The median advertised pay for a travel NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) contract in Oregon is $2,813 per week, with the middle half between $2,452 and $3,040. Measured across 6 active travel NICU contracts in Oregon at 5 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 9 percent over the $2,573 national median for travel NICU contracts.
Oregon is not a Nurse Licensure Compact state, so you need a Oregon 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 $2,200 | 1 |
| $2,200 to $2,400 | 1 |
| $2,400 to $2,600 | 0 |
| $2,600 to $2,800 | 1 |
| $2,800 to $3,000 | 1 |
| $3,000 to $3,200 | 1 |
| $3,200 to $3,400 | 0 |
| $3,400 and up | 1 |
All 6 open contracts, banded by advertised weekly rate. The outer bands are open-ended so nothing falls outside the chart.
Oregon has the 12th highest price level of the 51 states and territories the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures: 3 percent over the national average overall. The premium is concentrated in housing, at 9 percent over, while goods sit 5 percent over and services 0 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portland | 4 | $2,813 | $1,790/mo |
| Clackamas | 1 | $3,085 | $1,840/mo |
| Medford | 1 | $2,361 | $1,070/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 Oregon.
All 28 states with NICU openings