Need some reassurance

Minimum wage has nothing to do with the IRS. They wouldn't care if you were making $2 an hour. There is a reason why you have never heard about the IRS raiding migrant worker camps!

The taxability of your compensation is the concern of the IRS. If you have been working away from a legitimate tax home, you have nothing to fear. If you don't have a tax home, you have a huge tax liability from those stipends.

Either way, an audit is a huge hassle. Stop telling agencies about your compensation! It is none of their business. They are only asking so they don't overpay you. Someone might get annoyed enough at what they think you have done and report you to the IRS. Or they could be mad at you for not taking an a assignment with them after being so nice with you.

Recruiters are not your friends and over sharing about your professional or private life has zero upside.

If you would like low hourly and high stipend, that's all you have to say. Most agencies will not adjust those figures though so you are stuck with calling lots of agencies to figure it all out.

Thanks Ned!! I certainly have had a legitimate tax home the entire time and I have been taking company housing or paying rent at every assignment. I really hope I do not get an audit though. What a hassle. I've "only" made 30k of taxable income force the past 2 years. When I was staff, I was making around 65k. So it has been cut in half and I'm sure that is a red flag. Nothing I can do about it now.

Not a red flag. People's income changes for completely legitimate reasons. As has yours. Now if you had made 10 million a year for the last ten years and are suddenly reporting 20,000 in income, the IRS may look into that. But their potential payout is a lot better than to investigate the 10 million taxpayers (I'm guessing) whose income changed by 20,000 between years.

Thanks again :).

You'd think that after 3ish years of consistent traveling I'd have it all down by now. I learn something new about this field everyday.