Overtime rates

acern72 · Jul 23, 2014

I never really thought of it in those terms. My thinking is OT is additional earnings. They aren't going to repay stipend if you pick up OT, stipend technically covers all 7 days of the week.

NedRN · Jul 23, 2014

Yes, typically you are taking a pay cut for overtime on a low base rate. Here is a rant I wrote last week in another thread where the topic came up:

Yes, I always negotiate overtime separately. The math is simple, but no one ever seems to do it. If you use PanTravelers calculator, you will find that total compensation on most travel assignments is between $40 and $50 an hour (very similar in fact to many staff jobs when you add in the benefits). Thus fair OT would be between say $50 and $75 an hour right? (just like staff) That means if your base salary is $20 an hour (because of all those tax-free benefits you are getting) and they want to pay you $30 an hour overtime, you have actually taken a pay cut over regular hours where you were getting paid $40 to $50 an hour!

Pretty darned sad, and a shift bonus of $100 doesn't really compensate if you do the math. The fact more and more agencies are starting to pay these shift bonuses is a sign that something is wrong. But it takes more like $200 or $250 shift bonus to bring OT into a good range. While agencies are profiting mightily from overtime, they are doing themselves a disservice. If they provided a proper incentive for working overtime, travelers would soak it up, making the agency a fair profit, and making both the travelers and the facilities happier. But trying to explain the math to your typical recruiter (or traveler for that matter) is rather frustrating.

Let me try an example from the agency perspective. Let's say the agency is receiving a bill rate of $60 an hour for your work (pretty middle of the road). They pay you in total compensation $40 an hour for your hourly of say $20, housing, per diem, travel pay, and health insurance. All those extra costs other than your hourly are paid for in full after 36 or 40 hours of work. Now for overtime, they are getting $90 an hour, and paying you $30 an hour overtime. This give them a pure profit of $60 an hour while you have received a pay cut from $40 to $30!

Pretty incredible! While overtime bill rates do vary (time and a half is traditional, but more and more hospitals are realizing how much profit is being made by agencies), you can see that agencies can still profit even if the bill rate stays at a flat rate for overtime (happens but is very rare indeed) and a fair overtime rate is paid. Remember, all agency expenses were paid for the first 36/40 hours of work, and a fair profit made. That is all they were expecting, so any overtime is an unexpected bonus for them, and pure profit from our work.

My recommendation is to fight for a fair overtime rate if you want to work overtime, and the hospital said overtime is available in the interview. But if you don't want to work overtime, or there is no overtime available, forget about it and save your negotiation bullets for something else. But if you have a chance to make big bucks working your butt off, you need to make an equitable arrangement with an agency so you both profit.

As far as recommended agencies, none that I or anyone else suggests will increase your odds. The most important factor for successful is your ability to communicate with your recruiter. If you don't have good communication, obviously you will have no ability to negotiate. Study after study shows that both parties will be happier if there is some give and take, not just take it or leave it. But the ability to negotiate is just one benefit to good communication. I cannot possibly predict how well you will do with a recruiter (nor can any matchmaker). The only way to find out is to call lots of agencies, talk to lots of recruiters, and pick the best, say, five to work further with that you connect with. Along the way, if you have any hot buttons like overtime, housing, or locations for example, you can further triage agencies and recruiters to come up with the best fit for you.

stella789 · Jul 25, 2014

YES! Great rant NedRN. I could not agree with this more. The agency is only guaranteed what we are contracted for. If we (the traveler) decide to work OT, the agency should be bending over backwards to give us incentive to work OT because that just means that much extra in their pocket.

This is something I have been going over and over with in my head for a while now as I have a friend with an OT rate that is a complete joke (AMN of course). The only reason she even took the assignment was to get her first contract under her belt and will be moving on from them once it's done.

I always take my weekly take home and divide it by my guaranteed hours and guage things by my "regular time pay". So if my OT rate is lower than my "rate" of my guaranteed hour, then no deal. Why should I bust my hump on my feet 60 hours a week only for the agency to keep everything I've earned?!?

marvelmom · Jul 25, 2014

I'm just curious to know where my math is wrong. If you make 450 per shift and you have a base pay of 17/hr that puts you working 26.5 hours per shift by my calculations? 450 dollars per shift / 17 dollars an hour = 26.5 hours in a shift. 26.5 hours x 3 shifts = a 79.5 hour work week at base pay. That doesn't seem right because that would mean you're working almost 40 hours a week overtime.

The way my job pays us is really wonky so correct me if I completely misunderstood that.

marvelmom · Jul 25, 2014

On second thought, maybe I just don't understand stipend.

NedRN · Jul 25, 2014

If you want to know your true total pay per hour, you need to add all your compensation. For travelers that includes base pay, per diem, housing, and travel. It may also include health insurance, car rental, and a completion bonus. To be completely fair, it should also include the employer's share of payroll taxes paid on your behalf (social security, workers comp, and unemployment). All together, most traveler's total compensation is between $40 and $50 an hour. So $30 an hour for overtime is a pay cut for us and about a tripling of profit for the agency.

PanTravelers has a nifty calculator to help work out the math, and even an article on how to negotiate overtime.