Abstract
The American Organization of Nurse Executives conducted a salary survey of more than 4,600 nurse leaders, capturing information from 2012. About half of the salaries fall between $80,000 and $130,000. When correlating years of leadership to salary level, the 10-year mark appears to be the tipping point in terms of higher salaries for nurse leaders, with 52% of those with 11 to 20 years of experience and 64% of those with more than 20 years of experience reporting annual salaries equal to or greater than $120,000. Overall job satisfaction is high among nurse leaders, with 62% stating that they are very satisfied and another 29% responding that they are somewhat satisfied.