Low Ball Offers

Specialties Travel

Published

I have been exploring doing travel nursing and have my Michigan License and just received my California License. I have spoken to several agencies but they seem to be giving me super low ball offers. I currently work Per Diem agency and make 50 an hour doing both er and icu which means I can get just about as many shifts as I want with about 11 hospitals to choose from.

For me it just doesn't make any sense to leave for 3 months for 55 to 65 an hour. Am I just getting responses from low tier agencies or just need to keep looking?

$55 to $65 plus housing and per diem and travel pay?

Specializes in Emergency Department.

Pay for California has dropped in recent years, I let my California license lapse because it's just not worth it to me anymore. If I can't make at least $2,000 / week / net after housing costs in California I'm not interested. It seems a lot of contracts I've been seeing are about $1800 gross / week without housing and that's a no from me.

On 1/15/2019 at 11:55 PM, tb_8 said:

I have been exploring doing travel nursing and have my Michigan License and just received my California License. I have spoken to several agencies but they seem to be giving me super low ball offers. I currently work Per Diem agency and make 50 an hour doing both er and icu which means I can get just about as many shifts as I want with about 11 hospitals to choose from.

For me it just doesn't make any sense to leave for 3 months for 55 to 65 an hour. Am I just getting responses from low tier agencies or just need to keep looking?

If you don't mind, could you share which Per Diem agency you're with (you can PM me if you prefer). Could you also share brief info on how it works? Is it consistent? Do/have you get/gotten canceled before starting? If yes, how often does that happen? If it risky moving to California with not much money for a per diem?

Specializes in ICU, CVICU, E.R..

55-65/hour is just your base pay for the first 8 hours, beyond 8 hours it's x1.5 for each 12 hour shift you do. Beyond 40hrs per week you will be paid x2 of your base pay for each extra hour beyond 40hrs/week.

You also have to factor in your housing stipend, travel allowance, etc, which are non-tax deductible.

I am also looking into travel nursing in California and the 2 most lucrative offers I got was for $2800/week in Kaiser L.A. and Adventist in Tehachapi CA. But I wanted to work near my relatives in Fresno and San Jose since they have huge houses, swimming pools, vacant rooms, so I'm still waiting for an offer from a couple travel agents I'm working with to see if they can fetch me anything else above $2 grand/week.

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