Ok friends I am in the process of stepping away from travel. Well sort of. I have the opportunity to take a per diem job at Kaiser in NorCal. My pay rate will be $93/hr with differential of 7.20/hr for PM shift and 11.40/hr for night shift (they do 8 hr shifts here. I mostly plan to work PMs but figure I will probably do a few double once in a while so I gave that info too. Now at first I heard the pay and I was like wow im going to make big money...BUT. I wanted to compare what we make vs what per diem makes so bring in the Pantraveler calculator and I find that I will not be making that much more d/t taxes. Although it is still more.
Current contract same hospital but as traveler. 13 week contract x 36 hours/week (12 hour shift with OT after 8.
$35/hr x 36
$245/week m&I
$935.41/week lodging stipend
$300 travel allowance
=78.35/hr
$2820.49 gross week
$2183.49 net/week (This is almost exactly what I make each week)
Now for the new per diem job that I just accepted, they get paid bi weekly and I wasn't sure how to account for that in any way other than to divide by 2 for the weekly pay. Also only 8 hour shift so assuming I only get 32 hours a week. The staff said in busy times we can get more but hours aren't guaranteed for per diem but 32 hours is pretty doable even in low times. The calculator I found stated taxes for this area and my salary range to by 21% so that determined the Net.
$93/hr + $7.20 diff =$100.2 x 32 hours
$6413 gross (biweekly) divided by 2= $3206
$4626 Net (Biweekly) divided by 2= $2313
So as you see it seems like the rate was going to be much better but in reality tax free stipends are worth a lot. I figure if it gets really slow I can still take another travel job too as I am still going to keep my tax home for a while. I know eventually I will have to give it up but I haven't been in this area long yet. I have no plans to buy a house here so we will still be living in our RV for some time. Just wanted to show you comparisons for anyone that wonders. The big mystery here is this is a non benefit job so not sure what my insurance will cost but that will not be till next year.