| Weekly pay | Up to $3,200 on a 12x3 schedule of 36 hours per week |
|---|---|
| State income tax | None. Alaska has no state income tax and no state sales tax. |
| License | Alaska RN license by endorsement required (not yet a compact state; legislation pending) |
| Shifts | Day and Night shifts available |
| What sets it apart | Highest projected nurse vacancy rate in the country, with frontier and critical-access settings |
| Extras | Weekly pay and a dedicated recruiter. Stipend details vary by contract; your recruiter breaks down every package. Call (866) 680-2920. |
| Pay updated | June 2026 |
Alaska is not just short on nurses; it has the highest projected registered-nurse vacancy rate in the country, around 22.7%, per the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. Where some states are short the most nurses in raw numbers, Alaska is short the largest share of the nurses it needs, and that difference is what defines the job here.
The state's own workforce analysis has put the hospital RN vacancy rate above 20% and found Alaska needs well over 1,000 new nursing recruits every year, while its schools graduate only a few hundred. The average time to fill a vacant hospital RN position has run around 118 days. That gap is filled by travelers: more than one in ten Alaska healthcare workers comes from out of state, and in some emergency departments a large share of the nurses are travelers. For you, that means leverage. In a market this short, contracts are plentiful, extensions are common, and facilities treat travelers as essential rather than supplemental.
22.7%
Vacancy Rate
1,000+
Annual Need
118 Days
Avg Fill Time
$0
State Tax
Alaska nursing splits roughly into two worlds, and it is worth knowing which one a contract is before you sign. The first is the urban hospital world, centered on Anchorage, where the state's largest acute-care facilities run full specialty services and a contract looks much like busy hospital work anywhere, with the usual units and acuity.
The second world is what makes Alaska, Alaska: regional referral centers and critical-access hospitals serving enormous, roads-optional territories, some covering hundreds of thousands of square miles. In those settings nurses work a broader scope than they would in a big-city specialty unit, cross-cover more, and care for patients who may have traveled hours, sometimes by air, to reach them. If you want to narrow your skills, this is the wrong assignment. If you want to widen them, there is nowhere better.
We Care Staffing's current Alaska contracts pay up to $3,200 a week on a 12x3 schedule. The headline rate is strong on its own, but Alaska's real advantage is what is not taken out: there is no state income tax and no state sales tax, so the taxable portion of your pay is not eroded the way it is in a high-tax state. Combined with tax-free housing and meal stipends benchmarked to GSA rates for travelers who keep a qualifying tax home, Alaska delivers some of the best take-home pay in travel nursing.
For context, registered nurses in Alaska earn well above the national average per BLS data, reflecting both the cost of living and the severity of the shortage. The honest caveat is that cost of living, especially for groceries and fuel in remote communities, runs high, so the smart play is to lock in your housing stipend strategy with your recruiter early. Travelers who plan housing well in Alaska routinely bank more than they would on a higher-headline contract in a high-tax state.
Taxable Base Rate
No state tax on this
Housing Stipend
Tax-free, GSA-based rates
Meal Stipend
Tax-free daily allowance
Weekly Pay
Transparent breakdown every week
$3,200
Max Weekly Pay
0%
State Income Tax
0%
State Sales Tax
Alaska is not currently a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact, so for now you need an Alaska RN license by endorsement through the state board of nursing, even if you hold a multistate license. This is worth watching: legislation to join the compact was introduced in 2025, and the state's nursing leadership has backed the move, precisely because the licensing delay worsens the shortage.
Until that changes, plan ahead. Endorsement processing and document verification take time, so apply for your Alaska license before you start looking for a contract, and ask your recruiter about expedited handling for an active assignment. Filing a complete application the first time is the single best thing you can do to protect a start date here, where licensing and credentialing delays are a known bottleneck.
Your Alaska assignment is one application away.
Speak to our recruiter now.We Care Staffing places nurses across Alaska's urban hospitals and its regional referral and critical-access facilities. Demand concentrates in the Anchorage and Fairbanks areas, with critical-access and remote-community needs across the rest of the state, including assignments reachable mainly by air.
"As a new grad, I was nervous, but We-Care supported me. They landed me my first job in a supportive environment. Thank you!"
Brandon Lee
RN
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