The median advertised pay for a travel Med-Surg (medical-surgical) contract in California is $2,231 per week, with the middle half between $2,034 and $2,603. Measured across 44 active travel Med-Surg contracts in California at 21 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 2 percent over the $2,185 national median for travel Med-Surg 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 |
|---|---|
| $1,900 to $2,050 | 12 |
| $2,050 to $2,200 | 8 |
| $2,200 to $2,350 | 5 |
| $2,350 to $2,500 | 6 |
| $2,500 to $2,650 | 5 |
| $2,650 to $2,800 | 4 |
| $2,800 and up | 4 |
All 44 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 6 | $2,342 | $2,150/mo |
| Ukiah | 6 | $1,979 | $1,250/mo |
| Fort Bragg | 5 | $2,355 | — |
| Castro Valley | 3 | $2,994 | $2,100/mo |
| Arcata | 2 | $2,016 | $1,180/mo |
| Long Beach | 2 | $2,301 | $2,115/mo |
| Pomona | 2 | $2,094 | $1,810/mo |
| San Francisco | 2 | $2,404 | $2,680/mo |
| San Mateo | 2 | $2,753 | $3,340/mo |
| Susanville | 2 | $2,064 | — |
| Tracy | 2 | $2,603 | $2,040/mo |
| Upland | 2 | $1,960 | $2,505/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 Med-Surg 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 Med-Surg openings