Big Earners: Santa Cruz County Nurses Get Paid More Than Most

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Nurses in the Santa Cruz-Watsonville area earn $127,440 on average, the fourth-highest pay of any metropolitan area in the U.S., according to a Forbes analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The 14 best-paying areas are all in California, where cost of living is exorbitant in many parts of the state.

At the top of the list was Salinas in Monterey County, where nurses earned $131,710 annually, on average, Forbes reported. Next came nurses in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area with an average salary of $128,990 and nurses in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area, with $128,610 in annual pay.

Read more at Forbes.