The median advertised pay for a travel Med-Surg (medical-surgical) contract in California is $2,353 per week, with the middle half between $2,205 and $2,504. Measured across 86 active travel Med-Surg contracts in California at 48 facilities, as of 2026-10-31.
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 6 percent over the $2,223 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, and the compact checker tells you whether yours covers you here.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,000 | 1 |
| $2,000 to $2,100 | 9 |
| $2,100 to $2,200 | 11 |
| $2,200 to $2,300 | 13 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 16 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 14 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 8 |
| $2,600 and up | 14 |
All 86 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 7 | $2,488 | $2,680/mo |
| Los Angeles | 6 | $2,358 | $2,150/mo |
| Lakewood | 4 | $2,441 | $2,550/mo |
| Long Beach | 4 | $2,229 | $2,115/mo |
| Glendale | 3 | $2,105 | $2,365/mo |
| Oakland | 3 | $2,746 | $1,920/mo |
| Pomona | 3 | $2,066 | $1,810/mo |
| San Leandro | 3 | $2,614 | $1,955/mo |
| Ukiah | 3 | $2,523 | $1,250/mo |
| Alameda | 2 | $2,614 | $2,660/mo |
| Bakersfield | 2 | $2,563 | $1,060/mo |
| Downey | 2 | $2,342 | $1,970/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.
Over the last seven days the median advertised rate rose 0.0 percent, from $2,342 to $2,342 a week. Measured against the seven days before it, across 81 open postings, 2026-10-18 to 2026-10-31.
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 Med-Surg openings