Nurse Salary Ladder: CNA to CRNA

What the ladder shows and where it comes from

• Six rungs are listed with the highest-paid role at the top. Each row shows the national median annual wage and a bar scaled against the highest median on the ladder, so the gaps between rungs are visible at a glance.
• Opening a rung shows four figures: the median hourly wage, the 10th-percentile annual wage, the wage the top 10 percent earn more than, and the number of people employed in the role in the US.
• Every wage and headcount renders from a committed snapshot of the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey, not job-board self-reports. The data vintage is printed in the ladder’s header and changes when the snapshot is refreshed.
• The education path, typical time, and short note on each rung are written by us as typical routes, not promises. Programs, prerequisites, and timelines vary.
• All figures are national. The ladder does not adjust for state, specialty, experience, overtime, or benefits, and a median is the middle of everyone employed in a role, not a starting wage. State-level pay for RNs and NPs lives on the salary-by-state pages.

The reasoning behind it

• The full guideThe Nurse Salary Ladder: What CNA, LPN, RN, NP, and CRNA Actually Earn (2026)One profession, a 5x pay spread. Every rung of the nursing career ladder — median pay, education path, and time investment — from real BLS data, in one interactive climb from CNA to CRNA.

Questions people ask

Which nursing role pays the most?

On this ladder the nurse anesthetist (CRNA) rung has the highest median pay. It is also one of the most competitive paths to enter, requiring an RN license, ICU experience, and a doctoral nurse anesthesia program.

Do I need to be an RN before becoming an NP, nurse midwife, or CRNA?

Yes. Each graduate rung on the ladder is built on an RN license, followed by a graduate program and national certification for that role.

Where do the salary numbers come from?

They come from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment and wage survey. The ladder reads a saved snapshot of that data and shows its vintage in the header.

Does the ladder show nurse pay for my state?

No. The ladder uses national figures only. Pay varies by state, so use the RN and NP salary-by-state pages to see your own market.

Is the median what a new nurse earns?

No. A median is the midpoint of everyone working in the role, including experienced nurses. Open a rung to see the 10th-percentile wage for a sense of the lower end of the range.

Keep going

• CollectionNurse practitioner salary by stateWhat nurse practitioners earn in every state, and how far that is above RN pay.
• CollectionRN salary by stateWhat registered nurses earn in every state — median, range, and hourly pay.
• ReferenceNursing degrees and pathways (ADN, BSN, NP…)Every rung of the nursing ladder — CNA, LPN, RN, NP, nurse midwife, CRNA — with what each pays and what it takes to move up.
• Degree pathwayRN to nurse practitionerWhat nurse practitioners earn compared with RNs — nationally and in every state — and what the step requires.
• FinderHighest-Paying States for Nurses (RN and NP)See the ten states with the highest median annual pay for registered nurses or nurse practitioners, ranked from federal BLS wage data.
• FinderFree Nursing Study Tool FinderPick the study job you need done today and see which free nursing resources fit it, with what stays free and the tradeoff to know for each.