The median advertised pay for a travel Cath Lab (cardiac catheterization lab) contract in California is $3,079 per week, with the middle half between $2,949 and $3,301. Measured across 23 active travel Cath Lab contracts in California at 14 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 7 percent over the $2,887 national median for travel Cath Lab contracts.
California is not a Nurse Licensure Compact state, so you need a California license to work here even if you hold a multistate license. The compact state list explains which states issue one.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,800 | 2 |
| $2,800 to $2,900 | 3 |
| $2,900 to $3,000 | 2 |
| $3,000 to $3,100 | 5 |
| $3,100 to $3,200 | 0 |
| $3,200 to $3,300 | 5 |
| $3,300 to $3,400 | 3 |
| $3,400 and up | 3 |
All 23 open contracts, banded by advertised weekly rate. The outer bands are open-ended so nothing falls outside the chart.
California has the highest price level of the 51 states and territories the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures: 11 percent over the national average overall. The premium is concentrated in housing, at 54 percent over, while goods sit 6 percent over and services 3 percent over. That matters more than the headline number, because housing is the part a tax-free stipend is meant to cover and the rest comes out of taxed wages.
| Metro | Open contracts | Median weekly | Rent, 1 bed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chico | 5 | $3,038 | $1,120/mo |
| Modesto | 3 | $3,262 | $1,210/mo |
| Hanford | 2 | $2,870 | $1,120/mo |
| Saint Helena | 2 | $3,295 | $1,960/mo |
| San Francisco | 2 | $3,476 | $2,680/mo |
| Tulare | 2 | $3,329 | $1,140/mo |
| Escondido | 1 | $3,207 | $2,125/mo |
| La Jolla | 1 | $2,672 | — |
| Los Angeles | 1 | $2,576 | $2,150/mo |
| Roseville | 1 | $3,427 | $2,110/mo |
| San Diego | 1 | $3,729 | $2,530/mo |
| Santa Rosa | 1 | $2,809 | $2,035/mo |
Rent is the one-bedroom Fair Market Rent HUD publishes for that metro, which is what a housing stipend is trying to cover. The open-contract count beside each metro is the sample its median rests on, and outside the largest markets that sample is small: a median over one or two contracts is a single posting's rate rather than a market rate, so read the count first.
Browse the board for current Cath Lab assignments in California.
Drawn from the postings that state a requirement, which is not all of them, so each figure carries the number it was measured from. Your recruiter confirms the specifics for a given contract before submission.
All 43 states with Cath Lab openings