Yes. Blog post done. Now wouldn’t that be easy?

When it comes to pay the most obvious answer is that travel nurses make more than staff nurses. If you look a little deeper though, you’ll see that there’s a lot of nuance to this that makes it not quite that simple. In this post, I’m going to talk about what pay advantages and disadvantages travel nursing has to try and address the question of “do travel nurses make more money than staff nurses” more completely than the simple answer of “yes.”

housing stipend

As I’ve talked about before, travel nurses typically make the same hourly rate as the staff nurses at whatever hospital or facility they travel to work at. Oftentimes, there’s a “crisis staffing” bonus added to this somewhere around $5 or so per hour, though staff nurses are typically eligible for this during times of crisis as well. The difference in pay between travel nurses and staff nurses is largely (if not totally) due to the housing stipend.

Travel nurses are “contracted workers” who are assumed to be duplicating their living expenses (assuming they have a valid tax home). Therefore, they receive a generous non-taxable living stipend that is often equal to or higher than their hourly pay. This makes it possible for travel nurses to make even twice what a staff nurse makes, though most often we haven’t seen the difference be quite that high. The fact that the housing stipend is non-taxable is significant, though there are some limitations to this (you must have a valid tax home, be “duplicating” your living expenses, and be working far enough away from your tax home). Having half of your pay go untaxed means you will likely be taxed at a lower rate/be placed in a lower income bracket than if you simply made that amount of money but all taxable.

overtime and bonuses

The housing stipend is limited to however many hours the travel nurse is contracted to work, typically 36 hours. If the travel nurse works overtime, they do not receive a higher stipend, but they do receive overtime pay as it is defined in their contract. However, most agencies have rules about how much overtime a travel nurse is allowed to work and some even require permission from the agency itself before the nurse actually works overtime. Staff nurses don’t have this problem typically and can make more money by picking up extra shifts more freely and regularly than a travel nurse may be able to.

Oftentimes, especially during today’s nursing shortage, hospitals will offer bonuses to nurses if they pick up extra shifts or extend their shifts on top of the typical overtime pay. Travel nurses do not receive any of these bonuses, and their overtime is set and limited to whatever their contract defines it as. They also don’t receive raises or anything like that which staff nurses can receive for various reasons, like loyalty/seniority. There is also no shift differential for travel nurses; working nights often does not have a pay advantage for travel nurses. Travel nursing therefore places far more limits on how much a (travel) nurse can make, compared to the typical situation of staff nurses.

benefits

While travel nurses do have the opportunity to receive benefits through their travel nurse agency, it’s not always the most stable option. In order to maintain continuous coverage, for example with health insurance, you have to stay on with the same travel nurse agency. This is a bit of a sacrifice because travel nursing is such a competitive field. It’s advantageous to work with multiple agencies to try to get the best contracts available to you.

Each agency has their own rules when it comes to “time off,” but in the past Dan has had a three week rule. This meant that he couldn’t take off more than three weeks in between contracts without losing his employer-sponsored health insurance. A travel nurse doesn’t have total control over when they get their next contract. So theoretically depending on the market and their agency, they could struggle to find their next contract and lose their insurance through no fault of their own.

expenses: last-minute furnished housing

On top of potentially missing out on some benefits or having to pay for things like private health insurance, there are a lot of expenses inherent to travel nursing that justify the housing stipend. Most of the time, hospitals will not hire a travel nurse more than a month or so in advance of when they would like the nurse to start working. This means that travel nurses are almost always in the position of having to find housing last-minute, on top of the fact that it needs to be furnished. I’m sure some travel nurses find a way to make it work without furnished housing, but I honestly can’t imagine how or at least how it would be worth it.

Furnished housing is more expensive than unfurnished, for obvious reasons, and finding housing last minute means you take what you can get. This often leads to travel nurses having to pay rents that are quite high, perhaps higher than they would find if they were a staff nurses who didn’t need last-minute furnished housing. Travel expenses are also inherent to travel nursing and not always covered by the travel nursing agency. Typically, an agency will cap what they’re willing to contribute far below a realistic estimate of what a travel nurses expenses would be to get to their next contract.

expenses: tax home

As I mentioned before, in order for the housing stipend to be tax-free (a huge part of it’s benefit and appeal) a travel nurse needs a valid tax home to show that they are “duplicating” their living expenses. This IRS rule/policy necessitates that a travel nurse have a home of some sort that they either own or for which they pay fair market value if renting, in their state of permanent residence. To put it plainly, you have to pay for a house/apartment/room in your home state on top of the home you rent while on contract. You may also have to pay for a storage unit for your things if they don’t all fit in your tax home. We rent a room in New Hampshire as our tax home/permanent residence and also pay for a large storage unit as our things don’t all fit in the room.

licenses, credentials, and continuing education

Travel nurse agencies vary widely on what they offer in terms of licensure reimbursement and things of the like. Some offer nothing at all and some offer a flat amount that can go to travel expenses and/or licensure reimbursement. These flat amounts are extremely limited and often do not come close to what a travel nurse would actually need to cover these things. In Dan’s experience, working for a hospital directly as a staff or per diem nurse offers much more in terms of these benefits. I’m largely speaking from our/his experience here, so if you know of any travel nurse agencies that are more generous in this regard, definitely leave it in the comments!

conclusion

To sum it up, if you’re comparing a travel nurse who works 36 hours per week to a staff nurse at the same hospital in the same position who works 36 hours per week, the travel nurse will always make more. If you compare the maximum amount a travel nurse could make in a week picking up overtime to the maximum pay a staff nurse could make picking up overtime (and receiving typical bonuses for doing so), the gap narrows considerably. If you factor in the added expenses inherent to travel nursing (namely last minute, furnished housing) the gap also narrows.

Travel nurses make more than staff nurses the vast majority of the time, but especially now that the market has calmed back down post-pandemic, the difference isn’t as dramatic as a lot of people think.

I hope this post helped to flesh out the nuance behind the obvious answer of YES to the question “do travel nurses make more money than staff nurses?” Let me know your thoughts in the comments!