The median advertised pay for a travel PCU (progressive care unit) contract in California is $2,520 per week, with the middle half between $2,350 and $2,707. Measured across 35 active travel PCU contracts in California at 19 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 $2,309 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, and the compact checker tells you whether yours covers you here.
| Weekly rate | Open contracts |
|---|---|
| Under $2,200 | 3 |
| $2,200 to $2,300 | 5 |
| $2,300 to $2,400 | 2 |
| $2,400 to $2,500 | 3 |
| $2,500 to $2,600 | 11 |
| $2,600 to $2,700 | 2 |
| $2,700 to $2,800 | 5 |
| $2,800 and up | 4 |
All 35 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fountain Valley | 6 | $2,554 | $2,630/mo |
| San Diego | 5 | $2,457 | $2,530/mo |
| Los Angeles | 3 | $2,771 | $2,150/mo |
| Baldwin Park | 2 | $2,938 | $1,810/mo |
| Long Beach | 2 | $2,252 | $2,115/mo |
| Mission Hills | 2 | $2,503 | — |
| Orange | 2 | $2,441 | $2,430/mo |
| Pasadena | 2 | $2,123 | $2,370/mo |
| Redding | 2 | $2,536 | $1,230/mo |
| Torrance | 2 | $2,287 | $2,390/mo |
| Chico | 1 | $2,998 | $1,120/mo |
| Escondido | 1 | $2,642 | $2,125/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.
Over the last seven days the median advertised rate fell 2.4 percent, from $2,572 to $2,512 a week. Measured against the seven days before it, across 29 open postings, 2026-10-17 to 2026-10-30.
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 45 states with PCU openings