Nurse Take-Home Pay by Country 2026: US, UK, Australia

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $97,550 for registered nurses (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, published in the Occupational Outlook Handbook and last modified 27 August 2026). That replaces the older medians still quoted on many sites. The table applies 2026 federal rules and each state's income tax to the BLS median and to the BLS 10th and 90th percentile figures.

Source for gross figures: BLS OOH, Registered Nurses. Take-home: CountryTaxCalc.com US engine, single filer, wages only, standard deduction, no dependants, no pre-tax deductions. Includes federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Excludes California SDI, New York City tax, 401(k) and employer health premiums. BLS describes the 10th percentile as "less than $68,940" and the 90th as "more than $137,470"; we use those numbers as illustrative round points.

Texas has no state income tax, so the gap to California and New York at the median is about $4,700 a year before differences in local pay. Registered nurse pay itself varies by state and employer, and we have not used a state-level BLS figure here, so do not read this table as a salary comparison between states.

NHS Employers published the 2026/27 Agenda for Change pay scales on 12 February 2026, effective 1 April 2026. Newly qualified nurses start in Band 5, senior staff nurses and specialists are typically Band 6, and advanced practitioners and ward sisters or charge nurses in Band 7. The table below deducts income tax, employee National Insurance and the NHS Pension Scheme contribution for each pay point.

Calculation: England income tax 2026/27 (personal allowance £12,570, 20% to £50,270, 40% above, GOV.UK); Class 1 employee National Insurance category A (0% to £242 a week, 8% to £967 a week, 2% above, GOV.UK, applied as weekly thresholds multiplied by 52); NHS Pension Scheme member contributions from NHS Business Services Authority. Assumes tax code 1257L, no student loan, no second job, and that pension contributions are deducted before income tax (the usual net-pay arrangement, but check your payslip). This is a hand calculation from published rules, not an engine run. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ.

The NHS pension deduction is not money lost: it buys a defined-benefit pension, so cash take-home understates total compensation for NHS staff. We have not put a value on that pension because it depends on career length and pay progression.

NSW Health Information Bulletin IB2026_018 sets Registered Nurse award rates following the NSW Industrial Relations Commission decision of 16 April 2026. The table uses the weekly rates from 1 July 2026 multiplied by 52, then applies 2026-27 resident income tax and the 2% Medicare levy using our Australia calculator.

Gross rates: NSW Health IB2026_018, Table 1. Take-home: CountryTaxCalc.com Australia engine (resident, 2026-27 rates including the 15% rate on A$18,201 to A$45,000, plus 2% Medicare levy; Medicare Levy Surcharge, HELP repayments and salary packaging excluded). Super guarantee rate of 12% per the ATO (rate in force since 1 July 2025). Penalty rates, shift allowances and overtime are not included, so many nurses earn more than the base award figure. Other states and private employers use different agreements.

Ireland. The Department of Health consolidated salary scales effective 1 June 2026 (reflecting a 1% adjustment under the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026) list the HSE Staff Nurse scale at EUR 38,166 on the first point rising to EUR 56,592 at point 13, with a long service increment after that. Clinical Nurse Manager 1 runs from EUR 57,780 to EUR 68,046, Clinical Nurse Manager 2 from EUR 62,699 to EUR 79,227 and Clinical Nurse Manager 3 from EUR 72,146 to EUR 81,478. You can run any of these salaries through our Ireland tax calculator, but we have not independently verified that engine, so we do not publish a take-home table here.

Canada. Job Bank, using Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey data for 2023-2024 (page updated 19 November 2025), shows Ontario registered nurses with a low of C$29.00, a median of C$42.00 and a high of C$55.00 an hour. That is survey data, not a collective agreement scale, and it is older than the other benchmarks on this page. Use our Canada tax calculator for your own figures, with the same caveat.

The take-home percentages above are not like-for-like. The UK figures already include an 8.3% to 10.7% pension contribution. The US figures include no 401(k) or health-insurance premium, which many employers deduct. Australian figures exclude the 12% employer super, which sits on top of salary. Compare what you keep, but also what is being set aside for retirement and healthcare in each country.

US travel nursing. Travel contracts often split pay into a taxable hourly rate and non-taxable stipends. Under IRS Tax Topic 511, travel expenses away from your tax home are deductible only for temporary work, meaning work realistically expected to last one year or less, and your tax home is generally the city or general area where your main place of work is located. Whether a stipend is tax-free in your case depends on whether you keep a qualifying tax home, so we do not model travel stipends or quote typical contract rates. A US tax professional should confirm your position.

An earlier version of this guide ranked nurse take-home in the UAE, Singapore, New Zealand, Norway, Germany and others using salary levels we could not trace to an official source and fixed exchange rates. We have removed those figures. They will return when we can pair a published nurse pay scale with a verified tax calculation. In the meantime you can check any salary yourself in the UAE, Singapore, New Zealand, Norway and Germany calculators, remembering that some of those engines are still under audit.