Travel Nursing Salary and Pay

Travel nurses negotiate new pay packages much more frequently than the average professional. This is because travel nursing jobs are short-term, each contract is different, and each agency has its own way of doing things. Therefore, it’s important for travel nurses to know that the the “bill rate” for a travel nursing job is perhaps the single most important variable in determining a pay package. Read more

If you’ve discussed travel nursing pay with multiple agencies, then you’ve most certainly found that different agencies compensate their travel nurses in different ways. Some companies pay larger tax-free stipends than others. Some companies offer rental cars while others don’t. Some companies offer furnished one bedroom apartments while others will only offer an Extended Stay hotel.

The various individual differences can be difficult to keep track of. However, there are a couple of general differences that travel nurses should be acutely aware of. We’re going to discuss one of those general differences here, the difference between flexible compensation packages and rigid compensation packages. Read more

As we’ve noted time and again on this blog, bill rates are the single most important variable in determining travel nursing pay. The bill rate is the hourly rate that agencies can charge their client hospitals for the travel nurse’s time.

There are many different categories of bill rates. The overtime category is one of the more complicated bill rate categories and we’ll cover it in detail here. Understanding the issues at play with overtime bill rates will help travel nurses understand the limitations faced by agencies when determining “extra hours” pay which will help travel nurses with their compensation negotiations. Read more