The median advertised pay for a travel NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) contract in Massachusetts is $2,574 per week, with the middle half between $2,527 and $2,576. Measured across 4 active travel NICU contracts in Massachusetts at 4 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home. With only 4 open contracts in Massachusetts, treat that median as an indication rather than a rate: the contracts below are the useful part of this page.
That is 3 percent over the $2,510 national median for travel NICU 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 $2,400 | 1 |
| $2,400 to $2,450 | 0 |
| $2,450 to $2,500 | 0 |
| $2,500 to $2,550 | 0 |
| $2,550 to $2,600 | 3 |
| $2,600 to $2,650 | 0 |
| $2,650 to $2,700 | 0 |
All 4 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 | 2 | $2,574 | $2,600/mo |
| Brockton | 1 | $2,387 | $2,060/mo |
| Newburyport | 1 | $2,583 | $2,140/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 NICU assignments in Massachusetts.
All 29 states with NICU openings