Am I Getting Ripped Off??

nightingale, RN · Mar 20, 2006

(1) Do hospitals give different agencies different amounts?
(2) Is my agency getting shafted or am I?
(3) Should I switch agencies?
(4) (I know I can't change travel companies for this ER, right?)

(1) It is my understanding the rates are very similiar.

(2) I do not know.

(3) Yes, but that is up to you. Think ethcal and prudent. If it were me, I would finish up my contract. Do the leg work of researching YOUR best deal and talk with the Nurse Manager after your research your info and see the reaction you would get to changing Agencies. I never stress money if I am renegotiating. Some facilities frown on this and some do not. It is not greed but a good "business decision" and that is how I word it. My ducks are in a row "before" I tell Agency # 1; know that you will probably not be able to use Agency # 1 again...

(4) Yes, you can but feel out your Nurse Manager and the office dept. (Vendor Contracts) that deals with the various agencies... they may be shocked and think it is a horrible thought; other facilites are used to Nurses switching Agencies.

Geeg · Mar 21, 2006

Just remember when negotiating: the companies always act in their own best interest.

NephroBSN, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2006

Just remember when negotiating: the companies always act in their own best interest.

They try to:lol2:

bagladyrn, RN · Mar 21, 2006

OK, so I know on each of our contracts it asks us not to discuss pay and options... At the ER I am currently working at there are 7 travelers. Of course we compare companies, recruiters, pay and benefits. One of the other travelers is making $11/hr more than I am! I get housing and she pays $1000/mo for hers. Another difference is that she gets taxed at minimum wage with the rest as per-diem. Everything else is the same. I am wondering HOW CAN THIS BE???
The way things were explained to me was that the hospital gives my agency a set amount of dollars per hour. The agency then divvies it up between their needs, my housing, other benefits and pay. Do hospitals give different agencies different amounts? Is my agency getting shafted or am I? Should I switch agencies? (I know I can't change travel companies for this ER, right?)

While it's possible your company may be paying you a smaller percentage of their "take" for this contract, there are a couple of things you have to consider before making this conclusion.

First of all, if you think in terms of the typical 13 week contract, the 1000/mo that the other traveler is paying for housing that you are not amounts to about the equivalent of $6.40 a hour in after tax dollars for you. Is she in the same housing as you? Does she get the same furnishings provided? Does she pay any of her utilities and do you? Are your insurance benefits, etc identical and do you or she pay anything for them? All of these are things that come out of that same "pie" and need to be compared to know if your pay rate is fair.

Be careful with companies paying minimum wage and declaring the rest as tax free per diem. This can backfire in a couple of ways: First, the company is only paying social security taxes on the minimum wage part, which can affect you down the line. If you were injured on the job and had to get disability, guess what wage they'd base that on. Overtime - time and half - of minimum wage? Finally, the IRS has figures for the allowable per diems for all areas and if yours exceeds that, especially if you don't have a tax home, it may send up a red flag for them to audit you. This could result in big problems if they decide to do so as it could be interpreted as an attempt to avoid taxes (obviously) on money earned as the amount declared is well below prevailing wages for that profession. You'd be left holding the bag and facing the IRS, not your company.

I know this method of pay is acceptable for a lot of people, but just be sure you know what you are getting into before doing so.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 21, 2006

As stated above, you need to look a the entire picture.

Per diem rate is actually what you can take off of your taxes at the end of the year, it is not an expense that the agency should be billing against you. Then they are also getting that money, and it is yours.

What to look at is how much are you actually coming home with at the end of the month, after deductions are taken, etc. And remember that the agency is going to try to make it look the best for them on paper, not you. You need to consider yourself first. Sit down with a pencil and paper and a calculator and you will be surprised. As well as look at good tax resource book.

JRapha'sRN · Mar 21, 2006

As stated above, you need to look a the entire picture... What to look at is how much are you actually coming home with at the end of the month, after deductions are taken, etc. And remember that the agency is going to try to make it look the best for them on paper, not you. You need to consider yourself first. Sit down with a pencil and paper and a calculator and you will be surprised. As well as look at good tax resource book.

Do you have any good tax resource books in mind? I have been to the traveltax.com site and it is great, but doesn't answer all my questions.

When I "Sit down with a pencil and paper and a calculator" what should I be looking at? I have 6 weeks left in this contract and am trying to figure out my next contract. :uhoh3:

Here is a list of what I already know to look at to get the whole picture:

1. housing

2. utilities/furnishing

3. insurance

4. hourly pay

5. travel/milage allowance

6. license reimbursement

Am I missing anything in that list? Will a company actually tell me the breakdown of my total $$ package before it is broken down into all those categories?

suzanne4, RN · Mar 21, 2006

I would focus more on how your agecny does the breakdown of your pay. Not the specifics as to what you have psoted up there.

First, per diem amount is what the IRS lets an employee take for licing expenses on a dialy basis when they are working away from their legal place of residence. This should not be calculated in any way into your pay, or that means that you are gettin gless money than you think that you are.

Housing should never be calculated or subtracted from your salary, it is above your salary and should be counted like that. The only time that it should be taken from pay is uf you have upgrades, etc. Otherwise, the rate of your pay should not have housing costs taken from it. It is completely a separate entity.

So, if a nurse tells me that her salary is $30 per hour, it should be just that, not that the company is taking x-number of dollars from each hour for housing costs. Only when it is something extra that the nurse requested.

Otherwise, you are not getting housing, you are paying for it out of money that you should be getting.

All of those other things should be on top of your salary, not subtracted from them. But again you also have to consider how an agency is calculating what you are getting, are they telling you more than the going rate in the area and then subtracting the rent, etc., or are they just juggling what they would pay you depending on what you need, such as car rental, or airfare, or?

I have heard of a few people getting less than $500 per week in LA area after deductions were made from their check for one week of work and this is completely wrong. All of the deductions were made by the agency from their pay, housing not in addition to their pay. Just be careful.

eddy · Mar 22, 2006

You should address this with your current agency and give them a chance to fix the problem. It's a karma thing.

The problem could be that their contract rate is currently much lower than the agency that the other person is going through. If you address this with your current agency they will work to get the rate increased. It's to both of your benefit.