m not sure we would have believed it. Now we live it, and now you know it’s possible too.

Written by Jason, RN. I went from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California and paid off $128K of debt in under a year. I share our numbers in the Nurses to Riches newsletter and on YouTube.