New grad RN jobs and nurse residency programs in Massachusetts

A quarter of Massachusetts RNs earn less than $42.05 an hour ($87,460 a year) and half earn more than $50.27. First-year offers tend to sit near the lower figure, since hospital pay scales usually rise with experience.

That puts Massachusetts 8th of the 50 states and DC for median RN pay.

Pay is spread out in Massachusetts: $8.22 an hour separates the 25th percentile from the median, a wider gap than in most states.

The largest RN job market touching Massachusetts is the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, with 64,240 RNs; that count includes nurses in New Hampshire.

When people search for new grad RN jobs in Massachusetts, the places they name most often are Boston and Worcester.

The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing licenses RNs in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has passed the Nurse Licensure Compact into law, but it is not in force yet. Until it is, you need a Massachusetts license to work here, even if you hold a multistate license from another state.

No. Massachusetts does not issue temporary licenses, so you cannot work as a nurse until you pass the NCLEX and are licensed.

Source: Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing, licensure by exam, read October 2026.

Of its neighboring states, Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island do let new graduates work on a permit before passing. See every state's rule.

3,256 of the 3,740 first-time, U.S.-educated candidates who took the NCLEX-RN for Massachusetts in 2025 passed: 87.1%, about the same as the national rate of 86.7%.

With 31 new-grad programs on our list, that is about 121 new test takers for each one, near the national figure of about 114.

The exam is the same everywhere; the rate tells you about the graduates who tested here, not about your own chances. See pass rates in every state.

Among its neighboring states, New York both pays RNs the most (a median of $109,440) and has the most new-grad programs on our list (60).