How much do CRNAs make?
The median, the range, and the parts nobody publishes
Quick Answer
How much do CRNAs make?
Source: BLS OEWS May 2023, Nurse Anesthetists (SOC 29-1151)
Most salary pages quote one number and stop. The number is easy; what it leaves out is the useful part. Below is the median, the state spread that dwarfs every other variable, and an honest note on the two things about CRNA pay that nobody actually publishes.
In This Article (5 sections)
What is the actual number?
Use the median when you want to know what a typical CRNA earns. The mean sits higher because the top of the distribution pulls it up, which is normal for wages and is why sites quoting only the mean read as slightly optimistic.
Neither figure includes overtime, call pay, or 1099 contract work. That is the main reason working CRNAs often report take-home well above the published number.
Where does CRNA pay vary the most?
By state, and by more than most applicants expect. The spread across the 44 states BLS publishes a figure for is $155,350 — larger than the effect of setting, specialty, or years of experience.
| Highest-paying states | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|
| Illinois | $281,240 |
| Massachusetts | $272,510 |
| Montana | $256,460 |
| New York | $256,160 |
| Vermont | $254,790 |
At the other end, Utah, Alabama, Florida sit lowest among published states. Cost of living explains part of the gap and not all of it: rural and underserved markets frequently pay above their cost-of-living rank because staffing them is harder.
BLS suppresses the nurse anesthetist row for 7 states, usually because too few employers report to publish an estimate without disclosing individual pay. Those states are not missing from our data by choice, and we say so rather than estimating. See the full state breakdown.
How does it compare to staff RN pay?
About $126,580 a year higher at the median: $212,650 against $86,070 for registered nurses, both from the same survey.
That is the largest single jump available inside nursing, and it is what makes the arithmetic on CRNA school work despite the tuition and the years of income you give up during a program most students cannot work through. The payback breakdown works that through properly, including the parts that argue against it.
What does nobody actually publish?
Two things, and both get answered confidently on sites that have no source for them.
- New-grad pay. BLS does not break out entry-level wages for this occupation in the survey vintage carrying state-level data. Any specific "new grads earn X" figure is an estimate wearing the clothes of a fact.
- 1099 versus W-2 differentials. Widely discussed, almost never measured. Contract rates are individually negotiated and not collected in any public dataset we can cite.
Where to get real answers instead: ask programs what their recent graduates accepted. Many track it, and it is a reasonable question to put to a program at interview.