Registered Nurses Salary: Tucson, AZ vs Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
Registered Nurses earn a median of $95,960 in Tucson, AZ and $172,390 in Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA. That is a nominal gap of $76,430 (-44.3%), with Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.
The story behind the numbers
On raw wages, Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA pays $76,430 more per year than Tucson, AZ for registered nurses, a gap of +44.3%.
After adjusting for cost of living, Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA still comes out ahead, with roughly $60,906 of extra purchasing power (+38.1% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.
Full breakdown by location
Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for registered nurses in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.
Registered Nurses
Tucson, AZ
- Median salary
- $95,960
- Mean salary
- $91,890
- Employment
- 9,390
- Location quotient
- 1.14
- Jobs per 1,000
- 24.3
- COL-adjusted median
- $99,034
- Regional Price Parity
- 96.9%
Exact metro RPP match.
Registered Nurses
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
- Median salary
- $172,390
- Mean salary
- $171,490
- Employment
- 3,770
- Location quotient
- 0.86
- Jobs per 1,000
- 18.4
- COL-adjusted median
- $159,940
- Regional Price Parity
- 107.8%
Exact metro RPP match.
Related pages
Keep digging into registered nurses from a different angle.
Common questions about this comparison
What does the cost-of-living adjustment actually do? +
It divides each location's nominal median wage by its Regional Price Parity (RPP), which measures how local prices compare to the national average (100 = national). A wage of $100,000 in an area with RPP 120 has the same purchasing power as roughly $83,000 nationally.
Why would the nominal and adjusted winners disagree? +
High-cost metros often pay higher salaries, but not by enough to fully offset the higher cost of housing, goods, and services. When that happens, the location with the lower nominal wage actually offers more real purchasing power.
What is a location quotient? +
The location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a given area versus the national average. A value of 2.0 means the occupation is twice as common there as nationally. It is a signal of what a metro specializes in.