Where does this ICU pay figure come from?

From the travel contracts currently posted on CircleRN, not from an industry survey or an estimate. No federal source publishes pay by nursing specialty: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports registered nurses as a single occupation, so there is no official median for an ICU or a labor and delivery nurse. We publish the median rather than the average because one crisis-rate assignment moves an average enough to misrepresent the market.

Travel ICU Nurse Pay in South Dakota

The median advertised pay for a travel ICU (intensive care unit) contract in South Dakota is $2,876 per week, with the middle half between $2,876 and $3,250. Measured across 6 active travel ICU contracts in South Dakota at 4 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 18 percent over the $2,442 national median for travel ICU contracts.

South Dakota is a Nurse Licensure Compact state, so an active multistate license covers you here. A single-state license from elsewhere does not. The compact state list explains which states issue one, and the compact checker tells you whether yours covers you here.

Where every open ICU contract falls

Weekly rate	Open contracts
Under $2,600	1
$2,600 to $2,750	0
$2,750 to $2,900	3
$2,900 to $3,050	0
$3,050 to $3,200	0
$3,200 to $3,350	0
$3,350 to $3,500	1
$3,500 and up	1

All 6 open contracts, banded by advertised weekly rate. The outer bands are open-ended so nothing falls outside the chart.

South Dakota has the 46th highest price level of the 51 states and territories the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures: 11 percent under the national average overall. The premium is concentrated in housing, at 32 percent under, while goods sit 5 percent under and services 8 percent under. 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.

ICU pay by metro in South Dakota

Metro	Open contracts	Median weekly	Rent, 1 bed
Aberdeen	3	$2,876	—
Sioux Falls	2	$3,352	$865/mo
Pierre	1	$2,876	—

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.

Open ICU contracts in South Dakota

Browse the board for current ICU assignments in South Dakota.

ICU pay in other states

Travel ICU pay in Vermont — $3,014/week median across 5 contracts
Travel ICU pay in California — $2,711/week median across 137 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Massachusetts — $2,635/week median across 19 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Rhode Island — $2,602/week median across 5 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Washington — $2,582/week median across 5 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Minnesota — $2,563/week median across 11 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Delaware — $2,556/week median across 5 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Ohio — $2,546/week median across 12 contracts
Travel ICU pay in Connecticut — $2,468/week median across 14 contracts

All 46 states with ICU openings

Travel ICU pay nationally
Travel ICU nurse pay
Travel nursing in South Dakota
Open travel assignments
How we measure this: the sources, the sample and what the figures do not cover

Common questions

How much does a travel ICU nurse make in South Dakota?: The median advertised pay for a travel ICU contract in South Dakota is $2,876 a week, with the middle half of contracts between $2,876 and $3,250. Measured across 6 active travel ICU contracts in South Dakota at 4 facilities, as of 2026-10-30. These are advertised weekly totals before tax, usually including tax-free stipends; for almost all postings the figure is the top of an advertised range. Not take-home.
Where does this ICU pay figure come from?: From the travel contracts currently posted on CircleRN, not from an industry survey or an estimate. No federal source publishes pay by nursing specialty: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports registered nurses as a single occupation, so there is no official median for an ICU or a labor and delivery nurse. We publish the median rather than the average because one crisis-rate assignment moves an average enough to misrepresent the market.