What Registered Nurses earn in Washoe County, NV
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $107,520: the median annual pay for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $51.69 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Reno, NV metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $104,870, which is 2.5% below the median, which suggests many workers sit near the top of the pay scale. The survey counts about 4,850 people working in this occupation across the Reno, NV metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Washoe County, NV has roughly 497,200 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Registered Nurses in the Reno, NV metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $80,380 a year ($38.64 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $132,520 or more ($63.71 an hour). That is a gap of $52,140 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $84,300 at the 25th percentile and $109,230 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.6 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV is $51.69. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $107,520, and the same salary is $8,960 a month before taxes or about $4,135 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $40.48 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Registered Nurses
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Registered Nurses this way: "Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records"; "Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions"; "Record patients' medical information and vital signs"; "Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions".
Job outlook for Registered Nurses
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 3,465,400 jobs in 2025 to 3,660,100 in 2035, a change of +5.6%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 180,800 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 5.2% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: bachelor's degree. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $97,550 for this occupation; the Washoe County, NV median of $107,520 is 10.2% above it.
How pay in Washoe County, NV compares
Compared with the Nevada average
Washoe County, NV pays above the state benchmark. The Nevada employment-weighted average for Registered Nurses is $104,397; the local median of $107,520 beats it by $3,123, or 3.0%. Within Nevada, Washoe County, NV already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Registered Nurses is $99,368 across the contiguous United States. At $107,520, Washoe County, NV pays $8,152 more, which is 8.2% above that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Washoe County, NV
Among the 439 occupations with published wages in Washoe County, NV, Registered Nurses ranks number 42 by median pay, ahead of about 91% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $106,050 a year, which is $1,470 less than the median for Registered Nurses.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $107,520 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $23,329 a year, which leaves $84,191, or $7,016 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $22 goes to taxes and $78 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 21.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $91,770. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $15,103, an effective 14.0% of gross pay, well below the 22% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $6,666 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,559. FICA totals $8,225, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Nevada
There is no state income tax on wages in Nevada, which means Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV keep the full $84,191 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $5,376 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $448 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Washoe County, NV
IRS Statistics of Income data for Washoe County, NV show an average adjusted gross income of $116,496 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 15.9% across all filers. Filers in the $100,000 to under $200,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 11.3%, compared with the 14.0% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Washoe County, NV
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Washoe County, NV: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $84,191 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Washoe County, NV is $1,460 a month, or $17,520 a year. A two-bedroom costs $1,837 a month. For Registered Nurses, a one-bedroom absorbs 20.8% of take-home pay and 16.3% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 3.2% of gross pay for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Nevada residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,585 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $730, for $2,314 in total. Gasoline in Nevada averages $3.96 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,832.
What is left over
Add the four basics together and living costs come to $25,102 a year, 30% of take-home pay. That leaves $59,090 a year, or $4,924 a month, for savings, transportation beyond fuel, health care, debt and everything else. That margin equals 55.0% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Washoe County, NV
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Washoe County, NV: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Washoe County, NV, set beside the Nevada and national medians.
Property taxes in Washoe County, NV
Homeowners in Washoe County, NV pay a median of $2,385 a year in real estate taxes, 18% above the Nevada median of $2,027 and 24% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $539,900, the median tax bill is 0.44% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Registered Nurses median of $107,520, a tax bill of that size would equal 2.2% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Washoe County, NV
Renters in Washoe County, NV pay a median gross rent of $1,608 a month in the Census survey, in line with the Nevada median of $1,597. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,460 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $539,900, 24% above the Nevada median of $435,400. Median household income is $88,096, 13% above the Nevada median of $78,260, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.9% of that income.
Commuting in Washoe County, NV
Workers in Washoe County, NV who travel to a workplace spend an average of 22.5 minutes each way, 9% below the Nevada average of 24.8. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 3.8 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 12.6% of workers in Washoe County, NV work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Registered Nurses afford to live in Washoe County, NV?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $107,520 that ceiling is $2,688 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,460 is $1,228 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $28.08 an hour; the median for Registered Nurses is $51.69, which is 84% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $40.48 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 8.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,837 a month means $919 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,498 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $65,588.
How fast you can save
At $4,924 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 3 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 6 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Registered Nurses pay in Washoe County, NV
What is the hourly wage for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV?
The median is $51.69 per hour, based on $107,520 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $38.64 at the 10th percentile to $63.71 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $107,520 becomes $84,191 a year. That is $7,016 a month, $3,238 every two weeks or $1,619 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV?
Total taxes are $23,329 a year, an effective rate of 21.7%: $15,103 federal income tax, $8,225 FICA and no Nevada income tax.
Is pay for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV above the Nevada average?
Yes. The local median of $107,520 is +3.0% versus the Nevada average of $104,397, a difference of $3,123 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Registered Nurses salary in Washoe County, NV?
A one-bedroom costs $1,460 a month against take-home pay of $7,016, which is 20.8% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $2,688 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Registered Nurses in Washoe County, NV?
About $4,924 a month ($59,090 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $25,102 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Washoe County, NV at the 30% guideline?
$28.08 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $17,520 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Registered Nurses is $51.69.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Reno, NV metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Nevada rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.