The median advertised pay for a travel ER (emergency room) contract in California is $2,443 per week, with the middle half between $2,349 and $2,611. Measured across 106 active travel ER contracts in California at 48 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 8 percent over the $2,264 national median for travel ER 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 $2,200 | 3 |
| $2,200 to $2,300 | 13 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 35 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 11 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 8 |
| $2,600 to $2,700 | 22 |
| $2,700 to $2,800 | 6 |
| $2,800 and up | 8 |
All 106 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hanford | 12 | $2,351 | $1,120/mo |
| Los Angeles | 8 | $2,361 | $2,150/mo |
| San Francisco | 8 | $2,611 | $2,680/mo |
| Fort Bragg | 7 | $2,364 | — |
| Sacramento | 6 | $2,579 | $1,630/mo |
| Moreno Valley | 5 | $2,604 | $2,085/mo |
| Clearlake | 4 | $2,351 | — |
| Fullerton | 3 | $2,605 | $2,130/mo |
| Long Beach | 3 | $2,335 | $2,115/mo |
| Modesto | 3 | $2,452 | $1,210/mo |
| Mountain View | 3 | $3,500 | $3,210/mo |
| Valencia | 3 | $2,449 | — |
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 ER 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 46 states with ER openings