Registered Nurses salary in Kansas

The median Registered Nurse in Kansas earned $78,060 in 2024, about 17% below the national median of $94,511. That gap is real, but it tells only part of the story.

Kansas has a cost-of-living index of 90, meaning everyday expenses run roughly 10% lower than the national baseline. Adjusted for that, the $78,060 median translates to closer to $86,700 in national-baseline dollars. The gap with the US median narrows to around 8%. Still a discount, but a much smaller one than the headline figure suggests.

The spread between low and high earners is moderate. A nurse at the 10th percentile earned $60,630, while one at the 90th earned $97,870. That puts top earners at about 1.6 times what bottom earners make. Within Kansas, the main driver of where someone lands on that range is typically experience, specialty, and setting. ICU and surgical nurses tend to cluster at the top; new graduates and some home health roles at the bottom.

BLS projects employment for Registered Nurses to grow 4.9% between 2024 and 2034, which it classifies as average growth. Kansas, like most of the rural Midwest, has pockets of significant nursing shortage in smaller counties, though that pressure does not yet show up in above-average wage growth at the state level. The 32,640 nurses currently employed here represent a large enough base that demand is steady, if not accelerating.

For context: Kansas pays below the national figure, but after accounting for what the money actually buys, the difference is closer to a rounding error than a career-defining penalty.