National Wages

• The top 10 percent of CRNAs from across the United States earned more than $174,982 per year as of April 2011, according to Salary.com. The bottom 10 percent of CRNAs earned annual wages of less than $138,519. The middle 50 percentile of CRNAs earned between $146,498 and $165,584 per year. Salary.com placed the median annual income for CRNAs at $155,261.
  
  

Experience

• A candidate must hold a bachelor's degree, be a licensed registered nurse, have at least one year's registered nursing experience in an acute-care environment and complete a graduate-level program in anesthesiology that awards at least a master's degree before she's credentialed as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. The CRNA's level of experience after being certified can significantly impact her income. CRNAs with more than seven years of experience may assume the role of chief nurse anesthetist. In this capacity she leads and directs a staff of CRNAs. The median annual income for chief nurse anesthetists was $174,754 as of April 2011, according to Salary.com.
  
  

Regional Wages

• Salaries for CRNAs can be affected by the geographic region in which they practice. As with many occupations in the medical profession, those who worked in major metropolitan areas tended to earn higher wages than those who worked in rural communities. CRNAs are of special importance to rural communities, where they're often the only source of anesthesia service. The median annual income for a CRNA who practiced in Huntsville, Alabama, was $152,156, while his counterpart in Los Angeles, California, earned a median annual income of $170,477 as of April 2011, according to Salary.com.
  
  

Considerations

• Wages for CRNAs have steadily risen since 2005, according to the Merritt Hawkins & Associates "2009 Review of Physician and CRNA Recruiting Incentives." The report revealed average base salary offers during the 2005/2006 period to be $156,000. Offers increased during the 2006/2007 period to $164,000. Offers during the 2007/2008 period averaged $185,000 and increased to $189,000 during the 2008/2009 period.