How much???

[jodyangel]

So I'm about to try my first assignment traveling. After talking with my recruitor, I'll bring home $1200-$1300/ week. But then I have to pay for a hotel room and eat food ect out of that salary. So I could end up with $900/ week.

How does that make travel nursing better than my staff job money wise. It's Less!

[NedRN]

The IRS has no access to hourly wages: it sees only total income reports. If rich people have significant fluctuations in their annual income, this can trigger an audit. By itself, that is not possible with taxpayers in our income range. Nor is discovering low wages in an audit an issue for a traveler. Your friend had other issues uncovered during an audit triggered for other reasons. While I don't know what the trigger issue was, I can make a good guess that it was discovered during the audit that she did not have a valid tax home and thus was assessed for back taxes, interest, and penalties for all the tax free money she accepted illegitimately including housing. This can potentially add up to as much as $50,000 over three years of earnings.

Most banks consider all sources of income when considering loans. Some don't, and you just move on to another lender. Nurses have well known and above average annual earning potential, and travel companies changing the compensation scheme does not change annual earnings. Workers comp will take into account all sources of compensation and routinely do just that for travelers, even including supplied housing. Private insurance is available as well for those concerned (think AFLAC). But you are indeed correct about unemployment: it will only consider taxable income. For travel nurses, unemployment eligibility is unlikely except for short periods between contracts so that is not a major concern.

I admit I've never heard of travelers being paid $8 an hour before, usually the bottom is more like $10/12 an hour. But that doesn't change the audit risk one bit absent a legitimate tax home.