Certified Nursing Assistant Salary: Hourly Wage vs. Annual Pay Breakdown

By Justine TacmoUpdated Oct 13, 2026

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Certified nursing assistants are typically paid by the hour, so a certified nursing assistant salary is really an hourly wage multiplied by the hours you work. The median CNA salary works out to $42,260 a year, based on a median wage of $20.32 an hour on a full-time schedule, according to May 2025 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

That yearly figure assumes 40 hours a week, every week, with no extra pay. Overtime, night and weekend differentials, and the choice between a staff job and contract shifts can move your real annual pay by thousands of dollars in either direction. Location matters too, since the state CNA median runs from $30,510 in Louisiana to $49,830 in Oregon.

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Key Points

The median certified nursing assistant salary is $42,260 a year, or $20.32 an hour, and the middle half of CNAs earn between $17.91 and $22.70 an hour, based on BLS data for May 2025.
At the median rate, a full-time CNA earns about $3,522 per month, or $1,625.60 every two weeks, before taxes, while three 12-hour shifts a week without overtime come to about $38,040 a year.
BLS wage figures leave out overtime and shift differentials, and federal overtime at the median rate pays $30.48 an hour.
Nursing homes pay CNAs a slightly higher median than hospitals, $43,000 a year compared with $42,310, and government employers pay the most at $47,050.
Oregon pays CNAs the most and Louisiana the least, but North Dakota moves to the top once state living costs are factored in.

A certified nursing assistant helps an older resident walk with a walker down a nursing home hallway.

How Much Does a Certified Nursing Assistant Make?

A certified nursing assistant makes a median of $42,260 a year, or $20.32 an hour, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Half of all CNAs earn more than that and half earn less, and the middle 50% earn between $37,260 and $47,220 a year.

Pay Level	Hourly Wage	Annual Salary
Lowest 10%	Less than $16.32	Less than $33,940
25th percentile	$17.91	$37,260
Median	$20.32	$42,260
75th percentile	$22.70	$47,220
Highest 10%	More than $24.99	More than $51,980

Job postings land in about the same place. Indeed's national average for nursing assistants is $20.53 an hour, based on 240,400 salaries from job postings over the past 36 months, as of October 5, 2026.

If you check the Handbook yourself, you'll see $41,870 in its summary box. That figure combines nursing assistants with orderlies, who earn a lower median of $38,290. The $42,260 median used on this page covers nursing assistants alone. For a closer look at the job behind these numbers, see What Is a CNA.

Certified Nursing Assistant Hourly Wage

The median certified nursing assistant hourly wage is $20.32, and 80% of CNAs earn between $16.32 and $24.99 an hour. Your state, your employer, and the type of facility you work in all affect where you land in that range.

CNA Starting Pay

BLS doesn't publish CNA pay by years of experience, so the low end of the wage range is the closest benchmark for a first job. A quarter of CNAs earn $17.91 an hour or less, and the lowest-paid 10% earn less than $16.32.

Some states set a higher floor by law. Minnesota's Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board set a minimum wage of $22.50 an hour for CNAs in nursing homes starting September 10, 2026, and it rises to $24.00 on January 1, 2027. That new floor sits above Minnesota's May 2025 CNA median of $22.44.

California's health care minimum wage sets pay floors from $19.28 to $25 an hour for workers at covered facilities, depending on the type and size of the employer. It doesn't yet apply to skilled nursing facilities that aren't owned, operated, or controlled by a hospital or health system. Since nursing homes employ more CNAs than any other setting nationally, it's worth confirming whether a California employer is covered.

CNA Pay by Work Setting

At the median, nursing homes pay CNAs slightly more than hospitals do. The median in nursing care facilities is $43,000 a year, compared with $42,310 in hospitals, and nursing homes employ the largest share of CNAs.

Work Setting	Median Annual Salary	Share of CNA Jobs
Government	$47,050	3%
Nursing care facilities	$43,000	36%
Hospitals	$42,310	32%
Retirement communities and assisted living	$39,490	11%
Home health care services	$38,040	5%

Government employers, a BLS category that excludes state and local schools and hospitals, pay the highest median. Home health care pays the least, about $5,000 below the nursing home median. All setting figures come from BLS for May 2025, and nursing assistants held about 1.5 million jobs in 2025.

CNA Annual Salary and Monthly Pay

To turn a CNA hourly wage into an annual salary, multiply it by 2,080, the number of hours in a 40-hour week worked all 52 weeks of the year. BLS uses the same method, which is why the $20.32 median equals about $42,260 a year.

At the median rate, a full-time CNA paycheck looks like this before taxes:

Weekly: $812.80
Every two weeks: $1,625.60
Twice a month: about $1,761
Monthly: about $3,522

Plenty of CNAs don't work a standard 40-hour week, and your schedule changes the yearly total.

Schedule	Hours per Year	Annual Pay at $20.32
40 hours a week	2,080	About $42,260
Three 12-hour shifts a week	1,872	About $38,040
32 hours a week	1,664	About $33,810
24 hours a week	1,248	About $25,360

These estimates assume you work every week of the year with no overtime. Three 12-hour shifts add up to 36 hours, which stays under the federal 40-hour overtime line. At a hospital that uses the 8 and 80 overtime system, though, each 12-hour shift includes four hours of overtime, so the same schedule pays more.

A CNA median pay conversion graphic showing $20.32 per hour, equal to about $812.80 weekly, $1,625.60 biweekly, $3,522 monthly, and $42,260 annually.

CNA Overtime and Shift Differentials

Most CNAs are hourly employees covered by federal overtime law, which means they earn at least 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek. At the national median of $20.32, that overtime rate is $30.48 an hour.

How Overtime Works for CNAs

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the 40-hour rule for most employers. Hospitals and residential care establishments have one alternative, called the 8 and 80 system.

Under 8 and 80, explained in the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Fact Sheet #54, the employer tracks hours over a 14-day period and pays overtime for hours worked beyond eight in a day and beyond 80 in the two weeks. You and the employer have to agree to this arrangement before the work is done.

A few states add daily overtime on top of federal law:

California requires overtime after eight hours in a day and double time after 12, according to the state's Labor Commissioner, though employers can adopt approved alternative schedules built around longer shifts.
Alaska requires overtime after eight hours in a day for employers with four or more employees.
Nevada requires overtime after eight hours in a 24-hour period, but only for workers earning less than $18 an hour.

Even a little overtime adds up over a year. Indeed's salary data shows about $4,500 a year in overtime pay for nursing assistants. At $30.48 an hour, that's about 148 overtime hours a year, or just under three hours a week.

Home care has its own rules. A 2013 DOL rule bars third-party employers, such as home health and home care agencies, from claiming the companionship and live-in exemptions from minimum wage and overtime.

In July 2025, DOL proposed returning to its older rules, which would let agencies claim those exemptions again for some home care workers. As of October 2026, the proposal hasn't been finalized.

Shift Differentials for Nights, Weekends, and Holidays

Facilities provide care at all hours, so CNAs may need to work nights, weekends, and holidays, according to BLS. Many employers add a shift differential for those hours, either as a flat amount per hour or as a percentage of base pay. Each employer or union contract sets its own amount, so ask for the figure in writing before you accept a job.

Differentials also raise your overtime rate. As Fact Sheet #54 explains, employers must include shift differential pay in the regular rate they use to calculate overtime. Here's how that works with an example $2 night differential:

Base rate: $20.32 an hour
Night rate with a $2 differential: $22.32 an hour
Overtime on a night shift: $33.48 an hour, compared with $30.48 on a day shift

Holiday pay can be required by law, too. In Minnesota, nursing home workers have been entitled to at least time and a half on 11 holidays since January 1, 2025, under the same workforce standards rules that set the CNA minimum wage.

A CNA pay graphic showing a $20.32 base hourly rate increasing to $22.32 with a $2 night differential and $33.48 per hour for overtime at 1.5 times the night rate.

Why the BLS Median Leaves This Pay Out

BLS wage figures measure straight-time pay only. According to the wage definitions for the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, they exclude overtime pay, shift differentials, weekend and holiday premium pay, on-call pay, nonproduction bonuses, attendance bonuses, and year-end bonuses.

That makes the $42,260 median a base-pay benchmark, not a ceiling. A CNA who works regular night shifts or picks up overtime can earn more in a year than the median suggests, even at the same hourly rate.

CNA Benefits and Bonuses

Benefits can be worth thousands of dollars a year on top of your wage, and working full time makes a large difference in whether you get them.

Health Insurance, Paid Leave, and Retirement

Full-time workers are far more likely than part-time workers to have access to benefits. Here's the gap for private-industry workers in March 2026, from the BLS National Compensation Survey:

Benefit	Full-Time Workers	Part-Time Workers
Medical care	87%	23%
Paid sick leave	88%	59%
Retirement plan	81%	44%

Health care employers offer paid sick leave more often than the private sector as a whole. In health care and social assistance, 87% of workers have paid sick leave, compared with 81% of all private-industry workers. Access to medical care (73%) and retirement plans (72%) in health care sits close to the overall private-sector rates of 71% and 72%.

Those benefits carry a real dollar value. In June 2026, benefits made up 27.7% of employer compensation costs in nursing and residential care facilities, or $9.42 an hour, according to the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation report. In hospitals, benefits averaged $22.97 an hour, or 34.4% of compensation. These averages cover all workers in each industry, not CNAs alone.

Sign-On Bonuses and Employer-Paid Training

Sign-on bonuses are common in nursing homes. In the 2026-2027 Nursing Home Salary & Benefits Report from the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service, 54.38% of the 947 participating nursing homes used sign-on bonuses in 2026, down from 65.44% in 2024. Before you count on a bonus, ask when it pays out and whether you have to stay for a set length of time to keep it.

Your training can also come at no cost. Under federal nurse aide training rules, you can't be charged for a nurse aide training and competency evaluation program if, when it starts, you already work for a nursing home that participates in Medicare or Medicaid or have a job offer from one.

If you pay for training yourself and a nursing home hires you within 12 months of finishing, the state must reimburse your costs on a prorated basis while you work as a nurse aide. The same rules set the minimum length of nurse aide training at 75 clock hours, including at least 16 hours of supervised practical training.

If you'd rather start training before you have a job offer, Dreambound lets you compare CNA programs and their posted tuition before you commit.

Full-Time vs. Part-Time vs. Contract CNA Pay

Most CNAs work full time, though some work part time, according to BLS. The hourly rate is only one part of the comparison between full-time, part-time, and contract work. Guaranteed hours, benefits, overtime protection, and who pays payroll taxes matter just as much.

Work Arrangement	How Pay Works	Benefits and Overtime
Full-time staff (W-2)	Set schedule, steady hours	Most likely to include benefits; overtime applies
Part-time staff (W-2)	Fewer guaranteed hours	Benefits less common; overtime applies
Per diem, PRN (as needed), or agency (W-2)	Shifts as needed, no guaranteed hours	Benefits vary; overtime applies
Independent contractor (1099)	Paid per shift or contract	No employer benefits or overtime

The tax difference is easy to miss. A W-2 employee has 7.65% withheld for Social Security and Medicare (6.2% plus 1.45%), and the employer pays a matching 7.65%. An independent contractor pays both halves, a combined 15.3% self-employment tax on net earnings.

Some app-based staffing platforms classify CNAs as independent contractors, so a higher posted rate on those platforms doesn't always mean higher take-home pay. Contractors also fall outside federal overtime law, which covers employees.

Travel CNA contracts work differently again. They usually combine an hourly rate with housing and meal stipends, so compare the total weekly package after your housing costs instead of the hourly rate alone.

If you drop to occasional PRN shifts, keep your certification active. Federal rules require you to retake training and testing, or testing alone, if you go 24 consecutive months without working for pay in nursing or nursing-related services, and each state sets its own renewal steps on top of that. Our guide on how to renew your CNA license lists the requirements by state.

Certified Nursing Assistant Salary by State

Oregon pays certified nursing assistants the most, with a median of $49,830 a year, or $23.96 an hour, while Louisiana pays the least at $30,510, or $14.67 an hour. That's a gap of $19,320 a year for the same certification, based on May 2025 BLS data.

Most of the highest-paying states are on the West Coast or in the Northeast. In Oregon and Washington, about 90% of CNAs earn more than the national median of $42,260, since even the 10th percentile wage in both states is higher. Overall, 23 states and the District of Columbia have CNA medians above the national figure.

Pay looks different once you factor in living costs. Adjusted with the Bureau of Economic Analysis's 2024 regional price parities, North Dakota ranks first, since its $45,820 median buys about what $51,500 would in an average-priced state. California drops from sixth to 25th, and New York falls from third to 15th. Louisiana stays last either way.

A U.S. map of May 2025 CNA median salaries by state, with Oregon highest at $49,830, Louisiana lowest at $30,510, and a national median of $42,260.

State	Median Hourly Wage	Median Annual Salary
Oregon	$23.96	$49,830
Washington	$23.65	$49,180
New York	$23.36	$48,590
New Hampshire	$23.02	$47,870
District of Columbia	$22.93	$47,700
California	$22.90	$47,630
Colorado	$22.78	$47,380
Vermont	$22.66	$47,130
Maine	$22.63	$47,070
New Jersey	$22.52	$46,830
Massachusetts	$22.44	$46,680
Minnesota	$22.44	$46,680
Rhode Island	$22.33	$46,440
Alaska	$22.29	$46,370
Illinois	$22.10	$45,960
North Dakota	$22.03	$45,820
Nevada	$21.87	$45,490
Hawaii	$21.80	$45,350
Wisconsin	$21.70	$45,130
Connecticut	$21.53	$44,790
Arizona	$21.53	$44,780
Pennsylvania	$21.44	$44,590
Maryland	$20.79	$43,240
Virginia	$20.77	$43,200
Delaware	$20.21	$42,030
Montana	$19.67	$40,900
Nebraska	$19.23	$40,000
Utah	$19.15	$39,840
Michigan	$19.03	$39,570
New Mexico	$18.94	$39,390
Iowa	$18.92	$39,350
Wyoming	$18.83	$39,160
Ohio	$18.76	$39,010
South Dakota	$18.65	$38,800
Idaho	$18.58	$38,650
North Carolina	$18.49	$38,460
Kentucky	$18.45	$38,370
Indiana	$18.43	$38,330
Kansas	$18.27	$38,010
Tennessee	$18.27	$37,990
Georgia	$18.12	$37,680
Missouri	$18.11	$37,680
Florida	$18.03	$37,510
Texas	$18.03	$37,500
South Carolina	$17.90	$37,220
West Virginia	$17.66	$36,720
Oklahoma	$17.27	$35,930
Arkansas	$16.55	$34,430
Alabama	$16.41	$34,140
Mississippi	$15.15	$31,520
Louisiana	$14.67	$30,510

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, via O*NET OnLine.

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for CNAs

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, is the highest-paying metro area for CNAs, with a median of $56,840 a year, or $27.33 an hour. Four of the 10 highest-paying metros are in California, and Oregon has three, including the Portland metro.

Metro Area	Median Hourly Wage	Median Annual Salary
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$27.33	$56,840
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$26.96	$56,080
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$25.00	$51,990
Napa, CA	$24.21	$50,370
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$24.21	$50,350
Bend, OR	$24.08	$50,080
Boulder, CO	$23.97	$49,860
Grants Pass, OR	$23.93	$49,770
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$23.69	$49,270
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$23.67	$49,240

In the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro, the BLS median is $26.96 an hour. Pay estimates from job sites vary for the same area. As of October 2026, Indeed puts the San Francisco average at $26.56 an hour, while ZipRecruiter's Bay Area estimate is $21.43. Comparing several sources, plus real local job listings, gives you a clearer picture of what an offer is worth.

Big-city pay also varies by region. At the median, a CNA in the Chicago metro earns $22.57 an hour, while one in the Houston metro earns $18.26, a difference of about $4.30 an hour.

Featured CNA Programs on Dreambound

Dreambound gathers training programs from partner schools in one place, so you can weigh them before you choose. The CNA programs featured here are in Texas, where the CNA median is $37,500 a year, or $18.03 an hour.

Pay runs a little higher in the metros these schools serve, with medians of $38,530 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and $38,550 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos. Texas has its own training and exam steps, which our guide on how to become a CNA in Texas lays out.

Certified Nursing Assistant - TSC Career Institute

Format: Hybrid
Length: 3 weeks
Tuition: $1,050 total
Authorized by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services to offer a Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program (NATCEP)

Certified Nursing Assistant - Williams Career School of Excellence

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Tuition: $725 to start, $1,450 total
Day, evening, and weekend schedules

Nurse Aide - Diamond Career Institute

Format: Hybrid
Length: 5 weeks
Tuition: $274 to start, $920 total
Includes hands-on clinical experience

For more options, see our guide to CNA classes near you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most a CNA can make an hour?

The top 10% of CNAs nationally earn more than $24.99 an hour in base pay, based on May 2025 BLS data. In the highest-paying metro, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, the top 10% earn more than $37.04 an hour. Overtime, shift differentials, and bonuses come on top of those base rates.

Can a CNA make $30 an hour?

Yes, in some markets. The top 10% of CNAs earn more than $30 an hour in base pay in Washington state and in six metro areas, including San Jose ($37.04), San Francisco ($33.91), and Seattle ($32.35). Overtime gets you there too, since a CNA earning the national median of $20.32 makes $30.48 an hour in overtime.

Is becoming a certified nursing assistant worth it?

It can be if you want a short route into patient care. Federal rules require at least 75 hours of training, and BLS projects about 203,300 openings a year for nursing assistants and orderlies from 2025 to 2035. CNA work can also lead to higher-paying nursing roles, such as licensed practical nurses, who earn a median of $64,400, as our LPN salary guide shows.

Which is best, CNA or RN?

It depends on how much time and schooling you can commit right now. Registered nurses earn a median of $97,550 a year, compared with $42,260 for CNAs, but becoming an RN takes a nursing degree or diploma and passing the NCLEX-RN licensing exam, while CNA training takes weeks. You can start as a CNA and move up later, and our registered nurse salary guide shows what that step pays by state.

Comparing CNA Job Offers Beyond the Hourly Rate

Two CNA offers with the same hourly rate can end up thousands of dollars apart by the end of the year. The difference sits in the details: whether overtime runs on a 40-hour week or the 8 and 80 system, how much the night or weekend differential pays, how many hours you need to qualify for benefits, and whether a sign-on bonus comes with a work commitment.

Ask for each of those in writing before you accept, then convert every offer to a yearly figure based on the schedule you'll really work. When you're ready to train, Dreambound lets you line up CNA programs side by side, including hybrid programs.

Key Points

How Much Does a Certified Nursing Assistant Make?