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Travel Nurse Pay Calculator

Travel nurse pay is a bundle, not a salary: a taxable hourly base plus housing and meal stipends, for a fixed number of weeks. This calculator takes the numbers from your own recruiter’s offer and splits the package into the figures that decide whether it is a good deal.

It is for nurses comparing travel contracts, or comparing a contract against a staff job. It does not quote market rates. The values it opens with are placeholders, so replace every one with your actual offer.

Decode your pay package
Type in the numbers from your recruiter’s offer — every figure below recalculates.
$2,058
Weekly gross
$57.17
Blended hourly
$26,754
Contract total (13 wk)
51%
Tax-free share

A staff RN at the Texas median ($46.14/hr, BLS May 2025) grosses about $1,661/week at the same 36 hours — all of it taxable, usually with benefits and retirement match. Your package grosses $2,058/week, but only $1,008 of it is taxable wages.

  • Stipends are tax-free only if you maintain a legitimate tax home (real expenses at a primary residence you return to). No tax home → the IRS treats stipends as wages.
  • The low taxable base follows you: overtime, sick pay, 401(k) match, disability, and mortgage applications key off the taxable rate, not the blended rate.
  • Missed-hour clauses can claw back stipends week by week — read the contract, not the ad.

How the calculator decodes a pay package

  • You enter five numbers from your offer: the taxable base rate, hours per week, the weekly housing stipend, the weekly meals and incidentals stipend, and the contract length in weeks. You also pick a state to compare against.
  • Taxable weekly pay is the base rate times your hours. Weekly gross adds both stipends to that. The blended hourly rate is weekly gross divided by hours, the contract total is weekly gross times the number of weeks, and the tax-free share is the stipends as a percentage of weekly gross.
  • The comparison line multiplies the median staff RN hourly wage for your chosen state, from a committed snapshot of federal BLS data, by the same weekly hours. Staff pay is all taxable and usually comes with benefits, which the comparison notes but does not price.
  • The tool never fabricates market rates. The federal wage survey counts travelers as registered nurses, so there is no official travel nurse salary to publish, and the prefilled inputs are placeholders rather than typical offers.
  • It is upfront about the taxable-base tradeoff: a low base with large stipends raises the weekly number, but overtime, sick pay, a 401(k) match, disability coverage, and mortgage applications key off the taxable rate, not the blended rate.
  • It does not estimate taxes or take-home pay, check whether you qualify for tax-free stipends, or read contract clauses such as missed-hour penalties. Stipends are tax-free only if you maintain a legitimate tax home. Nothing you enter is saved, and none of this is tax advice, so talk to a tax professional who knows traveler rules.

The reasoning behind it

Questions people ask

What is a blended rate in travel nursing?
It is your weekly gross, meaning taxable pay plus stipends, divided by your weekly hours. Recruiters tend to advertise it because it is the largest number, but overtime and most benefits are calculated on the taxable base rate instead.
How much do travel nurses make per week?
There is no official figure, because the federal wage survey counts travelers as registered nurses and rates swing by specialty, season, and hospital need. This calculator works from your own offer instead of quoting a market rate.
Are travel nurse stipends really tax-free?
Only if you maintain a legitimate tax home, meaning a primary residence you return to and keep paying real expenses at. Without one, stipends are treated as wages. The calculator does not assess this, so check with a tax professional.
Why does a low taxable base rate matter if the weekly total is high?
Overtime, sick pay, a 401(k) match, disability, and the income a mortgage lender sees are all based on the taxable rate. A package with a low base and large stipends can look strong weekly and weak everywhere else.
Does the calculator show my take-home pay?
No. It shows gross figures and how much of the package is taxable wages versus stipends. It does not estimate income tax, deductions, or benefits.

Sources

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