Weekend/Holiday pay for travel RNs?

[brainsarecool, RN]

Hey ya'll - do you get any incentive pay for weekends or holidays as a traveler? I talked with one agency that said they don't do extra pay for weekends and thought that was strange, but I have no clue what's normal. Thanks in advance!

[NedRN]

Overtime only. And if you are taking an assignment because of overtime, you need to negotiate your overtime rate separately. Seriously. The way compensation packages usually work is that you take a low hourly taxable rate, and large housing, per diem, and travel stipends that are tax free. These stop at 40 hours of work, so getting time and a half after 40 hours actually represents a drop in your real hourly compensation. A very few agencies adjust your overtime rate to something approaching fair, but it is very rare, and even then they are usually raking in excess profits on your extra work. As all their fixed costs such as housing were taken care of in the first 36 hours.

Some assignments are weekends only, but no extra pay. Billing is flat rate by agencies (extra for overtime though) so there is no reason to incentive compensation and cut into their profit margin. Permanent staff is a whole different world with far more pay inequities than travel - which is much closer to compensation based on true supply and demand than the "real world".