Registered Nurses in Arkansas
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$61,902
after federal, FICA and Arkansas tax
Tax takes
$17,038
21.6% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$71,557
Arkansas costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Arkansas — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$78,940
Kept after tax
$61,902
Worth in national money
$71,557
State rank
47
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for registered nurses is on the low side in Arkansas. The middle earner gets $78,940. That is 47 of 51 states, and about 19.08% under the national figure. Whether that matters depends on what things cost here.
- Locally, this pays well. Among 489 occupations Arkansas reports, registered nurses comes in at 70 — comfortably in the upper quarter.
- Arkansas is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $78,940 the take-home is $61,902; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $71,557 would nationally. The average comes to $81,520, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For registered nurses, Arkansas sits in the lower band at $78,940, ranking 47 of 51 and trailing the national median by about 19.08%. Nominal rankings routinely invert once tax and regional price level are applied, so this position should not be read as the conclusion.
- Registered nurses ranks 70 of 489 occupations by median in Arkansas, in the top quartile. Within-state position is largely independent of national position, so this holds regardless of how the state compares to others for the same work.
- Post-tax income for registered nurses in Arkansas, on $78,940, is $61,902 — equivalent to $71,557 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $81,520 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Registered Nurses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $60,780 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $78,940 |
| Top tenth earn over | $103,660 |
| This salary | $78,940 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Arkansas | $61,902 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $64,364 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$5,321 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $75,440 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$7,350 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $78,940 as a midpoint for Arkansas, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $60,780 and the ninetieth is $103,660 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- That $61,902 take-home in Arkansas comes from $78,940. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 70 of 489.
- One number stands for prices across all of Arkansas, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $71,557, the adjusted value of that $78,940 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 70 of 489 in the state.
- The Arkansas median of $78,940 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $60,780 to $103,660. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- Retained pay of $61,902, from $78,940, assumes a single Arkansas filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 70 of 489 locally, and the state ranks 47 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Arkansas, so $71,557 — the adjusted value of that $78,940 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 70 of 489 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $81,520, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $60,780 and the top tenth $103,660, so most people doing this work in Arkansas sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $71,557.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and Arkansas adds its own income tax on top — which is why $61,902 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Arkansas is $81,520. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($60,780 to $103,660) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Arkansas rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Arkansas's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $71,557 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $61,902 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Arkansas income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.