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What are median salaries in 2025 for LPN/LVN vs ADN vs BSN nurses by U.S. state?
Executive summary
Available reporting compiles 2025 state-by-state LPN/LVN pay but there is no single, authoritative table in the results that directly compares median LPN/LVN vs ADN-RN vs BSN-RN salaries by state; most outlets (including Nursa, Nurse.com, IntelyCare and others) draw from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) or job-board mixes to produce state lists and national averages (example: national LPN median ~$59,730 reported by Nurse.com) [1] [2] [3]. Because sources vary in methodology (BLS occupational data, employer postings, cost-of-living adjustments), any side‑by‑side state median for LPN vs ADN vs BSN must be assembled carefully from multiple datasets and is not present as a single ready-made chart in the supplied material [4] [5].
1. What the sources actually give you — fragmented state lists, not a single comparison
Most results present state-by-state LPN/LVN salary lists (Nursa, IntelyCare, Nightingale, TopNursing, ZipRecruiter, Vivian) or national LPN/RN averages and commentary, but none of the provided links publishes a unified 50‑state table that lines up median LPN/LVN, ADN‑trained RN, and BSN‑trained RN pay in one place for 2025; instead the pieces rely on BLS occupational estimates or employer posting data and sometimes apply cost‑of‑living adjustments [2] [3] [6] [7] [8] [4].
2. National baselines you can cite now
For a rough starting point, Nurse.com reports a national median Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) salary of $59,730 as of March 19, 2025, and other compilations cite national LPN averages in a similar mid‑$50k to low‑$60k range, while RN compensation tends to be higher nationally (narrow BLS context in the sources) [1] [5] [9]. The BLS site is the underlying federal source used by many aggregators, but the provided BLS snippet is limited here and would be the best single authoritative reference for occupational medians if you extract state tables directly from it [4].
3. Why ADN vs BSN pay by state is hard to pin from these sources
The supplied pages emphasize that advancing education (ADN → BSN) typically raises RN earnings and that BSN holders generally sit in higher pay percentiles, but they do not publish state medians differentiated by ADN vs BSN in a consistent way. Nightingale and other education sites summarize average RN pay differentials (e.g., ADN yields a big jump from LPN; BSN adds roughly another ~$10k in their modeling) but that’s an average, not a state‑by‑state median split [10] [6]. Therefore, "median ADN vs BSN by state" is not present in the current reporting (available sources do not mention a full state-by-state ADN vs BSN median table).
4. Where LPN pay is highest and why — consistent signals
Multiple outlets identify West Coast and some Northeast states as the highest‑paying markets for LPNs (California, Washington, Massachusetts, Alaska, New York frequently cited) and point to market shortages, high cost of living, and strong hospital systems or union presence as drivers of higher wages [3] [11] [9]. Job‑board aggregators (ZipRecruiter, Vivian) also highlight Washington and D.C./New York among top markets, though exact dollar figures vary by publisher and methodology [12] [7] [8].
5. Methodology differences you must watch for
The pieces use three different data streams: (a) BLS occupational employment/wage estimates, (b) employer job postings and platform pay data (ZipRecruiter, Vivian, IntelyCare), and (c) curated estimates from nursing‑education sites that sometimes apply cost‑of‑living or percentile assumptions. These produce different medians and means; for example, Nurse.com gives a median LPN figure tied to BLS aggregation while Nursa and IntelyCare present state tables derived from BLS but may format averages differently [1] [3] [2] [4].
6. Practical next steps if you need a state-by-state, degree-by-degree table
To produce the precise comparison you asked for, you should: (a) extract 2024/2025 state occupational wage tables directly from the BLS OES state pages for "Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses" and for "Registered Nurses" [4], (b) supplement RN tables with employer data or surveys that indicate educational breakdowns (ADN vs BSN)—noting that the supplied sources do not contain a complete ADN/BSN split—and (c) clearly document whether figures are medians, means, or percentiles and whether they are cost‑of‑living adjusted (available sources do not mention a single combined ADN vs BSN state median dataset) [4] [10].
7. Competing perspectives and caveats to readers
Industry sites aimed at students or job seekers (Nightingale, NursingProcess, TopNursing) frame higher pay as an argument for advancing credentials and sometimes present optimistic averages; job‑board sites and Nurse.com lean on BLS or employer posting data and emphasize variability by setting (hospital vs long‑term care), experience, and geography. All sources caution that overtime, shift differentials, specialties, and local demand can push real earnings well above headline medians, and none of the supplied reporting gives a single definitive ADN vs BSN state table [6] [9] [5] [1].
If you want, I can take the next step: pull the specific BLS state OES tables for LPNs and RNs cited here and assemble a draft 50‑state comparison (noting where ADN/BSN splits are absent), then annotate which figures come from BLS vs job‑board estimates.