Nursing Assistants salary in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

The figures

The median Nursing Assistants in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area earns $47,590 a year ($22.88 an hour), according to the BLS OEWS May 2025 estimates (full citation in Sources). The middle half of Nursing Assistants in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH earn between $44,940 and $50,060 a year. At the ends of the distribution, the lowest-paid 10 percent earn $40,190 or less and the top 10 percent earn $59,450 or more. BLS estimates 26,130 Nursing Assistants jobs in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area — 9.664 of every 1,000 jobs in the area, a location quotient of 1.04 (about the same concentration as the nation). That is 1.8% of all Nursing Assistants employment in the United States (1,448,910 jobs nationally). By employment, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH is the #5 largest of the 25 covered metro areas for Nursing Assistants. In aggregate, Nursing Assistants in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH earn about $1.27 billion a year (BLS employment multiplied by the mean wage). At the mean wage, the engine's take-home is $39,218.16 a year, so the aggregate take-home of Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Nursing Assistants is about $1.02 billion. BLS reports a relative standard error of 2.9% for this employment estimate. Ranked by median pay, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH stands #8 of the 25 metro areas covered on this site for Nursing Assistants. By employment, Nursing Assistants is the #15 largest of the 30 covered occupations in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH. Placed against the national distribution for Nursing Assistants, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median of $47,590 falls above the national 75th percentile of $47,220. Across all occupations, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median is $66,620 a year — Nursing Assistants pay is 28.6% below the area's overall median.

Wages in detail

What the wage distribution says

The top 10 percent of Nursing Assistants in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH earn 1.5 times what the bottom 10 percent earn ($59,450 against $40,190). The middle half spans $5,120 — from $44,940 to $50,060. Hourly, the 90th percentile ($28.58) is 1.48 times the 10th ($19.32). In the upper half of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH distribution, the 75th percentile wage of $50,060 takes home $40,220.30 and the 90th percentile wage of $59,450 takes home $47,295.52 — $7,075.22 more net for $9,390 more gross. Against the median take-home of $38,359.22, the top decile keeps 1.23 times as much. The mean wage of $48,730 sits 2.4% above the median: higher-paid Nursing Assistants pull the average up in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH. Among the 30 covered occupations in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, Nursing Assistants ranks #19 by median pay. In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH wage ladder of covered occupations, Nursing Assistants sits between Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators at $47,860 and First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers at $47,090. Nursing Assistants accounts for 1.0% of all employment in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area. The average covered metro employs 21,090 Nursing Assistants; Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH employs 1.2 times that.

Take-home pay on the median wage in Massachusetts

Single filer, no dependents, no pre-tax contributions, paid biweekly, a full year of W-2 wages in Massachusetts; city and local taxes are not included:

At the median, $38,359.22 of the $47,590 gross is kept ($1,475.35 per paycheck) — a deduction rate of 19.40%. The deduction rate moves with pay: 18.43% at the 10th percentile, 19.09% at the 25th percentile, 19.66% at the 75th percentile, 20.44% at the 90th percentile. Between the 25th and 75th percentile wages, annual take-home rises by $3,857.96 on a gross rise of $5,120.

The same engine at the other published points of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH wage distribution:

Across the published distribution, take-home pay runs from $32,783.12 a year at the 10th percentile to $47,295.52 at the 90th — a spread of $14,512.40 of net pay inside one occupation and one metro area.

For scale: across all occupations, the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median wage of $66,620 takes home $52,686.34 a year ($2,026.40 per paycheck, deduction rate 20.92%). The Nursing Assistants median take-home of $38,359.22 sits $14,327.12 (below that area-wide figure.

Multi-state metro area. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH also covers parts of New Hampshire. The take-home estimate above uses Massachusetts rules — the metro area's primary state. If the job is based in another part of the metro area, the state tax changes: see the New Hampshire paycheck calculator.

Run your own numbers

Your own withholding depends on your Form W-4, your benefits and your other income — run your exact figures through the calculator:

Take-home pay for $47,590 in Massachusetts

Against the national median

Nationally, the median Nursing Assistants earns $42,260 a year ($20.32 an hour). The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH median of $47,590 is $5,330 (12.6%) above the national median.

The means rank the area the same way: $48,730 a year in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH against $42,700 nationally, a gap of $6,030 (14.1%).

Set against the whole local market, the Nursing Assistants 90th percentile of $59,450 is 35% of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH all-occupations 90th percentile ($168,090), and its 10th percentile of $40,190 is 109% of the area-wide 10th ($36,760).

Sources and method

Wage data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (released May 15, 2026), retrieved October 27, 2026 — bls.gov/oes. OEWS figures are survey estimates for May 2025, not job offers. Take-home pay is computed by this site's paycheck engine with 2026 federal and state rules; the method, and what the engine does not model, is documented in the paycheck methodology guide. Estimates only — not tax advice.