When people think of travel nursing, oftentimes they immediately think of the financial advantages that it offers. In general, travel nursing is a way for nurses to make more money than they otherwise would at a staff job. There’s a lot more to that conversation that I talk about in my post on “do travel nurses make more money than staff nurses?” – check that out if you’re interested. In this post, I want to talk a bit more about how travel nurses are paid and what some of the expenses are that they should expect.

how are you paid as a travel nurse?

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. The majority of a travel nurse’s pay is often the housing stipend. This ends up being a great financial advantage if the travel nurse qualifies for the stipend to be untaxed. At that point, you’re put into a significantly lower income tax bracket than you would be if your full income was being taxed.

The fact that the housing stipend can go untaxed is significant, though there are some limitations to this. You must have a valid tax home, be “duplicating” your living expenses, be working far enough away from your tax home, and not remain working in one place for too long. Read more about the definition of “tax homes” with regards to travel nursing (and the rules) here.

THE PAYCHECK BREAKDOWN

A travel nurse is often paid weekly and will receive their hourly pay (taxed) as well as their “meals & incidentals” – aka the housing stipend (untaxed) – within the same paycheck. Most often travel nurses are contracted to work 36 hours (three twelve hour shifts) per week. Anything after 40 hours is overtime which will be paid at a higher overtime rate. This may depend somewhat on your agency so check with them and your contract thoroughly to understand your particular situation.

The housing stipend is limited to however many hours the travel nurse is contracted to work. It is paid out per shift in a sense, though it will be lumped together in one paycheck per week. For example, if you get sick and work only 24 of your contracted 36 hours, you not only lose your hourly pay for the day you miss, but also one third of your housing stipend. On the other hand, if a travel nurse works overtime, they do not receive any extra housing stipend for these shifts, though they will be paid at a higher overtime rate.

OVERTIME AND BONUSES

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. Though travel nurses do receive overtime pay, they do not qualify to receive any bonuses for working overtime. Their overtime is set and limited to whatever their contract defines it as. There is also no shift differential for travel nurses; working nights often does not have a pay advantage. Picking up a night shift as a day shift travel nurse will not raise the pay rate (or overtime rate) at which you’re paid.

BENEFITS

Travel nurses have the opportunity to receive benefits through their travel nurse agency, though 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. This can become complicated because a travel nurse doesn’t have total control over when they get their next contract. So theoretically depending on their resume, the market, and their agency, they could struggle to find their next contract fast enough and lose their insurance through no fault of their own.

Read more about travel nursing benefits here.

what are some of the expenses that travel nurses have?

FURNISHED HOUSING

When out on contract, travel nurses often opt to find furnished housing, as it often isn’t logistically or financially practical to move with all of your things every few months. Typically, 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 often take what you can get. This can lead to travel nurses having to pay rents that are sometimes quite high, though utilities and things of that nature are almost always included with furnished housing which is a plus.

TAX HOME

As I mentioned before, in order for the housing stipend to be tax-free a travel nurse needs a valid tax home to show that they are “duplicating” their living expenses. Essentially, you have to pay for a house/apartment/room in your home state (as your permanent residence) on top of the home you rent while on contract. If you go the route of renting a room, you may also have to pay for a storage unit for your things if they don’t all fit in the rented room or apartment. 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. We were able to calculate how much money we save having the stipend be tax free to make sure that this would be financially worth it.

For example, say you save having to pay approximately $1000 in taxes per month by having the housing stipend go untaxed. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. This is because when the stipend goes untaxed it makes it look like your income is much lower than it actually is, meaning your income that is taxed gets taxed at a lower rate. Therefore (in this example), as long as you pay less than $1000/month for your tax home, you’re ultimately still saving money by maintaining it. If you do not have a qualifying tax home, you’re also not eligible to receive any kind of travel reimbursement or deductions, so that’s something to factor in as well.

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 often not high enough to cover the expenses of nursing license and certification renewal, though they do help.

TRAVEL

Travel expenses are also inherent to travel nursing and unfortunately 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 nurse’s expenses would be to get to their next contract. For example, Dan’s last contract was in Phoenix, Arizona and his current contract is in Charlotte, North Carolina. His agency offered $500 towards our travel expenses to get here, but in reality it cost a lot more than that just between lodging and gas.

TIME OFF

Travel and the time in between contracts is an important thing for travel nurses to plan and save for. Most people don’t take off a few weeks from work every three months or so, and if they do they may have some paid time off to cover some of it. Travel nursing offers no paid time off, so if you have to drive across the country in between contracts or want to visit family for a couple of weeks, you have to factor that into your budget intentionally. There are also some time requirements (approximately 30 days to be safest) that you must reside within your permanent residence/tax home per year to maintain it.

Most people take time off and have to plan for that lack of pay, but I just wanted to mention it here because it can be especially relevant for travel nurses. Some of the unpaid time off is simply getting from contract to contract or maybe your start date was pushed back a couple weeks. Some of it is your own choice to go home to visit family and/or maintain the legality of your tax home. We’ve found it quite tempting to take time off in between contracts to visit family, which for us has been every three months since we haven’t renewed any contracts. We have to make sure we budget carefully for that.