With the scarcity of qualified nurses in the health field a growing number of unlicensed nurses are finding jobs.  The salaries and type of jobs of unlicensed nurses obviously varies significantly.  Local laws and regulations may determine what type of jobs unlicensed nurses may hold, but in some places the lack of regulations on who can be labeled a ‘nurse’ is striking.  Nurse managers should become well versed in how this affects their staff and what type of tasks unlicensed nurses are qualified, and allowed, to perform.  The salary of licensed nurses, invariably, is higher but their duties are more significant and carry much more responsibility.

Ok, so what everyone wants to know is how much are nurse managers making these days?  These jobs seem to be in high demand among nurses, but nurses are in high demand themselves so it’s all relative.  Anyway, the average nurse manager salary is $85,000.  The 75th percentile isn’t all that much higher at around $94,000 and the lowest quartile is at $77,000.  If you are entering this job, you may want to take that 25%-75% as a benchmark for salary negotiations.