According to NYSNA, dues equal 1.6% of your regional annual pay rate.
NYSNA might say their dues only cost a small percentage of your income every month, but over time, that can really add up. According to NYSNA’s most recent financial report, full-time represented employees pay 1.6% of their regional annual pay rate.1
As an RN working in Queens2, you could be paying up to
a year in dues.3
Over the life of a three-year contract, you could be on the hook for
Full-time rate is 1.6% of the average starting salary in the region where you work.
Part-time/per diem rate is 1.2% of the average starting salary in the region where you work.
In 2022, NYSNA voted to affiliate with National Nurses United (NNU)—the “parent union” for multiple state-based nurses unions. As a result, the financial activities of NYSNA, other state-based nurses unions, and NNU are heavily intermingled. There is little transparency into how each of these groups spends members’ dues money, and there’s no clear way to determine whose dues fund what.
What is known is that the union is a big business supported almost entirely by member dues.
In the 2024–2025 filing cycle, NYSNA collected nearly $65 million in dues, according to its financial reports on file with the U.S. Department of Labor.5
Meanwhile, NNU reported bringing in over $21 million in “per capita taxes” from affiliated unions. They collected this tax despite only spending $3.6 million on representing members. That means they only spent 17% of the money they collected in dues on representing their members.
In the same 2024–2025 filing cycle, NYSNA and NNU reported spending a combined $9.4 million on political activities, often channeled through various political action committees, making it difficult to track which issues and which politicians the unions jointly support.
Six-figure catering bills
Las Vegas casino stays
Limousine rentals
Whether or not you support the same candidates or causes the union does, your dues money could fund those campaigns.
On average, the union spend about 28% of members’ dues on direct representation for members, while NNU spends 17%. The rest goes toward union overhead and union administration, including pay and benefits for union officers and staff.
NYSNA has more than 170 employees on its payroll, while NNU reports more than 90, although there is some overlap between the two.
1 New York State Nurses Association Form LM-2. 038-970 (LM2) 03/31/2025. (2025).
2,5 https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=918245&rptForm=LM2Form
3,4 New York Nurse, Spring 2025, @15
6 U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards – 2024 Forms LM-2
