The median advertised pay for a travel NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) contract in Washington is $2,374 per week, with the middle half between $2,374 and $3,397. Measured across 7 active travel NICU contracts in Washington at 2 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 8 percent under the $2,573 national median for travel NICU contracts.
Washington 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.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,300 | 1 |
| $2,300 to $2,500 | 3 |
| $2,500 to $2,700 | 0 |
| $2,700 to $2,900 | 0 |
| $2,900 to $3,100 | 0 |
| $3,100 to $3,300 | 0 |
| $3,300 to $3,500 | 3 |
All 7 open contracts, banded by advertised weekly rate. The outer bands are open-ended so nothing falls outside the chart.
Washington has the 6th highest price level of the 51 states and territories the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures: 7 percent over the national average overall. The premium is concentrated in housing, at 26 percent over, while goods sit 4 percent over and services 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spokane | 6 | $2,885 | $1,120/mo |
| Edmonds | 1 | $2,246 | $2,230/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.
See every opening, including partner agencies.
All 28 states with NICU openings