New Brunswick Nurse Pay Rates

Notes

• •Rates are hourly as printed in Appendix A of the agreement. Annual figures here are the hourly rate × 1,957.5 hours (37.5 hours a week × 52.2), the agreement's own full-time year; the agreement itself prints hourly rates only.
• •The agreement was signed on 23 October 2025 and expires on 31 December 2027. It stays in force after that until a new one is signed. Increases from 2025: 2% on 1 January 2025 and 1 July 2025; a 4% resourcing adjustment on 1 November 2025; and 1.125% on each 1 January and 1 July in 2026 and 2027.
• •Covers registered nurses (Classes A, B and C), nurse practitioners (Class D), licensed practical nurses and graduate nurses at Horizon Health Network, Vitalité Health Network and EM/ANB (the Extra-Mural Program and Ambulance New Brunswick), including public health, community mental health and flight nurses. Nurse managers and nurse supervisors have a separate agreement, not shown here.
• •You move up one step (A to F) for every 1,957.5 hours: regular paid hours for full-time nurses (including scheduled holiday hours, but not overtime), hours worked for part-time, temporary and casual nurses. Part-time and full-time moves keep the same step. A promotion pays at least 5% more, up to the new class's maximum.
• •Retention rates: with 15 years of active RN or LPN registration you are paid from Appendix B-1 (1% above the base table), and with 25 years from Appendix B (5% above). The higher table replaces the base rates; the two don't add together. It applies from the date you reach the milestone once you apply with proof.
• •Full time is 37.5 hours a week, averaged over 4 weeks. An 8-hour shift pays 7.5 hours (unpaid 30-minute meal); a 12-hour shift on a compressed schedule pays 11.25 hours (unpaid 45-minute meal). Full-time pay is leveled, so each fortnight pays the same and hours are reconciled later.
• •The evening and night differentials go with the type of shift rather than a clock window: every hour of an evening or night shift. On 12-hour schedules only the night shift gets a differential. The weekend premium is paid on every hour of a shift with more than half its hours between 19:00 Friday and 07:00 Monday, and the agreement does not stop it being paid on top of an evening or night differential.
• •Temporary and casual nurses receive a 13% hourly benefit premium on all hours worked instead of vacation, sick leave and holidays. Part-time nurses have no percentage in lieu: their vacation, sick leave and holidays are pro-rated.
• •Overtime (time and a half, or time off) is paid for work over 7.5 hours in a day (11.25 on 12-hour schedules), over 37.5 hours a week averaged over 4 weeks, beyond 7 consecutive days (4 on 12-hour schedules), with less than 16 hours off between shifts (12 on 12-hour schedules), outside scheduled hours without 72 hours' notice, on a scheduled day off, and on one shift of a double. Casuals get overtime only past 11.25 hours in a day (or past 7.5 hours when the longer day isn't their choice, on 8-hour schedules), past 37.5 hours a week averaged over 4 weeks, or on one shift of a double. Banked overtime above 75 hours is paid out if not taken.
• •Paid holidays: New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, New Brunswick Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, plus any other day proclaimed federally or provincially. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not holidays. On 12-hour schedules full-time nurses get 2 paid days off for every 3 holidays.
• •A shift is paid at holiday rates in full when half or more of its hours fall on the holiday (00:01 to 24:00), and not at all otherwise. Overtime and holiday pay are never both paid for the same hours. A holiday on your day off gives another day off within 60 days, or pay at the overtime rate.
• •Stand-by on a holiday (joint interpretation, February 2026): when half or more of the stand-by block falls on the holiday, one normal shift (7.5 or 11.25 hours) is paid at the holiday rate and the rest of the block at the stand-by rate. A call-back during it still has its own 3-hour minimum.
• •Vacation is 1.25 days a month in the first year, then 15 days a year, rising to 20 days at 9,787.5 hours of seniority and to 25 days at 39,150 hours. Sick leave builds at 1.5 working days a month, up to 240 days.
• •Source: Agreement between The New Brunswick Nurses' Union and Treasury Board, Group: Nurses, Part III, signed 23 October 2025, expires 31 December 2027, published by the New Brunswick Nurses' Union — nbnu.ca (NBNU collective agreements: nbnu.ca)