Most nurses who quit aren’t burnt out. They’re broke. Low pay, not stress, is the main reason nurses walk away.
These rates are from May 2025, when this was first written. Pay changes every year, so check current rates in Map My Pay.
The math doesn’t work on $32 an hour
There are staff nurses making $32 an hour in Orlando. They pay $1,700 for rent, $1,000 for daycare and $700 for a car just to get to work. They run the numbers, and every month they come up short.
Then they open Instagram and see a nurse in California making $140 an hour, posting her $9,000 paycheck. That’s when the switch flips.
Low pay happens in California too. Read she was making $34 an hour as a nurse in California.
What I cover in the video
This video is the most direct I’ve ever been. I break down:
- Why low pay, not stress, is the main reason nurses are walking away.
- How hospitals use “calling” as an excuse to underpay you.
- What the data shows: when pay goes up, nurses stay.
- The steps you can take to double your income, even if you’re not ready to move yet.
Watch it on our YouTube channel at youtube.com/@nursestoriches.
For the study behind “higher pay keeps nurses,” read $150 an hour as a staff nurse.
Respect is a number on your paycheck
Respect isn’t a pizza party or a pen with the hospital logo on it. It’s the number on your paycheck.
You can love your patients and fight for your financial future at the same time. Those two things aren’t opposites. For a lot of nurses, both are needed to survive.
This one is personal for us because we’ve been there. No nurse should work full time and still be too broke to take a trip, buy a home or just breathe.
If you want to earn more without working more, read how to work less and earn more as a nurse.
Your next move
See what you’d take home, then make the move
Map My Pay shows what nurses take home after taxes and rent at 465+ hospitals and in 21,000+ cities. It’s the app I co-founded so you can compare cities before you pack a single box.
The Nurses to Riches Accelerator is the plan Monica and I used to go from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California: license, city, hospital, and what to do with the money after.
Get the Map My Pay app
See the Accelerator plans
Every Accelerator plan is a one-time payment with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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.