The median advertised pay for a travel ER (emergency room) contract in California is $2,638 per week, with the middle half between $2,430 and $2,709. Measured across 126 active travel ER contracts in California at 71 facilities, as of 2026-10-30.
Advertised weekly totals before tax, usually including tax-free stipends; for almost all postings the top of an advertised range. Not take-home.
That is 12 percent over the $2,347 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, and the compact checker tells you whether yours covers you here.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,200 | 5 |
| $2,200 to $2,300 | 10 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 15 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 13 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 11 |
| $2,600 to $2,700 | 34 |
| $2,700 to $2,800 | 26 |
| $2,800 and up | 12 |
All 126 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach | 8 | $2,359 | $2,115/mo |
| Los Angeles | 8 | $2,398 | $2,150/mo |
| San Leandro | 6 | $2,673 | $1,955/mo |
| Merced | 4 | $2,546 | $1,150/mo |
| Simi Valley | 4 | $2,580 | $2,480/mo |
| Templeton | 4 | $2,510 | — |
| Lodi | 3 | $2,683 | $1,430/mo |
| Oakland | 3 | $2,638 | $1,920/mo |
| Orange | 3 | $2,577 | $2,430/mo |
| Rancho Mirage | 3 | $2,584 | $1,930/mo |
| Redding | 3 | $2,711 | $1,230/mo |
| San Luis Obispo | 3 | $2,317 | $2,025/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 ER assignments in California.
Over the last seven days the median advertised rate rose 3.3 percent, from $2,516 to $2,598 a week. Measured against the seven days before it, across 130 open postings, 2026-10-17 to 2026-10-30.
This compares advertised rates within one specialty in one state, which is the only cut where a change in the median is likely to mean a change in price rather than a change in which contracts are posted. Where the number of open postings moves sharply, no figure is shown.
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 49 states with ER openings