The median advertised pay for a travel ICU (intensive care unit) contract in California is $2,611 per week, with the middle half between $2,365 and $2,869. Measured across 92 active travel ICU contracts in California at 46 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 12 percent over the $2,332 national median for travel ICU 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 $2,300 | 7 |
| $2,300 to $2,450 | 29 |
| $2,450 to $2,600 | 6 |
| $2,600 to $2,750 | 24 |
| $2,750 to $2,900 | 4 |
| $2,900 to $3,050 | 12 |
| $3,050 to $3,200 | 6 |
| $3,200 and up | 4 |
All 92 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simi Valley | 8 | $2,361 | $2,480/mo |
| Fairfield | 6 | $2,410 | $2,065/mo |
| Clearlake | 4 | $2,351 | — |
| Los Angeles | 4 | $2,622 | $2,150/mo |
| Moreno Valley | 4 | $2,646 | $2,085/mo |
| San Diego | 4 | $2,477 | $2,530/mo |
| San Francisco | 4 | $2,725 | $2,680/mo |
| Sonora | 4 | $2,351 | $1,190/mo |
| Oakland | 3 | $3,046 | $1,920/mo |
| Sacramento | 3 | $3,037 | $1,630/mo |
| Santa Clara | 3 | $3,113 | $3,280/mo |
| Templeton | 3 | $2,364 | — |
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 ICU 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 ICU openings