FIRST travel assignment...afraid I have been low balled!!!

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Hello fellow travelers!!! I need your help...this morning I accepted a first time travel assignment in North Carolina. The recruiter from Supplemental explained the pay etc but it was so confusing that I could tell he was getting upset trying to explain it to me. He is telling me that I am going to bring home less than 1100 a week and that includes my housing stipend. I don't understand how that is more than what I am making at my full time job? I thought travel nursing paid better than your average full time position in a hospital? I am worried I made a big mistake taking the offer! I can always change my mind but would need to inform him sometime today. I am not trying to find other people's take home pay but I have been a psych nurse for over 25 yrs and the pay they are offering me is less than I made 20 yrs ago!!! Also, has anyone worked in the Virgin Islands??? They too are offering me a position....Thanks!!

Hello fellow travelers!!! I need your help...this morning I accepted a first time travel assignment in North Carolina. The recruiter from Supplemental explained the pay etc but it was so confusing that I could tell he was getting upset trying to explain it to me. He is telling me that I am going to bring home less than 1100 a week and that includes my housing stipend. I don't understand how that is more than what I am making at my full time job? I thought travel nursing paid better than your average full time position in a hospital? I am worried I made a big mistake taking the offer! I can always change my mind but would need to inform him sometime today. I am not trying to find other people's take home pay but I have been a psych nurse for over 25 yrs and the pay they are offering me is less than I made 20 yrs ago!!! Also, has anyone worked in the Virgin Islands??? They too are offering me a position....Thanks!!

I am a nurse with 18 months experience. I have taking a position on a rehab unit in Nebraska. My take home pay is $1200 that does not include housing which they are taking care of as well as our rental car.

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Travel nursing is not always high paying. Supply and demand you know. If you do not understand it - don't do it until you do.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Peds, Ortho, LTC and MORE.

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You will need to register (that is free) but they do have a travel nurse pay calculator you can use to see what your take home pay might be.

Specializes in MS, ONCO, Geriatrics, HH, HS.

I would say that if you have 25 yrs experience that is crappy offer! I was new nurse with only 1 yr experience and brought home after taxes $1500-1600 per week that included my weekly housing stipend that was non-taxed!

I am a nurse with 18 months experience. I have taking a position on a rehab unit in Nebraska. My take home pay is $1200 that does not include housing which they are taking care of as well as our rental car.

What travel agency are you with that is paying for a rental car?

samb0105, who do you travel through?

Specializes in Level II Trauma Center ICU.

Different assignments/locations pay different rates. I was quoted a take home of just under $1200/wk for a position in Ft. Wayne, IN that included housing stipend, but that area is also notorious for low nursing pay. Higher paying areas tend to pay higher wages.

I think I understand it, OP. Okay, here's what I think. First, you have to realize who you are replacing. Many places it's not only that they have a hard time finding nurses, they can't get experienced ones and don't want to pay new grads (they possibly leave). I don't know what the new grad pay is where this job is but if you took that wage an hour and times it by 12 (hrs) and times it by three (assuming it's like full time) and you get an amount for a week, then times that by four. That's your monthly rate. So, 1100 bucks is 4400, which out of that includes what you would pay for a place to stay (maybe like 700 in a small town). That's still like 3700 bucks that you have left compared to like a new grads 2500 in a month and then they have to take living allowance out. So, theirs is like 1800 after housing. You would make almost 2000 more than them due to your experience. I don't think they are comparing the travel wage to what you are making now; more the wage in the area you are going to. Some facilities cap experienced nurses pay at a certain amount (like non travel nurses living in a given area they are capped many times to prevent them from paying out the behind for exp. nurses). I mean, you can't expect a small town to pay a travel nurse the wages that are paid in a big city. Otherwise, it's not saving the facility anything; they might as well get a new grad that maybe would stay in the area.

That's my understanding of it anyway. I could be so off, my apologies. I think that's how they get that travel nurses make more.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Right, I think travel is basically like any other kind of agency job, with maybe more benefits, depending on the travel agency. Remember, everything is about supply and demand. Right now, agencies are getting less work because more SAHM RNs have gone back to work because of supplemental income being needed, husband lost his job, etc. Agency nurses have also gone and taken permanent positions to avoid ending up with no job and no income. So more hospital employees means less needs for agency/travel.

That being said, salary anywhere is determined by where you are, as well as your experience.

If I take an assignment in NYC, I would expect to make much more than if I am working in rural Georgia. Cost of living is obviously much more in NYC, so you need more money to live. Same goes for California, DC, etc.

And different hospitals have different rates, even if in the same city. Again, depends on supply vs. demand. I could choose to take a position at a more prestigious hospital that may pay more OR less because they A)Have more people wanting to work for them, so they can offer lower pay until someone takes the bait B)Have more funds available to give higher pay.

Now all that being said, if working in the SAME hospital, I would expect you to get higher pay with your 25yrs experience than I would with my 3yrs. But then again, if you work in psych, and I get offered a position in ICU for instance (wouldn't happen, just hypothetical ;) ), then I would expect the pay difference to be less significant.

Make sense?

All of your responses are great but how do you negotiate higher pay when they TELL you what you are going to make? I mean they have it all right there and throw it at you as if you are suppose to be thankful...I am don't get me wrong but I just have this gut feeling that something isn't right about this assignment! I have had other agencies tell me their nurses won't even go back to the facility that I am going to! I'm just really leery about this whole thing...and he pushed, pushed, pushed so much that I have ONE day to get to North Carolina, find my way around and be at work the next morning at 7am!!! I live 16 hrs away!!!

Tell your recruiter to go and pound sand.

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