Certified Nursing Assistant Salary in Florida 2026,
$37,510 Median | BLS Data by City

Florida certified nursing assistants earn a median $37,510 a year, $18.03 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $36,040 and $42,310 and a full range of $34,350 to $46,790. That is 11.2% below the $42,260 national median, though Florida takes no state income tax out of it.

Naples-Marco Island at $40,260, then North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota at $39,950, Sebastian-Vero Beach-West Vero Corridor at $38,530, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach at $38,010 and Jacksonville at $37,760. The whole table spans about two and a half thousand dollars, so relocating within Florida for CNA pay rarely covers the cost of moving.

Through the Florida Board of Nursing, within the Department of Health. You must pass the Florida nursing assistant certification examination covering written and clinical skills. Florida is unusual in permitting candidates to sit the examination through routes other than completing a formal state-approved training programme, including on the basis of relevant education or experience, which makes entry here more open than in most states.

Because so much of it is funded by Medicaid. Florida's long-term care sector is enormous — about 96,960 nursing assistants at a location quotient of 1.05 — and skilled nursing facilities are constrained by reimbursement rates in what they can pay. Add an open certification route that keeps the candidate pool large, and the result is a floor of $34,350 and a ceiling of $46,790 with very little in between.

As a bridge, yes. The pay ceiling within the role is low — the state 90th percentile of $46,790 is reachable within a few years and there is little beyond it — but Florida's large healthcare sector, its many LPN and RN bridge programmes and the state's absence of income tax make it a practical entry point into nursing. Most people who do well financially from a Florida CNA start do so by not staying a CNA.

Reimbursement, not the labour market. The majority of Florida's nursing assistant employment is in skilled nursing and long-term care facilities whose revenue is dominated by Medicaid, and those facilities cannot pay above what reimbursement supports regardless of how hard staff are to recruit. That is why the state's distribution is so compressed and why the metros that pay most — Naples-Marco Island at $40,260, North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota at $39,950 — are the ones with substantial private-pay assisted living.

It is an annual wage in an occupation with very high turnover and a great deal of part-time and agency work. Many Florida CNAs hold positions at more than one facility, and OEWS counts each employment relationship separately, so the $34,350 tenth percentile substantially reflects part-time rosters. The $18.03 hourly figure is the more meaningful comparison when weighing an offer.

Shift and setting. Evening, night and weekend differentials are the most accessible route above the median, and hospital work generally pays better than skilled nursing. Beyond that, restorative aide duty and — where the employer's structure allows — medication technician responsibility are the only meaningful in-role steps. The $46,790 ninetieth percentile is close to the practical ceiling of the occupation in Florida.