How to Compare Travel Nurse Contracts: The Take-Home Math That Actually Matters

To compare travel nurse contracts correctly, ignore the recruiter's "blended weekly rate" and rebuild each offer into its real parts: taxable hourly base, tax-free housing and meals stipends, and the income tax of the state where you'll physically work. The contract you keep more money from is the one with the best after-tax take-home, not the biggest gross number. Two offers that look like the same weekly pay can differ by hundreds of dollars a week once taxes and the stipend split are accounted for.

This guide shows you how to compare travel nurse contracts the way an accountant would: line by line, on take-home.

Why the "blended rate" is the wrong number

Recruiters love to quote a single blended weekly figure — say, "$2,400 a week." That number folds together two very different kinds of money:

• Taxable wages (your hourly base × hours), which get hit by federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and state income tax.
• Tax-free reimbursements (housing stipend, meals and incidentals per diem), which — when you qualify — are not taxed at all.

A blended rate hides the split. An offer with a low taxable base and a large tax-free stipend can leave you with far more money than an offer with a higher blend but a bigger taxable share. The only honest comparison is one that separates the two and runs the taxable portion through real tax rates.

The five line items to pull from every offer

Before you can compare anything, get these numbers in writing for each contract:

1. Hourly taxable base rate and guaranteed hours per week (usually 36 or 40).
2. Weekly housing stipend (tax-free if you qualify).
3. Weekly meals & incidentals (M&IE) per diem (tax-free if you qualify).
4. Overtime and on-call rules, and any completion or travel bonuses.
5. The assignment's city and state — this determines the state income tax and the cost of living.

If a recruiter only gives you a blended number, ask them to break it into taxable base and stipends. A reputable agency will.

Run the taxable base through real taxes

Tax-free stipends are only legitimately tax-free if you maintain a qualifying tax home and are duplicating expenses while away — the IRS rules on this are specific. (See travel nurse tax home rules and how tax-free stipends and the GSA caps work.) Assuming you qualify, only your hourly base is taxable, and that's the piece state income tax bites into.

That's why the assignment state matters so much. Nine states levy no state income tax on wages: Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, and New Hampshire. An identical taxable base goes further in those states because the state takes nothing off the top.

Worked example: Offer A (Texas) vs. Offer B (California)

Here are two real-shaped offers for a 13-week, 36-hour-a-week assignment.

Line item	Offer A — Dallas, TX	Offer B — Los Angeles, CA
Hourly taxable base	$24/hr	$28/hr
Weekly taxable wages (36 hrs)	$864	$1,008
Weekly tax-free stipend (housing + M&IE)	$1,450	$1,700
Blended weekly (what recruiter quotes)	$2,314	$2,708
Est. federal income tax (weekly)¹	~$60	~$85
FICA (7.65% of taxable)	~$66	~$77
State income tax	$0 (no state tax)	~$55
Estimated weekly take-home	~$2,128	~$2,491

¹ Federal estimates are illustrative and depend on your filing status, withholdings, and total annual income; treat them as ballpark, not exact.

On a pure take-home basis, Offer B still wins here — its much larger stipend and higher base outrun California's state tax. The point of the exercise isn't that no-tax states always win; it's that you can't know until you separate the stipend from the base and apply the right state's tax. Change Offer B's stipend to $1,500 instead of $1,700 and the gap nearly closes. The blended rate would never have told you that.

Then adjust for cost of living

Take-home is only half the picture. A dollar in Los Angeles does not buy what a dollar buys in Dallas. If Offer B's tax-free stipend doesn't fully cover LA's higher rent, some of that extra take-home gets eaten by the cost of staying there. The right final comparison is cost-of-living-adjusted take-home: what's left after you've actually paid for housing and food in that city.

A quick way to do it: subtract your realistic local housing cost from each offer's take-home. If you can find housing in LA for less than your $1,700 stipend, the leftover is yours (and tax-free). If LA housing costs more than the stipend, that overage comes out of your taxable take-home.

A repeatable checklist

1. Get the taxable base, guaranteed hours, and each stipend in writing.
2. Compute weekly taxable wages and run them through federal, FICA, and the assignment state's income tax.
3. Add the tax-free stipends back on top to get total take-home.
4. Subtract your realistic local housing + food cost to get cost-of-living-adjusted take-home.
5. Only now compare the offers — and factor in non-pay items (shift, facility reputation, cancellation policy, guaranteed hours).

The travel nurse contract comparison tool does steps 2–4 for you. For the bigger picture on how these contracts are built, start at the travel nursing hub or read how travel nurse pay works.

Frequently asked questions

Should I just pick the contract with the highest weekly rate?

No. The highest blended weekly rate can leave you with less money after taxes than a lower-blend offer with a larger tax-free stipend. Always rebuild each offer into taxable base plus stipends and compare on after-tax take-home.

Why does the assignment state change my pay so much?

Your hourly base is taxable wages, and the state where you physically work taxes those wages (a no-income-tax state takes nothing). Two contracts with the same base can differ by $40–$60+ a week purely on state income tax.

Are the housing and meal stipends really tax-free?

They're tax-free only if you maintain a legitimate tax home and are duplicating living expenses while on assignment, and only up to the GSA per-diem caps for that location. If you don't qualify, the stipends become taxable income. Confirm your situation with a travel-tax professional.

What non-pay terms should I weigh?

Guaranteed hours, cancellation and "called-off" policies, overtime and on-call rates, shift type, completion bonuses, and the facility's reputation. A slightly lower take-home with guaranteed hours can beat a higher rate that the hospital can cancel.

How do I compare offers in different cities fairly?

Convert each to cost-of-living-adjusted take-home: take after-tax pay and subtract realistic local housing and food costs. The offer that leaves the most in your pocket after you've actually lived there wins.

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This is educational only and not tax or financial advice. Tax outcomes depend on your individual situation, and the rules for tax-free stipends are specific and easy to get wrong. Consult a qualified travel-tax professional before making contract decisions.