Nurse Practitioner Salary in Hawaii 2026:
$135,570 Median

A median $135,570 a year, or $65.18 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 2.5% above the national median of $132,300. The middle half falls between $124,530 and $165,810 and the full band runs $106,450 to $174,350. The statewide median matches the Urban Honolulu figure exactly, which tells you how much of the state's nurse practitioner workforce is on Oahu.

Maui, by a wide margin. Kahului-Wailuku reports $164,210 against Urban Honolulu at $135,570 — nearly twenty-nine thousand dollars, and close to the state's 90th percentile of $174,350. Those are the only two metros BLS publishes, so the Big Island and Kauai are unrepresented, but the Maui figure is strong evidence of what neighbour-island employers must pay to fill a clinical post.

Yes. A nurse practitioner licensed by the Hawaii Board of Nursing assesses, diagnoses, prescribes and manages care without a required physician collaboration or supervision agreement, holding prescriptive authority in their own right. In a state where a great deal of the population lives a long way from a physician, that authority is the practical basis on which neighbour-island and rural primary care is delivered.

No. Hawaii is not a compact member, so a multistate registered nurse licence issued elsewhere does not authorise practice here. A nurse practitioner relocating to Hawaii must obtain registered nurse licensure from the Hawaii Board of Nursing by examination or endorsement before advanced practice recognition follows. Employers, particularly on the neighbour islands, build the board's processing timetable into start dates as a matter of routine.

A location quotient of 0.43 across about 550 posts means Hawaii employs the profession at well under half the national rate, which is unusual for a state with full practice authority and genuine primary care access problems. The most plausible explanations are the licensure barrier — no compact membership, so every arrival must be licensed here first — and a small local training pipeline. With 40.1% projected national growth, the honest reading is an under-built market rather than a saturated one.

Because a nurse practitioner is the hardest clinical post to fill on an island that has no medical school, no large training pipeline and no adjacent labour market. A Maui clinic recruiting a nurse practitioner is competing against Honolulu, against the mainland, and against the practical difficulty that a candidate must obtain Hawaii licensure first because the state is not in the compact. Nearly twenty-nine thousand dollars over the Honolulu figure is the price of clearing all three obstacles. For a nurse practitioner willing to practise away from Oahu, it is the largest single pay decision available in this state, and it comes with the full practice authority to work relatively independently.

With about 550 nurse practitioners in the state the sample is small and the percentile estimates are correspondingly less stable. The code covers every population focus — family, psychiatric mental health, acute care — which pay differently. As a wage and salary measure it under-represents the independent practice income that full practice authority permits. And the whole band must be read against the highest cost of living in the United States, where a 2.5% premium over the national median is not a premium in real terms at all.

Island first, and it is worth nearly twenty-nine thousand dollars: Kahului-Wailuku at $164,210 against Urban Honolulu at $135,570. Population focus second, with psychiatric mental health commanding the clearest premium in a state with acute behavioural health access problems. Practice model third — full practice authority makes independent practice possible, and it is the most plausible route to the $174,350 ninetieth percentile. Specialty and acute care roles fourth. Seniority contributes least, given how much of this band is explained by geography.