Cardiac cath lab nurse salary: $96,500 median in 2026

Cardiac cath lab nurses earn a median of $96,500 per year ($46.39/hour) according to Salary.com’s August 2026 data – roughly on par with the general RN median of $97,550, but with significant earning potential from mandatory call compensation that most salary surveys don’t capture. California, DC, Massachusetts, and coastal states consistently pay above $100,000, while Mississippi, Arkansas, and West Virginia sit below $90,000. Travel cath lab RNs earn substantially more: a national average of $2,696/week, which annualizes to roughly $134,800 at 50 weeks worked, with several states averaging above $3,000/week.

At a glance:

• National median (Salary.com, August 2026): $96,500/year ($46.39/hour)
• ZipRecruiter national average: $140,603/year (includes total compensation)
• Vivian Health staff posted average: $47.92/hour (August 2026)
• Travel cath lab RN average: $2,696/week (Vivian Health, August 2026)
• Top-paying state: California/DC ($106,500–$106,900 median)
• Lowest-paying state: Mississippi ($86,100 median)
• Call pay adds: $5,000–$25,000/year depending on call volume

Why cath lab RN salary data varies so much across sources

Before reading any cath lab salary figure, understand what it’s measuring. BLS SOC code 29-1141 (Registered Nurses) does not separate cath lab RNs from floor nurses, ICU nurses, or any other specialty – the BLS occupational code covers all RNs. Every cath lab salary figure from Salary.com, ZipRecruiter, Vivian Health, or Glassdoor is derived from self-reported job postings, employer-reported data, or survey data rather than a government survey of cath lab jobs specifically.

This means two things: (1) salary figures will differ meaningfully across sources because they use different methodologies, and (2) the figures are still useful as benchmarks even though they aren’t BLS-verified. Salary.com’s figures tend to be conservative (employer-sourced, closer to base salary). ZipRecruiter’s figures tend to run higher because they often reflect total compensation including call pay and overtime. Vivian Health figures are derived from actual posted travel and staff positions.

For reference, the BLS OEWS national RN median was $97,550 as of May 2025, with a mean of $101,420. Comparing a cath lab figure against that number is directionally useful but not a like-for-like comparison: OEWS is an establishment survey covering every RN in the country, while the cath lab figures below come from job postings and employer-reported data. Read the gap between the two as a rough signal rather than a precise differential.

For this guide, figures are sourced and labeled by methodology throughout.

National average cardiac cath lab nurse salary

Two of these figures deserve a note on how they are derived. Salary.com’s $96,500 is an employer-sourced median and the most conservative of the four; divided across a 2,080-hour year it gives $46.39/hour, and Salary.com’s own page rounds that display value to $46. Vivian’s $47.92/hour comes from posted staff job advertisements rather than employer compensation models, and posted rates run higher than employer medians because employers advertise the top of a band. Vivian’s figure annualizes to roughly $99,700 at 2,080 hours, though posted hourly rates are a weaker basis for annualization than a stated salary, since they say nothing about guaranteed hours.

The ZipRecruiter figure ($140,603) appears to reflect total compensation including call pay, overtime, differentials, and shift bonuses – all of which are substantial in the cath lab.

Salary by experience level

Experience produces modest base salary increases in the cath lab, because pay is primarily driven by geography and facility type rather than years of service. Where experience creates real earnings growth is in call volume (senior RNs often self-select into higher call loads for the pay), shift differential negotiation, and eligibility for lead/charge roles with pay premiums.

The experience premium from entry-level to expert is $6,239/year on base salary – modest. Most experienced cath lab RNs earn significantly more than this through call pay and overtime, which aren’t reflected in base salary data.

Call pay: the real earnings multiplier

Cardiac cath labs operate 24 hours a day for emergency procedures – STEMI activations, cardiac arrests requiring urgent intervention, hemodynamically unstable patients needing emergent catheterization. This means virtually all cath lab RNs carry mandatory call, and call compensation is a significant part of total earnings.

Typical call pay structure:

• Call stipend (on-standby): $3–6/hour while on call but not activated. An RN carrying 10 call shifts per month at 16 hours each earns $480–$960/month in call stipend alone before being called in a single time.
• Call-back pay: When activated, time begins at call-back rate, typically time-and-a-half of base hourly rate. Some facilities pay a flat call-back bonus ($100–$200) plus time-and-a-half from arrival.
• Minimum callback guarantee: Many labor contracts guarantee a minimum of 2–4 hours pay per callback, regardless of how quickly the procedure ends.

A cath lab RN at a facility with high overnight STEMI volume – a regional cardiac center, a large urban hospital, a trauma center – may be called in 3–6 times per month outside business hours. At $45–$55/hour on time-and-a-half ($67.50–$82.50/hour), each callback pays $135–$330 depending on whether the facility guarantees a 2-hour or 4-hour minimum. Work that arithmetic across a year: 3 callbacks a month at the 2-hour minimum and the lower rate is about $4,900, while 6 a month at the 4-hour minimum and the higher rate is about $23,800. Add the standby stipend – $480 to $960 a month at 10 shifts of 16 hours, or roughly $5,800 to $11,500 a year – and total call earnings for a nurse at a busy lab land in the $10,000–$25,000 range. A nurse at a low-volume community lab may see closer to $5,000, most of it stipend rather than callback. This component is rarely visible in standard salary database figures.

RCIS certification premium

The RCIS (Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist, issued by Cardiovascular Credentialing International) is the primary specialty credential for cath lab professionals. Quantifying a precise certification premium is difficult because most salary databases don’t isolate it as a pay factor. However:

• Job postings that list RCIS as “required” typically fall in higher pay bands than those listing it as “preferred” or not mentioning it
• RCIS holders are more competitive for lead RN, charge, and senior cath lab positions that carry pay differentials
• Vivian Health’s data notes that the CV-BC (ANCC’s cardiac-vascular nursing certification) affects pay, though specific premium figures aren’t broken out

Be skeptical of any specific dollar premium quoted for the RCIS. Neither CCI nor any federal dataset publishes a certified-versus-non-certified wage comparison for cath lab nurses, so figures in the $5,000–$12,000 range that circulate on specialty salary pages are estimates rather than measured differentials. The best-evidenced comparator in nursing is BCEN’s Value of Specialty Certification study, conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) across late 2016 and early 2017 and drawing on more than 8,800 emergency nurses and over 1,000 nurse supervisors. It found CEN-certified nurses earned an average of $1,397 per year more than non-certified peers – an order of magnitude below what specialty guides typically claim. Two caveats apply: the figure measures the CEN specifically rather than the RCIS, and the underlying survey is now several years old, so treat it as an order-of-magnitude reference point rather than a current transferable premium. It remains the most rigorous published wage comparison in specialty nursing certification, which is itself the point – no equivalent study exists for the RCIS.

The more reliable mechanism is access rather than an automatic differential. Holding the RCIS strengthens your negotiating position at facilities where it’s listed as a job requirement rather than a preference, and it gates eligibility for lead, charge, and senior cath lab roles that carry their own pay premiums.

Travel cardiac cath lab RN salary

Travel cath lab nursing commands some of the highest weekly rates in the travel nursing market. Cath lab is a specialty where hospitals consistently struggle to staff call coverage, which elevates contract rates.

National travel cath lab RN averages (Vivian Health, August 2026):

• National average: $2,696/week
• This is 23% above Vivian’s overall nursing average of $2,189/week
• Maximum posted rate: $4,519/week

Travel cath lab RN rates by state (Vivian Health, August 2026):

Note how much this table moves. Vivian recalculates from active postings on a rolling basis, so state rankings reshuffle month to month on relatively thin job counts – the states at the top of this list are usually there because a handful of high-paying contracts are open right now, and not because the state has a durable pay premium. Treat the national average as the stable figure and the state rows as a snapshot.

Annualized at 50 weeks worked, the national average travel rate ($2,696/week) equals $134,800/year – significantly above staff base salary. Fifty weeks is the realistic assumption rather than 52, because 13-week contracts rarely chain back to back without gaps between assignments. However, travel contracts typically don’t include employer-funded health benefits, paid time off, or retirement match, which adds $8,000–$15,000 in hidden value to staff positions. The net advantage of travel over staff work depends heavily on individual benefits packages and whether you need predictable scheduling.

Cardiac cath lab nurse salary by state

The table below uses Salary.com’s May 2026 employer-sourced median data for all 50 states and DC. These figures represent base salary for staff RNs – call pay and overtime are additional. The state figures carry a May 2026 vintage while the national figure above was refreshed in August 2026, so expect small inconsistencies between the two: the unweighted midpoint of the 51 state values below is $94,100, against a population-weighted national median of $96,500. That gap is a property of how the two are calculated as much as a vintage difference, since a simple midpoint of states gives Wyoming the same weight as California.

Source: Salary.com, May 2026. Figures represent employer-reported base salary medians for the cardiac cath lab nurse job title. Significant variation exists within states based on facility type, system size, and union status.

Why some high-cost states cluster at the top: California, DC, Massachusetts, and New York have both high costs of living and strong hospital union activity (particularly in California, where SEIU and CNA contracts cover many hospital RNs). The base salaries in these states reflect collectively bargained rates as well as market pressure.

The Texas anomaly: Texas ($94,200) ranks lower than you’d expect for a large state with a high volume of cardiac procedures. Texas levies no state income tax, which lifts take-home relative to a state that does – though the size of that effect is routinely overstated, so it is worth computing rather than asserting.

The figures usually quoted for California (9.3%, or a “5–13%” band) are marginal bracket rates, meaning the rate charged on the last dollar earned. They are not the share of income anyone pays. Run California’s $106,500 median against the state’s 2026 single-filer schedule and the $5,540 standard deduction and the liability comes to roughly $6,400, an effective rate near 6.0%. California take-home is therefore about $100,100 against Texas’s untaxed $94,200 – California stays roughly $5,900 ahead, and state income tax closes less than half of the $12,300 gross gap.

Where Texas wins is housing, which the tax comparison gets credit for and shouldn’t. Median home prices in Dallas or Houston run well below those in California metros with comparable cath lab volume, and that difference is larger than the tax difference by a wide margin. If you are weighing the two states, price the housing and treat the tax line as a secondary consideration.

Salary by work setting

Setting matters as much as geography:

ASCs and outpatient catheterization labs are a growing segment – as lower-acuity diagnostic cath and elective PCI shift out of hospital settings, ASC cath lab positions are appearing more frequently. These positions typically have no overnight call, predictable hours, and competitive base pay – but they are fewer in number and typically require documented independent cath lab RN experience.

Is cath lab nursing worth the pay relative to ICU?

This is one of the most common questions from nurses weighing a move from critical care to cath lab. The honest comparison:

Base salary: Approximately equivalent. ICU RN and cath lab RN base salaries are similar in most markets.

Total compensation: Cath lab can be higher due to call pay, but only if your lab has significant after-hours volume. At a community hospital with low overnight STEMI rates, call pay may be minimal. At a high-volume cardiac center, call earnings are substantial.

Work environment: ICU is 12-hour shifts, typically 3 per week. Cath lab is often 8–10 hours of scheduled cases Mon–Fri, with call added. Many nurses find cath lab less physically exhausting than ICU (fewer patient lifts, no extended nights with a 2-patient assignment at 3 a.m.) – but the call burden is a real tradeoff.

Advancement: Cath lab experience is uniquely valuable for transitions into device company roles, structural heart programs, and interventional cardiology NP positions. ICU experience is more universally applicable for flight nursing, CRNA school, and a wider range of NP roles.

For more on cath lab career paths and certifications, see our guide to how to become a cardiac cath lab nurse. If you’re considering the NP pathway from cath lab, see our guide to how to become a cardiology NP.

Data sources: Salary.com (employer-sourced median, national and experience figures August 2026, state table May 2026); Vivian Health (staff and travel RN posted rates, August 2026); ZipRecruiter (average total compensation, 2026). BLS SOC 29-1141 covers all RNs and does not isolate cath lab salary – figures in this guide are specialty-source derived.

References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: Registered Nurses (SOC 29-1141),” OEWS national and state estimates, May 2025. National median annual wage $97,550, mean $101,420. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291141.htm
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Registered Nurses,” Occupational Outlook Handbook. Employment projected to grow 5% from 2024 to 2034, with approximately 189,100 openings per year over the decade. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm
3. Cardiovascular Credentialing International, “Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist (RCIS),” CCI credentials, 2025. https://cci-online.org/credentials/registered-cardiovascular-invasive-specialist/
4. American Nurses Credentialing Center, “Cardiac Vascular Nursing Certification (CV-BC),” ANCC certification, 2025. https://www.nursingworld.org/our-certifications/cardiac-vascular-nurse/
5. American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, “2025 ACC/AHA/SCAI Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes,” Circulation, 2025. https://www.acc.org/guidelines
6. American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, “Board Certification,” AACN, 2025. https://www.aacn.org/certification
7. California Franchise Tax Board, “Tax calculator, tables, rates” – California tax rate schedules and standard deduction amounts. Source for the effective-rate calculation in the Texas comparison above. https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/personal/tax-calculator-tables-rates.asp
8. Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN), “Emergency Nursing Expertise and Career Success Linked to CEN Certification in Large-Scale Study.” Value of Specialty Certification study conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), late 2016–early 2017; more than 8,800 emergency nurses and over 1,000 supervisors. CEN-certified nurses earned an average of $1,397 per year more than non-certified peers. https://bcen.org/news-releases/emergency-nursing-expertise-and-career-success-linked-to-cen-certification-in-large-scale-study/