When mak­ing career deci­sions, many con­sid­er­a­tions come into play. Edu­ca­tion, set­ting, and expe­ri­ence can pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties and lim­i­ta­tions depend­ing on your pro­fes­sional goals. For many peo­ple though, the real decid­ing fac­tor is salary, and loca­tion can have a lot to do with a nurse’s poten­tial earn­ing capa­bil­ity. In Hous­ton, TX, for instance, the most pop­u­lar city among ONS mem­bers, an RN makes $71,000 per year on aver­age, com­pared to New York City, NY, the sec­ond most pop­u­lar city for ONS mem­bers, which aver­ages at $82,000 annu­ally (U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, 2011).

Seems like New York City is the place to be then, right? Not nec­es­sar­ily. Accord­ing to Bankrate.com’s (2012) Cost of Liv­ing Com­par­i­son Cal­cu­la­tor, an RN who makes the aver­age annual salary in Hous­ton would need to make $166,743 per year to main­tain the same stan­dard of liv­ing in New York City, a stun­ning $84,743 more than the aver­age. So before the allure of mak­ing more money has you think­ing of tak­ing a job, do the num­bers. You may find relo­cat­ing for higher pay will have you pinch­ing even more pen­nies. On the flip side though, a change in loca­tion may be just what you need to make your pay­check go fur­ther, even if you are tak­ing a pay cut.

For more infor­ma­tion on salary aver­ages for RNs, visit the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics web­site. Also, check out Bankrate.com’s Cost of Liv­ing Com­par­i­son Cal­cu­la­tor.

• Bankrate​.com. (2012). Cost of liv­ing com­par­i­son cal­cu­la­tor. Retrieved from http://​www​.bankrate​.com/​c​a​l​c​u​l​a​t​o​r​s​/​s​a​v​i​n​g​s​/​m​o​v​i​n​g​-​c​o​s​t​-​o​f​-​l​i​v​i​n​g​-​c​a​l​c​u​lator.aspx
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics. (2011). Occu­pa­tional employ­ment and wages, May 2010: 29–1111 Reg­is­tered nurses. Retrieved from http://​www​.bls​.gov/​o​e​s​/​c​u​r​r​e​n​t​/​o​e​s​2​9​1​111.htm#st