Travel Nurse Offer. Yea or Nea? Anyone with experience please help!

Trauma Columnist · Jul 19, 2017

Moved to more specific forum

NedRN · Jul 19, 2017

The only way to discover if you are being offered a fair market value in a given location for your experience and skills is to shop around. One offer in isolation means nothing to you or us.

Offers can vary dramatically in how they are structured. PanTravelers offers a free calculator that crunches offers and allows comparing offers on a level playing field. One last step, if you plan on maximizing your take home pay by finding your own housing, look up local costs on Craigslist. Sometimes a lower paid offer ends up netting more in the bank because of variances in local housing markets.

I don't know why you might think that a pitch to beat any offer makes some agency better. To me, it means that they will never offer their best pay up front.

But forget about pay for your first assignment. You priority should be finding a good recruiter to find an appropriate assignment (anywhere) that you can complete successfully. Once that is on your work history, you will be more competitive and automagically start getting better pay. High paying assignments often pay well for a good reason. Your first assignment will also allow you to judge how well you might adapt to a tougher assignment.

kwilz08 · Jul 19, 2017

Recruiter here - I'd be leary of your hourly taxable wage. I never recommend going below the $20/hr mark. There are a lot of agencies out there that will offer very low taxable wages so they can maximize your tax free stipends. From everything that I've heard from the travel community anything under $20/hr can be a red flag for Uncle Sam as well as causing issues when applying for loans or social security in the future.

I've been seeing more and more on travel groups commenting about social security and lower taxable wages. Ned what are your thoughts on the taxable wage amount?

NedRN · Jul 19, 2017

Frankly, all the risks are on the agency. Wage recharacterization is the issue but very difficult to prove. I think paying travelers differing stipends at the same location would be solid evidence of recharacterization at an agency audit.

An agency should be on solid ground to pay the maximum GSA stipends or some fixed percentage thereof as long as you can still pay at least minimum hourly law taxable on top. Of course, you have to go with the guidelines of your CFO, CPA, or tax lawyer although that may make you less competitive.

On the traveler side it is pretty darned clear. The higher the percentage of stipends, the more you take home. The sole risk is that all of that will be taxed if the traveler's tax home is not solid if audited for any reason. That could get very costly indeed. Audit risks in our income bracket have never been lower but still not worth of cheating of course.

I don't know where the $20 an hour trope comes from. Certainly the IRS doesn't see the hourly wage unless a contract is revealed to them in an audit. All they see are quarterly withholdings which are meaningless. I've heard TravelTax say you cannot pay a health professional minimum wage, but even $20 an hour is not a prevailing wage. As the major NATHO tax advisor, an agency such as yours certainly has an incentive to go with now "standard" guidelines to reduce their audit risks. What sucks there from an agency POV is that dinky agencies steal your best travelers because your take home pay suffers by comparison. Business is tough!

KristinaMichael · Jul 27, 2017

I've been traveling now for few years and personally think that's a low pay package. But if this is your first assignment with this company they sometimes won't give you a large portion of the bill rate. The best advice I can give is find a recruiter you really like and trust! And remember at all times they may have your back but that doesn't mean the company does. Good luck

icugypsy15 · Jul 28, 2017

Experienced traveler here. I think the hourly rate is too low. Most reputable agencies won't go that low. 20$ hourly is my safe zone. I also think your pay package is to low even considering it being your first contract. The only exception would be working with a great agency and going to a facility you know you will enjoy as well as build your resume. After you complete your first contract then you can negotiate more. Good Luck.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Jul 28, 2017

Medical Solutions in Cincy pays really low. Find another company.

Gary Mendoza · Jul 28, 2017

Nurse4lifeNC , that seems like a bit low imo, but you have to decide if it's worth it to you.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is scout of the housing costs for any area before accepting a contract. There have been times where the housing was going to cost me so much I would have only made $800 / week NET and that's not doable for me.

Second piece of advice I will give you is calculate your weekly NET, then minus your housing costs (utilities included) and decide if that's acceptable for you.

So...

1. Check out actual housing options for the area and get their costs.

2. Calculate your weekly NET minus the housing and the utilities and decide if that is enough for you.

I will say that depending on the area of the country I'm working I will not take less than a certain amount. California I will not take less than $2,000 / week NET and Georgia I will not take less than $1,500 week NET (these prices are not for trauma centers, they have to pay me more).

taurus099 · Aug 1, 2017

How many years old is this thread? I only ask because $15 an hour seems ridiculously low....I get offers for $40-$45 am hour plus $1000 weekly stipend....the lowest I've seen was before I got my RN, when I was an LPN, and even then the offer was like $25 an hour....now with all of that being said, I have to mention I've never actually accepted the offers and gone on an assignment....that's hopefully about too change as I plan to begin traveling within the next 30 days....someone please explain these rates...I know it can vary depending on state, etc...I'm in Las Vegas...assignments have been all over, mostly small rural towns in states like North Dakota. Alaska..

NedRN · Aug 1, 2017

$15 plus what other compensation? You cannot take a single number in isolation without considering the rest of the compensation package.

jive turkey · Aug 7, 2017

I see NC in your name, where was this offer made? For what Unit? Certain regions of the country are going to consistently have lower offers (i.e. the south) but this can vary based on the unit. I'll reiterate what others have said. Look at the big picture, calculate everything and do the math. Here's a generic example (which can vary)

Suppose that net offer for 1360 a week is in your home state (assuming North Carolina) at at a facility 80 miles away. You rent a budget motel for 2 nights a week (assuming you work day shift) which costs lets say 70 bucks a week total. take home is now 1290. Take another 10-20 off for gas to and from that city, now you take home say 1270, oh and you get to go home on your days off (nice).

Then there's an offer in Oakland for 2000 a week. You have to move there. Now there's the cost of driving cross country or flying. You can rent a room from somebody, but not for no 70 bucks a week. If you want a furnished weekly/monthly studio all to yourself that'll be significantly more expensive in that area. You may end up taking home less than the job close to home.

So the main point is your added costs to take the position have to be considered, not just the offer alone.