Florida Nurse Makes $25K a Month Working in California — Here’s How She Does It
- Memwanesha Daniels, RN lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and regularly flies to Oakland, California, for work.
- She earns more than three times her local pay, sometimes reaching $25,000 per month with overtime.
- Daniels began supercommuting in 2017 and says the financial benefits outweigh the travel demands
- She hopes her story shows how nurses can use flexibility to pursue financial stability and career growth.
When most people think about commuting to work, they imagine traffic jams or long drives. For registered nurse Memwanesha Daniels, commuting looks very different. Her “daily drive” involves a cross-country flight.
Daniels, who lives with her boyfriend and three children in Jacksonville, Florida, regularly travels to Oakland, California, where she works as a nurse in the San Francisco Bay Area. She calls her lifestyle “bicoastal nursing,” and for her, the pay difference makes the long-distance travel worthwhile.
“I heard about that and I told myself, ‘I’m going to work in the Bay Area,’” Daniels said.
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Making the Trip
Daniels says she first started supercommuting to California in 2017, with some breaks in between to work locally in Florida. Today, she continues to split her time between both coasts, often flying from Jacksonville to California several times a month.
Her schedule varies. Sometimes she works a few days at a time; other periods, she stays for two-week stretches to maximize her income. Most of her flights leave early in the morning, between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., and she arrives in the Bay Area between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time. Once she lands, she heads to her Oakland apartment to rest before her shift.
“I love to fly, and I love to travel,” Daniels said. “Flying is relaxing for me.”
How Supercommuting Pays Off
The financial rewards are what make the cross-country commute worth it. Daniels says that working in California allows her to earn more than three times what she could make in Jacksonville. She typically earns over $100 per hour and even more during night and weekend shifts or when working overtime.
“I can save a lot and it gives me a different type of life than what I would have trying to make things work in Florida,” she said.
@nurse_memwa Here’s my pay breakdown as of now ! Raise coming next month so price going up ! 🤑🤑🤑 #bicoastalnurse #nurseinfluencer #bayareanurse #nursepaytransparency #nursepaycheck ♬ original sound - Nurse Memwa | Bicoastal Nurse
At times, Daniels says she has earned up to $25,000 a month by stacking 12-hour shifts and picking up overtime, usually totaling around 16 shifts in that period. She estimates that her monthly commuting costs, including flights and her Oakland apartment, add about $2,000 to her expenses.
“Paying an extra $2,000 a month to make three times the amount I would make in Florida is very much worth it,” she said.
Balancing Work and Family
When she is in California, Daniels focuses entirely on work. When she returns home to Florida, she switches gears to family life with her three children, who range in age from two to thirteen.
She stays connected through FaceTime while she is away. “I’m the one crying like, ‘Oh, I miss my family,’ and they are just fine,” she said. “They don’t care because they’re used to it.”
Despite the distance, Daniels says her schedule allows her to spend more uninterrupted time at home. “When I’m home, I’m fully clocked out of work,” she said.
Supercommuting: A Growing Trend in Nursing
Daniels calls her unique work arrangement part of her long-term plan. “It’s very lucrative,” she said. “This is a retirement plan for me and I always end up back in California.”
She is considering moving her family to California full-time but says that regardless of where she lives, she intends to continue nursing in the Bay Area.
Supercommuting has become more common in recent years. A 2024 Stanford study found that the number of Americans traveling over 75 miles each way for work increased by 32 percent since the pandemic. Flexible schedules and high regional pay differences are allowing more professionals, including nurses, to consider this model.
🤔Nurses, Would you ever consider supercommuting for higher pay, or is the distance too much of a trade-off?
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