Compare Travel Nurse Contracts
Compare two or three travel-nurse contracts side by side on real weekly take-home after federal, FICA, and state tax — plus take-home adjusted for each assignment's cost of living. Stop comparing recruiter 'gross' numbers; see which offer actually puts the most usable money in your pocket.
Last reviewed: · Reviewed by the Money Scale editorial team · How we source our data
Power mode. Every input exposed, every assumption sourced, charts and shareables.
$24.00
$1,100
$320
3
12
13 wks
$28.00
$1,700
$420
3
12
13 wks
$22.00
$1,250
$350
3
12
13 wks
Most take-home
Offer B
$3,077/wk net · $40,004 over the contract
Best value (cost-of-living adjusted)
Offer A
$2,347/wk in purchasing power
| Metric | Offer ATexas | Offer BCalifornia | Offer CFlorida |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly gross (package) | $2,284 | $3,296 | $2,392 |
| Tax-free stipend share | 62.2% | 64.3% | 66.9% |
| Effective tax on package | 5.4% | 6.6% | 4.6% |
| True weekly take-home | $2,160 | $3,077★ | $2,282 |
| Contract take-home | $28,075 | $40,004 | $29,663 |
| Cost-of-living index (US=100) | 92 | 138 | 102 |
| Adj. take-home (purchasing power) | $2,347★ | $2,230 | $2,237 |
Heads up: Offer B pays the most cash, but once you adjust for the cost of living, Offer A actually stretches further. The highest weekly rate and the best real value aren't always the same contract.
Educational estimate, not tax advice. Each offer is modeled as a single filer taking the standard deduction, taxed in the assignment state, with stipends treated as tax-free when you mark them so. Cost-of-living indices are state averages (US = 100) — your specific metro and housing choice will move the real number. Confirm with a travel-tax professional before signing.
🏆 Offer B: $3,077/wk net
Compared 3 travel-nurse offers on real take-home after tax — not the recruiter's headline gross.
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The Compare Travel Nurse Contracts tool puts two or three offers side by side and ranks them on the only numbers that matter: your true weekly take-home after federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (FICA), and the assignment state's income tax — and that take-home adjusted for each city's cost of living. Recruiters quote a blended weekly 'gross' that bundles a low taxable base rate with tax-free housing and M&IE stipends, hides the assignment state's tax, and ignores what rent costs where you'll actually live. Two offers with identical gross can leave hundreds of dollars a week apart once you account for all of it. This calculator does the apples-to-apples comparison for you, flags the offer with the most raw take-home, and separately flags the one with the best cost-of-living-adjusted value — because they're often not the same contract.
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How this calculator works
- Enter each offer in its own column: a label (agency or city), the assignment state, the taxable base hourly rate, and the weekly housing and M&IE stipends.
- Set the schedule (shifts per week and hours per shift) and the contract length in weeks for each offer.
- Mark whether the stipends are tax-free for you (you keep a qualifying tax home). If not, toggle it off and they're taxed as wages — which can flip the ranking.
- Read the comparison table: weekly gross, tax-free stipend share, effective tax rate, true weekly take-home, full-contract take-home, the cost-of-living index, and cost-of-living-adjusted take-home.
- Check the two winner cards — 'Most take-home' and 'Best value' — to see whether the highest-paying offer is also the one your money goes furthest on.
net_weekly = taxable_wages − fed − FICA − state + tax_free_stipends value = net_weekly ÷ (COL_index ÷ 100)Each offer is run through the full travel-nurse pay engine to get true weekly take-home, then divided by the assignment state's cost-of-living index (US average = 100) to express it as purchasing power. Ranking on net_weekly answers 'which pays the most cash'; ranking on value answers 'which goes furthest where I'll live.' The gap between the two rankings is the insight recruiters never surface.
- taxable_wages
- Weekly hourly pay (base rate × hours)
- tax_free_stipends
- Housing + M&IE stipends, added back tax-free when you qualify
- fed / FICA / state
- Federal, payroll, and assignment-state tax on the taxable wages
- COL_index
- State cost-of-living index, US average = 100
Frequently asked questions
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