Average starting salaries for certified registered nurse anesthetists fell about 1% year over year, to $286,250, according to a Sept. 16 white paper from AMN Healthcare.
The “2026 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives” report includes data from a representative sample of the 1,293 permanent physician and advanced practitioner search engagements conducted by AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026. AMN Healthcare used base salary or guaranteed income only, and did not include production bonus, signing bonus, allowances or benefits.
Across all positions, CRNAs saw about a 1% decrease in average starting salary. Nonacademic positions had the greatest decrease of 17.84%, while academic positions had a slight increase in starting salary.
Here are the starting salaries for CRNAs by setting:
| Average starting salary 2025-26 | Average starting salary 2024-25 | Year-over-year change | |
| All positions | $286,250 | $289,000 | -0.95% |
| Academic | $280,000 | $279,000 | 0.36% |
| Nonacademic | $292,500 | $356,000 | -17.84% |
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