Nursing Assistants Average Salary in United States
$42,834 average · $42,460 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 31-1131What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Nursing Assistants in United States, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Setting is the main internal lever: hospital-employed support staff earn more than those in nursing facilities or home health, with the gap often 20-30% for equivalent work. Certifications (CNA, CMA, phlebotomy) provide small but real increments. Because the distribution is compressed, the larger pay moves available to workers in this group are upward into the practitioner pipeline rather than sideways within support roles.
How much do Nursing Assistants make in United States?
The average nursing assistants salary in United States is $42,834 per year, with a median of $42,460. That works out to about $20.59 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 8,441,020 nursing assistants jobs in United States.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $42,460. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $41,970; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $43,480 — a 4% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Healthcare Support Careers Are Structured
Healthcare support occupations — aides, assistants, technicians — are among the fastest-growing jobs in America by sheer headcount, driven by the same demographics as the practitioner group but without the licensure barriers that lift wages there. The result is high demand and modest pay, with the wage distribution compressed into a narrow band.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how nursing assistants pay is distributed in United States specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Setting is the main internal lever: hospital-employed support staff earn more than those in nursing facilities or home health, with the gap often 20-30% for equivalent work. Certifications (CNA, CMA, phlebotomy) provide small but real increments. Because the distribution is compressed, the larger pay moves available to workers in this group are upward into the practitioner pipeline rather than sideways within support roles.
Entry is fast — weeks to months of training for many roles — which makes these occupations common first steps into healthcare. The strategic value of these jobs is partly their option value: employers frequently fund the next credential (CNA to LPN to RN), turning a modest-wage job into a subsidized path toward the much stronger practitioner distribution.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Nursing Assistants Do?
Nursing Assistants positions belong to the healthcare support field. Healthcare support occupations — aides, assistants, technicians — are among the fastest-growing jobs in America by sheer headcount, driven by the same demographics as the practitioner group but without the licensure barriers that lift wages there. The result is high demand and modest pay, with the wage distribution compressed into a narrow band.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 31-1131
Nursing Assistants pay in United States
In United States, nursing assistants report a median of $42,460 and an average of $42,834 (about $20.59/hour) across roughly 8,441,020 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $41,970 at the 10th percentile to $43,480 at the 90th.
National figures average across high-cost coastal metros and lower-cost inland markets, so individual state pages on Wage Atlas are usually the better reference for a specific offer.
Income reality check
The median salary for Nursing Assistants in United States of $42,460 falls in the Stably paid band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~15% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Nursing Assistants
| $44,403 | $44,124 | $21 | 205,790 | |
| $43,853 | $42,381 | $21 | 1,844,300 | |
| $42,310 | $41,290 | $20 | 1,336,230 | |
| $41,987 | $42,118 | $20 | 1,403,150 | |
| $41,250 | $39,370 | $20 | 116,200 |
Related Occupations
SOC: 43-5070 • 93% match | $46,820 | $46,810 | $23 | 4,222,500 |
SOC: 31-1130 • 95% match | $42,825 | $42,410 | $21 | 9,039,570 |
SOC: 33-9030 • 95% match | $42,619 | $42,080 | $20 | 7,649,010 |
SOC: 39-9000 • 93% match | $41,243 | $40,980 | $20 | 7,600,030 |
| Find Other Personal Care and Service Workers Jobs | ||||
SOC: 25-9040 • 92% match | $39,388 | $39,260 | $19 | 11,923,660 |
SOC: 25-9045 • 92% match | $38,392 | $38,560 | $18 | 10,657,540 |
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