Registered Nurses in Hawaii
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$95,503
after federal, FICA and Hawaii tax
Tax takes
$40,817
29.9% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$87,933
Hawaii costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Hawaii — 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
$136,320
Kept after tax
$95,503
Worth in national money
$87,933
State rank
2
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- This is a good state for the work. Hawaii pays registered nurses a middle wage of $136,320, ranking 2 of 51 states and sitting about 39.74% above the national middle.
- This is one of the better-paid jobs in Hawaii. It ranks 15 out of 437 occupations the state publishes figures for, which puts it in the top quarter locally.
- Costs eat into it here. Of $136,320, tax leaves $95,503 — and because Hawaii is dearer than average, that stretches only as far as $87,933 would nationally. Here the average runs under the middle, at $124,340.
- Hawaii's median for registered nurses is $136,320, about 39.74% above the national figure and 2 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
- Within Hawaii, registered nurses ranks 15 of 437 occupations by median pay, placing it in the top quartile of the local distribution. This is the comparison a resident actually makes — against neighbors rather than against the same job elsewhere.
- After tax, $95,503 remains from the Hawaii median of $136,320 for this occupation. Applying the state's above-average price parity yields $87,933 in national-average terms — the quantity relevant to a relocation decision, and the one absent from essentially every published wage comparison. Mean pay of $124,340 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Registered Nurses
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $82,500 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $136,320 |
| Top tenth earn over | $147,830 |
| This salary | $136,320 |
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 Hawaii | $95,503 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $104,441 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$19,544 |
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 | $123,243 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$27,409 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 109 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Treat $136,320 as a midpoint for Hawaii, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $82,500 and the ninetieth is $147,830 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
- One filer, no dependants, no pension contributions — that is the household behind Hawaii's $95,503, worked from $136,320. That is on purpose. It lets states be compared with each other, not with each other's family circumstances. Local city taxes are left out. Locally this work ranks 15 of 437.
- Two cautions on $87,933, the adjusted value of that $136,320 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Hawaii. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 15 of 437 locally.
- The Hawaii median of $136,320 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $82,500 to $147,830. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
- The Hawaii take-home of $95,503, on $136,320 for work ranking 15 of 437 locally, models the simplest household deliberately: holding it constant is what makes the interstate comparison meaningful. It also means the absolute figure overstates liability for most real filers, and municipal income taxes are outside the model entirely. The occupation ranks 15 of 437 in the state.
- This $87,933 adjusted figure, worked from $136,320, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 15 of 437 in the state. The occupation ranks 15 of 437 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 $124,340, 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?
The range here is narrow. From $82,500 at the bottom tenth to $147,830 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Hawaii costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $87,933 rather than its face figure.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Hawaii's own levy, $95,503 remains.
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 Hawaii is $124,340. 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 ($82,500 to $147,830) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Hawaii rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Hawaii's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $87,933 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $95,503 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Hawaii 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.