Why Do Agencies Feel It Is Okay Not To Pay Their Nurses

NedRN · Mar 13, 2021

There are a number of reasons why agencies do this. One is just bad human behavior: they felt jilted and betrayed and blamed you (and sometimes it is the traveler's fault).

Second is they can view the incident as "lost profit" and view withholding pay (and sometimes even reversing the last direct deposit paycheck) as recovering a small part of those lost profits. Lost profits is usually not a legitimate concept when it come to wages that may be covered by your contract (usually contractual language is written to protect the agency, not the traveler though) and is certainly covered by most state labor laws.

Third is that some of most traveler contracts involve effectively compensation paid in advance, such as housing and per diems and travel. So agencies understandably want to "claw back" these expenses which do not have the protections of labor law. And all the traveler is left with is their usually low hourly rate (which in some states after a termination - all that is required to be paid is legal state minimum hourly pay)!

Some of these things are expressly illegal depending on the state and contract language. Unfortunately agencies have a number of advantages. Sort of like a property management company that refuses to give you back your damage deposit, withholding wages from travelers shifts the legal onus to the traveler to start a legal process. And that is just not worth it to most renters and travelers who feel damaged but just move on. That is not the correct way to handle contractual or wage issues, it is supposed to be up to the supposedly damaged party (the agency) to pay the traveler appropriately and then sue in court for damages. But that is not worth it for agencies either, so they use these other tools.

Sometimes they threaten to damage traveler's credit rating if the traveler does not pay them for what the agency believes is owed to them. This is not legit either, but the way the Fair Credit Reporting Act works in real life is that you can protest, then the agency confirms they did not make a mistake, and that is the end of it for credit bureaus. Then you would have to file lawsuits in court against the offending agency to correct the record.

So this is just what agencies can do, but not all agencies use these tools other than the most egregious cases of traveler malfeasance. Most contracts (9 out of 10) complete successfully, and only a small number of the ones that do not (which number includes contracts made but never started too) end up with these issues. I say small number because there is no real way to know, but only based on anecdotes I read from travelers, both from forums and case assists by PanTravelers.

Certainly you did the right thing by checking with the state labor board. But their effectiveness varies widely from state to state. Some labor boards (if they even take your case) can only recover minimum state wages for the balance of unpaid hours - forget about your contractual compensation.

Checking with a labor lawyer who practices in the affected work state or agency incorporation state (who usually provide an initial free consult) is also worthwhile. Labor lawyers for workers (versus employers) are easily found in heavy union states, not so much in states with no unions. But there are some interesting twists in state laws: for example in California, you can only recover through their labor board actual contracted compensation. But through private labor lawyers (very plentiful in California, as common as ambulance chasers), you can recover double damages.

Otherwise, it is not a bad decision to just move on. Hopefully by naming the bad actor agency on social media with enough details to show bad faith not based on your own actions.

Also, when something bad happens on assignment, keeping a good business relationship with the agency (suggesting you are a valuable traveler and might continue to create revenue for them) can allow for better outcomes and the ability to negotiate rather than just fall off a cliff. Some agencies will specifically waive contractual penalties if you take another assignment with them.

How agencies treat you does depend on how valuable you are to them (better paying in demand specialties are of course represent more value). If you have worked with the same agency for a year or more, you have proven value and in a just world, you will have more negotiating power. If you are a first time traveler and a facility boots you from your first ever assignment, the agency is likely to just cut their losses and decline to work further with you.

By the way, this does bring up a general point. I'm an experienced traveler and tend to see myself and other such experienced travelers as free agents, treating agencies as commodities and not caring much about brands. But some travelers work only for one agency, sometimes for decades. Such loyalty is rewarded in a number of ways, including entrusting such a traveler with more important and better paying clients (preserving and enhancing an agency reputation with facilities). And when such a traveler does run into a problem, they are far less likely to be treated as you were treated. So working for just one agency can be a good thing (tried it myself for 4 years when I became a traveler), even if you might make marginally more money as a "free agent".

Mind you, I do get asked a lot to name "good" agencies. I can't. The best is to treat all of them as "bad" to have a good business relationship with recruiters (who you should not treat as "friends", they are not). Far easier for me to name historically bad acting agencies whose corporate culture seems to be anti-traveler over many years. Same with some facilities who are widely known to boot travelers at the drop of a hat (harder to name as issue are often unit manager by unit manager) in part because of the perspective of the facility HR. I've done contracts at both, and have had issues, but I knew what I was getting into before taking them for a better or at least more informed reward/risk decision.