Urgent advice needed for first assignment

[Trickster122]

I feel like I have a great agent and she is quick to respond to my calls and everything but I"m concerned about my pay for this assignment. It would seem both this agency and the other one I'm working with say they do 20 base rate of pay with the allowances they pay you tax free to make your effective rate of pay. I understand the concepts and I've seen NED RN talk on here about how overtime wages should be negotiable. My agent i'm working with is telling me that "law requires we pay 1.5 pay rate but that comes out of our pockets, we charge the hospital a flat rate for any hour you work so the extra 50% comes out of what we are paid, the hospital doesn't pay us overtime rate if you work overtime" as being the reason they refuse to give me anything over that 1.5 which would be 30/hr based on the set rate. Also tried getting other bonuses to compensate for it but all they did was increase my housing stipend and lower my per diem weekly pay to compensate. As if I couldn't see what they were doing. I have until Monday to take this assignment. It went from having trouble getting an interview to landing my job the same day I had one. Oh and one last thing they say my assignment starts on 18th but I have not got licensed there yet, they claim it takes 2 weeks max for Arkansas and i'd have it by the time I left. I'm skeptical after stories I've heard about arriving and not having license to work. So should I put my 2 weeks notice into work now so I'll be ready and risk it. Or wait til I have my license/approval for it, then put a 2 week notice in? Oh the woes of traveling the first time. I won't even get into my frustrations of finding decent insurance with 500 deductible for me and my wife.

[NedRN]

The industry average gross profit margin is currently 24%. The rest of the bill rate is completely paid out to the traveler in compensation and benefits. Now some agencies may be over 30% gross profit margin (and others lower than average) but no one makes 3 to 4 times what travelers get paid, you have the ratio inverted. The bill rate would have to be $200 an hour to get 4 times what the traveler makes. Typical bill rates are closer to $60 an hour. Most travelers make between $40 and $50 an hour in total compensation (as done by PanTravelers calculator method), which if you do the math is around 75% of the bill rate.