The median advertised pay for a travel PCU (progressive care unit) contract in California is $2,466 per week, with the middle half between $2,272 and $2,586. Measured across 12 active travel PCU contracts in California at 8 facilities, as of 2026-09-15.
Advertised weekly totals, taxable base plus tax-free stipends. Not take-home.
That is 9 percent over the $2,268 national median for travel PCU 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 |
|---|---|
| $2,200 to $2,300 | 4 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 1 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 2 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 2 |
| $2,600 to $2,700 | 1 |
| $2,700 to $2,800 | 0 |
| $2,800 and up | 2 |
All 12 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 Diego | 4 | $2,337 | $2,530/mo |
| Oxnard | 2 | $2,232 | $1,935/mo |
| Castro Valley | 1 | $2,858 | $2,100/mo |
| Chico | 1 | $2,995 | $1,120/mo |
| Eureka | 1 | $2,489 | $1,040/mo |
| Lynwood | 1 | $2,513 | $1,810/mo |
| Oakland | 1 | $2,675 | $1,920/mo |
| San Francisco | 1 | $2,557 | $2,680/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 PCU 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 42 states with PCU openings