The median advertised pay for a travel ICU (intensive care unit) contract in Massachusetts is $2,570 per week, with the middle half between $2,503 and $2,782. Measured across 32 active travel ICU contracts in Massachusetts at 16 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 11 percent over the $2,317 national median for travel ICU contracts.
Massachusetts has enacted the Nurse Licensure Compact but has not implemented it, so a multistate license does not cover you here yet. You need a Massachusetts license. The compact state list explains which states issue one.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,300 | 4 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 0 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 4 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 10 |
| $2,600 to $2,700 | 4 |
| $2,700 to $2,800 | 3 |
| $2,800 to $2,900 | 4 |
| $2,900 and up | 3 |
All 32 open contracts, banded by advertised weekly rate. The outer bands are open-ended so nothing falls outside the chart.
Massachusetts has the 7th highest price level of the 51 states and territories the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures: 6 percent over the national average overall. The premium is concentrated in housing, at 28 percent over, while goods sit 1 percent under 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston | 8 | $2,547 | $2,600/mo |
| Salem | 6 | $2,518 | $2,140/mo |
| Cambridge | 3 | $2,830 | $3,270/mo |
| Burlington | 2 | $2,836 | $2,730/mo |
| Fall River | 2 | $2,810 | $1,260/mo |
| Framingham | 2 | $2,025 | $2,205/mo |
| Milton | 2 | $2,719 | — |
| Worcester | 2 | $3,125 | $1,400/mo |
| Brockton | 1 | $2,489 | $2,060/mo |
| Leominster | 1 | $2,695 | $1,390/mo |
| Plymouth | 1 | $2,649 | $2,140/mo |
| Springfield | 1 | $2,578 | $1,200/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 ICU assignments in Massachusetts.
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