Skip to content

NPs & PAs

Clinical nurse specialist salary

Open clinical nurse specialist jobs post a median of $84 an hour, with the middle half paying $64.25–$90.75: about $174,700 a year full time. Measured from 20 jobs at 11 employers that state their pay, read from each employer's own job board.

$84
Median posted /hr
$64–$91
Middle half /hr
$174,700
A year, full time
estimate, 2,080 hours
$46.90
BLS median /hr
May 2025

The jobs themselves: Clinical nurse specialist jobs

What clinical nurse specialists are paid

Each bar counts the open jobs posting an hourly rate in its step of pay (a range at its midpoint). The middle half of employers' rates is in the darker color.

Posted hourly rates of 20 open jobs. The chart spans the 2nd to the 98th percentile; the lowest rate posted is $40.10, the highest $149.78.

Posted on open jobs

$64.25–$90.75/hr

Middle half of 14 employer rates (each employer's advertised range once), median $84. 20% of the 102 open clinical nurse specialist jobs state an hourly rate.

CNS alerts

CNS: new openings every week

Every week we gather the newest CNS openings from the hospitals, clinics and care employers we follow, straight from their careers sites. Free, stop anytime.

Only job openings in your inbox. Leave anytime with one click.

Clinical nurse specialist pay by employer

What each employer posts for clinical nurse specialists, the employers with the most jobs stating pay first. An employer with at least 5 such jobs has a page of its own with every range it posts.

EmployerMedian postedPosted rangeJobs stating pay
Stanford Medicine Children's Health$101.50$90.19–$112.734
CommonSpirit Health$66$40.10–$104.194
Providence$84$65.24–$102.993
Advocate Health$63.75$51.05–$76.602
El Camino Health$130.50$110.97–$149.781
Stanford Health Care$106.50$91.68–$121.481
Valley Children's Healthcare$89.50$73.12–$106.021
Kaiser Permanente$87.50$78.53–$96.421
Legacy Health$84$72.84–$94.951
Sharp HealthCare$65.75$59.16–$72.471
Hackensack Meridian Health$55$55.091

Median of each employer's own jobs (a range at its midpoint), and the lowest and highest rate it posts. Jobs stating pay link to the employer's open jobs.

Clinical nurse specialist pay by state

States where at least 8 open jobs from 3 employers state an hourly rate, highest median first. Each opens the state's own page, with its towns and employers.

StateMedian postedMiddle halfBLS medianJobs
California$89.50$74.25–$101.50$67.44 (source: BLS OEWS, state medians, opens in a new tab)12

Median and middle half of employers' rates in the state. BLS medians are for the occupation's main SOC code in the state (May 2025).

Clinical nurse specialist jobs that state a yearly salary

Some jobs state a salary for the year instead of an hourly rate. They are measured on their own here, never converted.

33 open jobs from 16 employers state a yearly salary: a median of $132,800, the middle half $122,000 to $180,800, from $83,866 to $261,800 posted.

Best-paid open clinical nurse specialist jobs

The open jobs posting the highest hourly rates tonight, at most two from one employer.

Every open job: Clinical nurse specialist jobs

What BLS measures

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys what people employed in the occupation earn, at every level of experience. A posting advertises what a new hire is offered, so the two measure different things.

Hourly wages, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national. Each figure opens its BLS page.
BLS occupation10th pct25th pctMedian75th pct90th pctEmployed
Registered Nurses (29-1141)$33.14 (source: BLS OEWS, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)$38.62 (source: BLS OEWS, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)$46.90 (source: BLS OEWS, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)$54.02 (source: BLS OEWS, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)$66.09 (source: BLS OEWS, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)3,379,720 (source: BLS OEWS, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)

The posted median ($84) is $37.10 above the BLS median ($46.90 (source: BLS OEWS May 2025, Registered Nurses, opens in a new tab)). Posted ranges run from a new hire's rate to an experienced one's, and their midpoint is counted here.

Clinical nurse specialist salary: common questions

How much does a clinical nurse specialist make an hour?

Open clinical nurse specialist jobs on CareJobs.Now that state an hourly rate post a median of $84, with the middle half between $64.25–$90.75 (20 jobs from 11 employers, each employer's advertised range counted once). Postings advertise a base rate, usually before shift differentials and bonuses. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics measured a median of $46.90/hr ($97,550 a year) for registered nurses in May 2025.

How much does a clinical nurse specialist make a year?

At the posted median of $84 an hour, full time (2,080 hours a year) comes to about $174,700, and the middle half to $133,600 to $188,800. That is arithmetic on the hourly rate, not a salary any job states. 33 open jobs state a yearly salary instead, a median of $132,800.

Where do these figures come from?

From the pay CareJobs.Now's open jobs state, read every night from each employer's own job board: 20 of 102 open clinical nurse specialist jobs (20%) state an hourly rate. No pay is estimated for a job that states none, "up to" ceilings and weekly travel rates are left out, and each employer's advertised range counts once in the median, so no single employer sets it.

More pay by job: NPs & PAs

Clinical nurse specialist jobs →Every healthcare salary →Pay explorer →

Sources and method

Only pay a job states is used: a plain hourly or yearly figure or range in US dollars, read from the job's own posting. A range counts at its midpoint. In the median and the middle half each employer's advertised range counts once, so an employer posting one range in many towns does not set the figure; an employer's own figures count its jobs one by one. "Up to" ceilings, weekly travel rates and rates under a third or over three times the occupation's median are left out. The yearly estimate is the hourly rate times 2,080 hours (40 a week). A job counts under its occupation and every occupation above it, and under every state it is open in. A page exists while at least 8 jobs from 3 employers state a rate. BLS figures are as published.
  1. CareJobs.Now job board: the pay open jobs state, read nightly from each employer's own careers site, published October 24, 2026
  2. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: Registered Nurses (SOC 29-1141), published May 15, 2026
  3. BLS OEWS May 2025: Registered Nurses by state, published May 15, 2026
  4. BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035: Registered Nurses (Occupational Outlook Handbook), published August 27, 2026

Cite this page

CareJobs.Now. (2026). Clinical nurse specialist salary. Data as of October 24, 2026. https://carejobs.now/salaries/clinical-nurse-specialist

How the board counts