Asking a higher rate

Specialties Travel

Published

Is it acceptable for a travel nurse working an assignment in places such as San Francisco, or Boston, to ask for an hourly rate that is at least on par with what the staff RN's make?

I see contracts advertised with hourly rates far less than what staff makes… around the $40 range, when I know the staff make up to $15-20 more an hour.

Is that asking too much?

That is PCU float position in SoCal. And I priced checked with other companies. Which company do you work with that offers great SoCal pay?

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Southern California does pay less. But the PanTravelers calculation should be higher than that. It is not just about money of course but you can try Emerald, Fastaff, and MSSI off the top of my head in order of likely jobs.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

Are you including the housing stipend in that total pay? Seems like a lot of people that think the hourly wage is low are not adding in the tax free money as part of the hourly to get a real view of what their true hourly wage is or is equal to.

lets just say its a $3000 stipend/or equivalent if you take housing

divided by 30 days in the month

That is $100 a day(talking 7 days a week which you don't work)

If you want to do it hourly and your working 36 hours a week..... That makes it...

$700 per week

divided by 36 hours(what I work)

That's about $19.50 an hour.

Then add that number on top of your "real taxable rate"

Say your at a taxable rate of $30/hour

add $19.50

your equiv rate is $49.50

Even further, add your meal/incidentals of $40/day or $240 a week

do the same math dividing $240 by 36 hours....

add that $6.70/hour

Now your looking at an equiv rate of $56.50

Add you travel reimbursement to it(agencies do).... The number gets higher.

If you really want to go deeper, take the tax free and do the math on what your saving in taxes and figure out what you would have to actually be getting paid hourly to match the pay check you receive if your were getting taxed on the full $56/hr as opposed to $30/hour.

Make sure you are looking past the numbers to the end of the math equation. If you are truly looking at $40 an hour, that sucks. I am guessing you missed something in your math.

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Yall making it so much more complicated that it has to be. Just take the sum to tax free money. Divide by 36. Add it to base rate. I don't care about hrly rate. I care about take home per week. If I can bring home more money doing per diem then there's a problem. I think travelers should research the local job market. Traveling is hard. Little orientation floated frequently etc. Why put yourself thru that only to make less money? But that's just me. And I have no problem telling these companies that it's not worth it. Yes tax free money is awesome but you still have to keep up a taxable home. So these low offers aint gonna work! I'll keep my happy butt at home and work local per diem!

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I am having the same issue. Thought I was making good money out on the west coast then saw the union-posted pay rate of the staff nurses on the intranet. I make about the same as them when it comes down to it but I pay rent in 2 places so it's kind of ridiculous!

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That is why you get a tax break for business travel, you are duplicating expenses.

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But if the cost of keeping up taxable home is greater than tax breaks. Then I lose money. That's why when these companies come at me with low numbers I get upset. They alway push the tax free money. Well yea its nice. But they forget I have to keep up two homes! The companies have used the tax free money to lower our wages. Try paying rent SoCal where its easily $3k month. And a house back home. And health insurance etc. it's getting ridiculous! I don't work for free! I'm just saying. There's some great hospitals in CA. Hospitals that pay great and are unionized and offer great benefits. Nurses don't sell yourself short!

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So these low offers aint gonna work! I'll keep my happy butt at home and work local per diem!

If it works for you, great! But in many places, per diem is not exactly great. Less orientation than a travel position, some hospitals trying to lock you in just in case for shifts and then calling you off, random calls while you are sleeping, less than full time pay.

But if the cost of keeping up taxable home is greater than tax breaks. Then I lose money. That's why when these companies come at me with low numbers I get upset. They alway push the tax free money. Well yea its nice. But they forget I have to keep up two homes! The companies have used the tax free money to lower our wages. Try paying rent SoCal where its easily $3k month. And a house back home. And health insurance etc. it's getting ridiculous! I don't work for free! I'm just saying. There's some great hospitals in CA. Hospitals that pay great and are unionized and offer great benefits. Nurses don't sell yourself short!

Lose money? That is not my experience as a traveler. In 20 years of travel I've purchased a house cash and have enough in the bank to retire. You have the dumbest reasons not to travel I've ever heard. Health insurance? Don't you pay that no matter where you work as staff, per diem, or traveler? Rent in SoCal is $3,000? Poppycock! I suppose you could rent a house for $5,000 too, but of course you won't make such choices. It is a large country, you don't have to go to SoCal if the numbers don't work out for you. Why are you posting here? Are you saying that 20,000 travelers are all wrong?

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Look at the SoCal market right now. So not good! I can post links for housing. It absolutely is high right now. You have been doing this 20 yrs. you have seen the good times. Most of us have not. Them days are over! And most contracts I've had I've barely made enough to live. And that's with finding roommates on craiglist!

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Per diem is really taking off in some areas. All my friends back home do it. And they love it. They make more than I do as a traveler. They keep telling me to come back home. But I've always wanted to travel. Don't think that I'm stupid though. Every offer I get I compare it to other jobs in the area. And I compare it to my local market back home. This is a business. And I will always make the best business decision for myself. If I can make more money back at home doing local per diem then yea I'm gonna keep my butt at home. The have to give us an incentive to move all the way cross the country to work for them.

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Oh and I def lost money last year. I can send you a copy of my tax return and my bills if you like. My last paystub showed amt of tax free money. Well my taxable home cost more than that. So therefore I lost money. You know everyone always says travel nurses make bank. But thats not really true. Maybe some do. But I don't and my traveler friends dont. We dont have expensive cars or take expensive vacations. We are just trying to get by and pay back student loans.

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And I never said not to travel. I like traveling. But its a business. All I'm saying is to know your options. And know your worth.

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