CRNA Pay Report, Q3 2026: What Job Postings Show
By Andrew Woodmancey, Managing Director · Published
CRNA pay is still climbing; anesthesiologist pay has leveled off.
The median posted offer for staff CRNA jobs was $280,000 a year over the six months to September 2026, up about 4% from $270,000 in the six months before. Anesthesiologist offers held at $550,000 (the anesthesiologist pay report).
One caution: only 46% of CRNA postings stated pay in September 2026, against 51–57% in the months before, so part of the rise may reflect which employers chose to publish pay.
Every state’s CRNA median is in the tables below, with its region’s figure where a state has too few postings.
What it means for your budget
Every $10,000 of CRNA pay costs about $15,000 a year per location, so the latest $10,000 rise adds about $150,000 a year to a 10-location program.
At the national median, CRNA pay for one location comes to about $420,000 a year: 1.25 full-time CRNAs to cover it every day it runs, plus 20% for benefits. In a care team the anesthesiologists directing those rooms come on top (what each care team ratio costs).
Test a renewal ask against your own state, not the nation. Put the raise your group assumes into the state finder above: it compares the raise with what posted pay did in your state or region and prices the gap per location. A benchmark review goes further, from these medians to your own schedule and payer mix. Our explainer on anesthesia subsidies covers how pay feeds the support a hospital pays its group, and the 2027 Medicare conversion factor covers the revenue side of the same gap.
Pay by state
Where you hire matters more than when: a CRNA in Pennsylvania is offered 1.5 times what one in North Carolina is.
All 44 states: median, postings and change
| State | Median | Postings stating pay | vs prior six months |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | $385,000 | 10 | −4%* |
| Pennsylvania | $375,000 | 95 | +29% |
| California | $370,000 | 42 | −13%* |
| Louisiana | $350,000 | 18 | – |
| Alaska | $345,000 | 5 | – |
| Oklahoma | $330,000 | 8 | −6%* |
| Nebraska | $315,000 | 5 | – |
| Maine | $310,000 | 18 | −48%* |
| Oregon | $310,000 | 15 | −6%* |
| New Hampshire | $310,000 | 14 | no change* |
| New York | $300,000 | 104 | no change |
| Maryland | $300,000 | 47 | +5% |
| Montana | $295,000 | 8 | +4%* |
| Arkansas | $295,000 | 8 | – |
| New Jersey | $290,000 | 38 | no change |
| Kansas | $290,000 | 23 | +7%* |
| Iowa | $290,000 | 20 | – |
| Rhode Island | $290,000 | 5 | – |
| Texas | $285,000 | 205 | +6% |
| Illinois | $285,000 | 123 | +2% |
| Washington | $285,000 | 23 | −8%* |
| Massachusetts | $285,000 | 18 | −2%* |
| Arizona | $285,000 | 17 | −25%* |
| Indiana | $280,000 | 27 | +4%* |
| Wisconsin | $280,000 | 12 | no change* |
| West Virginia | $280,000 | 8 | – |
| Minnesota | $275,000 | 21 | −2%* |
| Colorado | $270,000 | 34 | no change |
| Nevada | $270,000 | 7 | – |
| Delaware | $270,000 | 5 | – |
| South Dakota | $265,000 | 5 | – |
| Virginia | $260,000 | 72 | no change |
| Florida | $260,000 | 69 | no change |
| Michigan | $260,000 | 67 | −4% |
| Tennessee | $260,000 | 59 | +2% |
| Kentucky | $260,000 | 28 | +4% |
| Utah | $260,000 | 7 | – |
| Georgia | $250,000 | 89 | +6% |
| Ohio | $250,000 | 65 | no change |
| Missouri | $250,000 | 36 | no change* |
| North Carolina | $245,000 | 44 | −12%* |
| Mississippi | $240,000 | 9 | – |
| Alabama | $230,000 | 19 | −2%* |
| South Carolina | $225,000 | 13 | −8%* |
* Fewer than 20 postings stated pay in the earlier six months; read the change as directional.
State comparisons here use the 16 states with at least 30 postings stating pay, where CRNA medians run from $245,000 to $375,000. Counting every state with at least 5, the range is $225,000 to $385,000, but those ends rest on 10 postings in New Mexico and 13 in South Carolina. Pennsylvania shows how local these markets are: it is among the lowest-paying states for anesthesiologists and among the highest for CRNAs. Lighter rows in the table rest on fewer than 30 postings; a change shows where both periods have at least 5.
Pay by region
Pay is rising fastest in the West South Central (+7%), Mountain (+6%) and Middle Atlantic (+5%) divisions; the other divisions with enough postings to compare moved less than 5%.
Grouped into the nine Census divisions, CRNAs are offered from $255,000 at the median in the South Atlantic division to $330,000 in the Pacific division. A division pools every posting in its states, so it also gives a figure for states with too few postings of their own.
All 9 regions: states, median, postings and change
| Region | States | Median | Postings stating pay | vs prior six months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific | AK, CA, HI, OR, WA | $330,000 | 82 | −2% |
| Middle Atlantic | NJ, NY, PA | $305,000 | 239 | +5% |
| West South Central | AR, LA, OK, TX | $290,000 | 235 | +7% |
| New England | CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT | $290,000 | 59 | −2% |
| Mountain | AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY | $285,000 | 87 | +6% |
| East North Central | IL, IN, MI, OH, WI | $280,000 | 293 | +2% |
| West North Central | IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD | $275,000 | 112 | +2% |
| East South Central | AL, KY, MS, TN | $260,000 | 115 | +4% |
| South Atlantic | DE, DC, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV | $255,000 | 346 | no change |
How hard it is to hire
Hiring is hardest in the Mountain division: 14.9 openings per 100 CRNAs, 67% of them locums or contract.
Pay is half of what coverage costs; the other half is whether the schedule can be filled with staff. Over the six months to September 2026, 8,816 CRNA openings were posted, about 11 for every 100 CRNAs, and 59% of them were locums or contract work. Where both figures are high, expect a group to lean on locums and to price open shifts at locums rates, which is often a bigger lever in a subsidy than salaried pay (what locums anesthesia costs).
How these figures compare
Recruiters see about the same starting pay we do; the government’s lower figure is last year’s pay for everyone in the job.
AMN Healthcare’s 2026 review of physician and advanced practitioner recruiting incentives puts the average starting salary it saw for CRNAs at $286,250, close to our $280,000 median of posted offers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 2025 wage survey puts the median at $236,590: that is what employed CRNAs were paid a year earlier, across every tenure and setting, so it runs below what new postings offer. For pricing a coverage contract today, posted offers in your own market are the closer guide.
How the index is built
- Source: publicly posted anesthesia job listings from national job boards, about 3,700 CRNA jobs in the six months, of which 1,569 stated annual pay.
- Pay: annual pay as posted: the salary range a posting lists (its midpoint) or a stated annual salary. Hourly and daily rates are not converted, so they are not counted. Posted pay is what employers advertise, not what is finally agreed, and it leaves out signing bonuses, call pay and benefits.
- Window: figures pool the six months to September 2026, and changes compare them with the six months before (October 2025 to March 2026). Each job counts once.
- Staff positions only: postings marked locums, 1099 or partnership, or paying a daily locum rate, are left out; postings that do not say how the job is employed stay in.
- Outliers: pay more than two standard deviations from the average (nationally, or within a state or region) is dropped.
- Thin data: a national figure needs at least 100 postings stating pay in its window; a state is shown from 5 and a region from 20.
- Recruiters: about 68% of postings in the index come from recruiters, who often omit pay, which is why fewer than half of postings contribute to the pay figures.
- Cost per location: 1.25 full-time clinicians per location (250 days a year, 220 shifts each plus 10% for breaks, relief and call) and 20% for benefits, so about $1.50 a year per dollar of pay.
About this report
AOC publishes its anesthesiologist and CRNA pay reports each quarter. This one covers Q3 2026: the six months to September 2026, compared with the six months before. The next report covers the six months to December 2026.
