Licensed Practical Nurse Salary in Oregon 2026,
$80,470 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $80,470 a year, or $38.69 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 25.0% above the national median of $64,400. The middle half falls between $73,040 and $90,690 and the full band runs $64,000 to $98,990. The 10th percentile sitting essentially level with the national median is the clearest statement of Oregon's premium for this occupation.

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro at $83,510, with Bend at $83,260 and Grants Pass at $82,410 close behind, then Albany $79,610 and Salem $79,600. About four thousand dollars separates the whole table, and the fact that Grants Pass in rural southern Oregon nearly matches Portland tells you how hard non-metropolitan employers must compete for a scarce workforce.

No. Oregon is not a compact state, so a multistate licence issued elsewhere does not authorise practice here. A practical nurse moving to Oregon must obtain a licence by endorsement from the Oregon State Board of Nursing before starting work, and the board's processing timetable is a real scheduling constraint that employers and agencies build into start dates.

Because Oregon draws the practical nurse scope comparatively narrowly against the registered nurse role, which over time has shifted most acute bedside work to RNs. The result is a location quotient of 0.52 — barely half the national employment rate — with about 4,260 posts concentrated in long-term care, assisted living, correctional health and outpatient clinics rather than in hospitals. Scarcity in those remaining settings is what supports the state's unusually high pay band.

Predominantly long-term care and assisted living, outpatient clinics and physician practices, correctional health, and home and community-based care. Acute hospital practical nursing is comparatively limited in Oregon because of how the scope is drawn. Correctional health in particular is a route toward the upper part of the band, along with charge responsibility in long-term care and specialty competence in wound care, infusion and dialysis.

It looks paradoxical but the mechanism is straightforward. Oregon's scope definition removed practical nurses from much of acute hospital work, so the profession contracted — a location quotient of 0.52 against the national rate. What did not contract was demand in long-term care, correctional health and community settings, where an ageing population is pushing volume up. A shrinking supply meeting steady demand raises the price, and the $64,000 tenth percentile is the result. The strategic implication for a practical nurse considering Oregon is that the money is real but the settings are specific: this is not a state in which to plan an acute hospital career at the LPN level.

It reports wages as paid, so night, weekend and overtime differentials — substantial in long-term care and correctional health — are inside the number. It must be read against Oregon's tax position: a 9.9% top income tax rate plus Portland-area local income taxes above certain thresholds, offset by no sales tax at all. And with about 4,260 practical nurses in the state the sample is modest, covering settings with genuinely different pay structures from assisted living to state correctional facilities.

Setting first: correctional health and senior long-term care roles above assisted living and clinic work, which is roughly the distance from the $73,040 twenty-fifth percentile to the $90,690 seventy-fifth. Specialty competence second — wound care, infusion and dialysis skills are what long-term care employers compete for. Charge responsibility third, which along with night and weekend rotation is what reaches the $98,990 ninetieth percentile. Geography contributes about four thousand dollars and, unusually, rural Grants Pass and Bend are near the top of it rather than the bottom.