What Registered Nurses earn in Carroll County, MD
If you are weighing a move or a job offer, start with $99,550: the median annual pay for Registered Nurses in Carroll County, MD. Spread over a standard 2,080-hour work year, that is $47.86 an hour. Because the wage survey covers the whole Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metropolitan area, the number reflects employers across the region rather than a single town or a single company.
The mean wage is $99,100, which is 0.5% below the median, so pay is spread fairly evenly. The survey counts about 30,930 people working in this occupation across the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Carroll County, MD has roughly 175,321 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Registered Nurses in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $77,600 a year ($37.31 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $125,020 or more ($60.11 an hour). That is a gap of $47,420 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $83,690 at the 25th percentile and $108,030 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.6 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $47.86 an hour or $99,550 a year at the median for Carroll County, MD. Before any deductions, that is $8,296 a month, $3,829 every two weeks and $1,914 each week. After taxes the same job pays $35.67 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Registered Nurses
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Registered Nurses this way: "Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records"; "Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions"; "Record patients' medical information and vital signs"; "Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions".
Job outlook for Registered Nurses
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 3,465,400 jobs in 2025 to 3,660,100 in 2035, a change of +5.6%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 180,800 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 5.2% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: bachelor's degree. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $97,550 for this occupation; the Carroll County, MD median of $99,550 is 2.1% above it.
How pay in Carroll County, MD compares
Compared with the Maryland average
Pay in Carroll County, MD runs $1,319 below the Maryland average of $100,869, a gap of 1.3%. A worker who moved to a better-paying part of Maryland would, on paper, gain that difference before taxes. Within Maryland, the highest median we track for this job is $102,710 in Montgomery County, MD.
Compared with the national average
Nationally, Registered Nurses earn an employment-weighted average of $99,368 across the contiguous United States, so $99,550 in Carroll County, MD is essentially average. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in Carroll County, MD
Among the 552 occupations with published wages in Carroll County, MD, Registered Nurses ranks number 113 by median pay, ahead of about 80% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is Computer and Information Systems Managers at $168,520 a year, which is $68,970 more than the median for Registered Nurses.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Registered Nurses earning the Carroll County, MD median of $99,550, they add up to $25,361. The result is $74,189 of take-home pay a year ($6,182 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $25 goes to taxes and $75 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 25.5%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $83,800. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 22% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $13,350, an effective 13.4% of gross pay, well below the 22% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $6,172 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $1,443. FICA totals $7,616, which is 7.7% of gross pay.
State income tax in Maryland
Maryland income tax on this salary is $4,396 a year, or 4.4% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 33% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $366 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for Carroll County, MD
IRS Statistics of Income data for Carroll County, MD show an average adjusted gross income of $103,658 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 13.1% across all filers. Filers in the $75,000 to under $100,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 9.1%, compared with the 13.4% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in Carroll County, MD
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Carroll County, MD: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $74,189 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Carroll County, MD, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,625 a month ($19,500 a year), and at $2,006 for two bedrooms. For Registered Nurses, a one-bedroom absorbs 26.3% of take-home pay and 19.6% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 3.5% of gross pay for Registered Nurses in Carroll County, MD. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Maryland residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,887 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $634, for $2,521 in total. Gasoline in Maryland averages $3.33 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,539.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $26,996 a year in Carroll County, MD. Subtract that from $74,189 of take-home pay and $47,193 remains, which is $3,933 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 47.4% of gross pay, a comfortable cushion by common budgeting rules.
Local housing and commute data for Carroll County, MD
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Carroll County, MD: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for Carroll County, MD, set beside the Maryland and national medians.
Property taxes in Carroll County, MD
Homeowners in Carroll County, MD pay a median of $3,934 a year in real estate taxes, 4% below the Maryland median of $4,093 and 26% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $434,000, the median tax bill is 0.91% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Registered Nurses median of $99,550, a tax bill of that size would equal 4.0% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Carroll County, MD
Renters in Carroll County, MD pay a median gross rent of $1,427 a month in the Census survey, 16% below the Maryland median of $1,705. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,625 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $434,000, 3% above the Maryland median of $419,900. Median household income is $118,211, 14% above the Maryland median of $103,678, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 16.5% of that income.
Commuting in Carroll County, MD
Workers in Carroll County, MD who travel to a workplace spend an average of 34.4 minutes each way, 11% above the Maryland average of 31.1. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 5.7 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 17.3% of workers in Carroll County, MD work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Registered Nurses afford to live in Carroll County, MD?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $99,550 that ceiling is $2,489 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,625 is $864 under it, so rent fits the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $31.25 an hour; the median for Registered Nurses is $47.86, which is 53% above that mark. Another way to see it: at $35.67 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 10.5 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,006 a month means $1,003 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $7,464 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $54,657.
How fast you can save
At $3,933 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 3 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 6 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Registered Nurses pay in Carroll County, MD
How much do Registered Nurses make per hour in Carroll County, MD?
The median is $47.86 per hour, based on $99,550 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $37.31 at the 10th percentile to $60.11 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Registered Nurses take home after taxes in Carroll County, MD?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $99,550 becomes $74,189 a year. That is $6,182 a month, $2,853 every two weeks or $1,427 a week.
How much tax do Registered Nurses pay in Carroll County, MD?
Total taxes are $25,361 a year, an effective rate of 25.5%: $13,350 federal income tax, $7,616 FICA and $4,396 Maryland income tax.
Do Registered Nurses earn more in Carroll County, MD than elsewhere in Maryland?
No. The local median of $99,550 is -1.3% versus the Maryland average of $100,869, a difference of $1,319 a year.
Can Registered Nurses afford a one-bedroom apartment in Carroll County, MD?
A one-bedroom costs $1,625 a month against take-home pay of $6,182, which is 26.3% of take-home pay. That meets the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $2,489 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Registered Nurses in Carroll County, MD?
About $3,933 a month ($47,193 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $26,996 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Carroll County, MD at the 30% guideline?
$31.25 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $19,500 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Registered Nurses is $47.86.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Maryland rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.