What is Cost of Living (COL)?

One of the most important parts of a nurse's job is how much it costs to live in that city. If you are a nurse looking for a new job, you might want to consider the city with highest pay and lowest cost of living (COL).

How do I interpret the Cost of Living (COL) on this page?

The lower the number, the better.

What it Shows: This chart compares the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment to the amount people earn per hour in different cities.

COL score: The number represents how many hours you need to work to afford the apartment.
‍    Lower Number: Means you need to work fewer hours to cover the rent, indicating that living there is     more affordable.
    Higher Number: Means you need to work more hours to cover the rent, indicating that living there     is less affordable.

Categories:
   Very Affordable - Rent is low compared to wages.
   Affordable - Rent is manageable but takes a moderate portion of earnings.
   Costly - Rent is high relative to wages, which may strain your budget.
   Very Costly - Rent is very high compared to wages, making it difficult to afford.

To borrow my 5-year-old nephew’s favorite phrase, “Let me explain.” I am not able to determine the true cost of living as maybe the government might, but I've come up with a solution. I am using the median rent of a 2 bedroom apartment (from Zillow) as a proxy to estimate the cost of living. The NursePay proxy COL value you see above is simply cost of rent in that city divided by the hourly wage reported for that entry. So in other words, it is the number of hours of reported pay required to afford a 2bedroom apartment in that city. More here.

Where can I find pay info at specific jobs/hospitals?

I get it. Before you pick up and move to another city you want to know what hospitals or nurse jobs exist in that city and how much they pay. Check out workplaces here.