Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop the Job Esteem Scale for Korean Nurses (JES-KN) and verify its validity and reliability. Methods: Preliminary items were based on the attributes and indicators elicited from a concept analysis study on Korean nurses’ job-esteem. The final preliminary tool for the main survey was confirmed through the content validity test of 10 experts and preliminary survey of 20 hospital nurses. The final preliminary scale was used on 350 hospital nurses in the scale testing phase for the main survey designed to test the validity and reliability of the scale. Results: The final scale consisted of 28 items and 6 factors, these factor explained 66.6% of the total variance. The correlation between the total score and factors ranged from .64 and .84, validating that each sub-factor is suitable to explain job esteem. The correlation coefficient between this scale and the Job Satisfaction Scale for Clinical Nurses ranged from .41 to .70, and the internal consistency for the scale using Cronbach’s a for the total items was .94. Conclusion: The JES-KN is a valid and reliable tool that reflects the reality of clinical sites accordingly. The JES-KN may well be used effectively to assess and evaluate the job esteem of Korean nurses.