Too low??!

Published

Hi all!

What do u think about this offer from Aya? It is for Med Surg in So Cal. I am not a first time traveler ~I have had two previous 13 week assignments with another agency that paid a lot more than Aya is offering:

Weekly Housing: $548.08

Weekly Incidentals/meals: $84.00

Taxable hourly wage: $23.33

Total weekly pay for 36 hours $1472.00

With Insurance remove Incidentals: $1388.00

The recruiter is giving me the whole travel nurses don't make as much as they used to and this is a top rate schpeel

What do u guys think??? Thanks !!

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Tele.

Hi Irissage,

I'm not a travel nurse (yet!) but I am a Med-Surg nurse working in SoCal. :) So for what it's worth I can tell you about my salary and rent for comparisons sake.

I live in a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment in San Diego and pay $1,500 in rent. So the housing stipend seems reasonable to me. I spend $50/week on groceries, not including eating out.

The weekly wages seems awfully low to me though. Even as a new grad I was making $10/hr more! But housing in Southern California is so incredibly expensive, and if you are getting that covered by your travel agency then it seems to even out. If you really want to be living and working in Southern California it seems like a fair deal to me.

Where are you moving from and where in Southern California is your contract?

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Specializes in L&D, Mother/Baby.

I've heard rates are lower in SoCal cuz it's a highly desired destination for travelers, but I have no idea what's average. Use the paycheck calculator on PanTravelers website to give you a better idea of total compensation, especially when working with different agencies.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

For what it's worth, Aya has a very very bad reputation. Their offer to you confirms it.

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I found Hypodermic Highway online and it is basically a travelers nurse best friend. You can see what other nurses say about salary and the company they are with. I found it one day when I met a traveling nurse. She said she loved it. Good luck. What its worth, in Texas 23.00 would be a little low.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

highways hypodermics is supported by travel nursing agencies and anyone can vote on that site. The information is not reliable IMHO.

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Oh! Learn something new every day! Thank you for that bit of information.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

Half of the agencies on the top ten list have bad reputations.

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Yea, I wondered about that. I mean, Flexcare is like no 1 on the HH site uhhh....Homegirl here dont think so :)

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

AYA is #1 on the HH top 10 list. ???

Their reputation for treating nurses poorly was so bad that they had to change their name from Access to AYA.

There are many other sources online for healthcare staffing agency reviews.

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