ASCs are feeling the effects of the nurse shortage as they compete with the deep pockets of hospitals, medical centers and even Amazon to recruit.
Here are 10 stats on nurse pay:
1. Registered nurses in the U.S. make an average of $80,010 annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2. Nurses in California earn the highest average salary of all U.S. nurses at $120,560. Hawaii is second at $104,830, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics..
3. ASC nurse salaries remained relatively flat from 2018 to 2020, the most recent ASC data available from VMG Health's Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking Studies. In 2018, ASC nurses made $35.93 per hour as the median average salary. By 2020, median ASC nurse staff wages were $37.05 per hour.
4. The average hourly pay for nurses in the U.S. is $38.74 for registered nurses and $55.05 for nurse practitioners, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here is what nurses are paid by the hour in all 50 states.
5. Average annual nurse salary jumped 4 percent in 2021; 3.3 percent in 2020; and 2.6 percent in 2019, according to healthcare consultants Premier, which examined salaries of about 60,000 nurses for The Wall Street Journal.
6. Nurse turnover rates have risen to about 22 percent in 2021, up from the annual rate of about 18 percent in 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal.
7. In 2020, the average annual gross income was $116,000 for nurse practitioners; $112,000 for clinical nurse specialists; $211,000 for certified registered nurse anesthetists; and $118,000 for nurse midwives, according to a report by Medscape.
8. Travel nurses receive an average hourly rate of $120, according to the "2021 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report."
9. The RN vacancy rate in 2021 was almost a full percentage point higher than 2020 at 9.9 percent, and 62 percent of hospitals have an RN vacancy rate of higher than 7.5 percent, brought on by the economy and COVID-19, according to the NSI staffing report.
10. Vivian Health, a healthcare recruiting firm, saw all-time high average pay for travel nurse contracts in September 2021 at $3,110 per week, up 39.4 percent from September 2020.