New grad RN jobs and nurse residency programs in Utah

A quarter of Utah RNs earn less than $38.49 an hour ($80,050 a year) and half earn more than $40.67. First-year offers tend to sit near the lower figure, since hospital pay scales usually rise with experience.

That puts Utah 32nd of the 50 states and DC for median RN pay.

Pay is bunched together in Utah: only $2.18 an hour separates the 25th percentile from the median, a narrower gap than in most states.

Salt Lake City-Murray employs 14,070 RNs, 51% of the state's total, so most RN jobs in Utah are there.

When people search for new grad RN jobs in Utah, the places they name most often are Utah County, Ogden, Logan and St. George.

The Utah Board of Nursing and Certified Nurse Midwives licenses RNs in Utah.

Utah is in the Nurse Licensure Compact. If Utah is your primary state of residence, the license you earn after the NCLEX can be multistate, valid in every compact state. Nurses who live in another compact state can work in Utah on their home state's multistate license.

Of its neighboring states, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming are in the compact; Nevada is not, so working there means a separate license.

Utah's exam page covers the authorization to test and does not describe a permit to work before the NCLEX. Ask Utah's licensing office before you plan on one.

What we read: Utah Division of Professional Licensing, Nursing Exam Information, October 2026.

29 of the 50 states and DC do allow it in some form. See every state's rule.

In 2025, 4,368 first-time, U.S.-educated candidates took the NCLEX-RN for a Utah license and 79.1% passed, 7.6 points below the national rate of 86.7%. That ranks Utah 50th of the 50 states and DC.

Against the 12 new-grad programs we track here, that is about 364 new test takers per program, well above the national figure of about 114. Part of that is how few programs we track here, so look at new-grad RN jobs outside residencies as well.

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, Nevada pays RNs the most, a median of $103,670. Arizona has the most new-grad programs on our list (37).