Travel Nurse Pay & Overtime Calculator
Free travel-nurse pay and overtime calculator. See your real take-home from a blended package (taxable base rate + tax-free housing and M&IE stipends), with state-by-state overtime rules (California daily OT and the 3×12 alternative workweek, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, the hospital 8/80 rule) and full federal, FICA, and state tax. Shows why your overtime is paid on the low base rate, not the blended rate the recruiter quotes.
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.
$23.00
$1,300
$350
12 hours / shift
3 scheduled shifts
1 extra shift
13 week contract
Stipends are tax-free only if you keep a permanent tax home, duplicate living expenses, and the assignment is temporary (≤12 months). No tax home → stipends become taxable wages.
Agencies pay OT at 1.5× the taxable base rate. "Blended" shows what OT would be worth if stipends counted in the regular rate (see Clarke v. AMN Services, 9th Cir. 2021).
Weekly take-home (this week)
$2,690
$56.05/hr take-home · 8.4% effective tax on the package
Blended rate (recruiter's number)
$68.83/hr
$2,938/wk package ÷ 36 contracted hrs
Your overtime is worth less than you think
Every regular hour in your package is worth $68.83 (blended), but an overtime hour only pays $34.50 — because OT is 1.5× your taxable base rate, not the blended rate. If your stipends were treated as wages (the Clarke scenario), this week's overtime would pay $825 more.
Weekly pay breakdown
Estimated annual taxes (single filer, standard deduction, California source tax)
Weekly net
$2,690
take-home
Monthly net
$10,762
≈ 4.33 wks
Contract net (13w)
$34,976
of $38,194 gross
Annualized net
$129,144
48 wks worked
Same package, different state
Annualized take-home for this exact package in popular travel states (each state's own overtime rules and income tax applied). No-income-tax states are why travelers chase Texas, Florida, and Washington.
| State | State tax / yr | Weekly net | vs best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Californiayou | $1,912 | $2,690 | best |
| Texasno tax | — | $2,656 | -$1,636 |
| Floridano tax | — | $2,656 | -$1,636 |
| Washingtonno tax | — | $2,656 | -$1,636 |
| Tennesseeno tax | — | $2,656 | -$1,636 |
| Nevadano tax | — | $2,656 | -$1,636 |
| New York | $2,503 | $2,604 | -$4,139 |
Educational estimate, not tax or legal advice. This models a single filer with the standard deduction, taxes wages in your assignment (work) state, and treats stipends as tax-free when you qualify. It does not model your resident-state return and other-state credit, itemized deductions, or your specific contract's stipend legality. Whether a particular agency's per diem can be excluded from overtime is fact-specific and litigated. Confirm your numbers with a travel-tax professional.
💵 $2,690/wk net
$23.00/hr base + $1,650/wk stipends in CA, 48h worked.
Save this scenario
Email me my Travel Nurse Pay & Overtime scenario
Get a one-page PDF of these numbers — your inputs, your results, and a deep link back to tweak them later. Free, no spam.
The Travel Nurse Pay & Overtime Calculator turns a blended pay package — a low taxable base hourly rate stacked with tax-free housing and meals (M&IE) stipends — into your real, after-tax take-home, and it values overtime the way agencies actually pay it: at 1.5× your taxable base rate, not the blended rate the recruiter quotes. It applies the correct overtime rule for your assignment state (the federal weekly-40 default, California daily overtime and the 3×12 alternative workweek, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada's under-$18 rule, or a hospital 8/80 agreement), then layers on 2026 federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (FICA), and your assignment state's income tax. The result is the number no recruiter shows you: what you keep, per week, per contract, and per hour actually worked — plus how much your overtime is really worth.
Free, private, and no signup
Money Scale is built the opposite way from the big finance sites: the numbers you enter never leave your device, and there's nothing to sign up for.
- Your numbers stay privateEvery calculation runs in your browser. We never receive or store your salary, balances, or inputs.
- Always freeNo paywall, no upsell to a calculator that actually works.
- No login, no emailUse every tool instantly — we never gate results behind a signup.
- Sourced defaultsStarting rates and assumptions cite real data, not made-up numbers.
How this calculator works
- Enter your taxable base hourly rate — the wage the agency reports on your W-2 (often $18–$30/hr). This, not the blended rate, is what overtime is built on.
- Add your weekly housing stipend and weekly meals & incidentals (M&IE) stipend. These are tax-free when you qualify; the IRS caps them at the assignment locality's GSA per diem (the FY2026 standard is $110/day lodging and $68/day M&IE).
- Set your schedule: hours per shift, scheduled shifts per week (3×12 is standard), and any extra shifts you picked up. Extra shifts are what push you into overtime.
- Choose your assignment state. It drives both the overtime rule and the state income tax. For California, toggle whether a lawful 3×12 alternative workweek is in place — it removes daily overtime on your three regular shifts. Toggle the hospital 8/80 agreement if your employer uses it.
- Tell the calculator whether you qualify for tax-free stipends (you keep a permanent tax home, duplicate expenses, and the assignment is temporary). If not, stipends are reclassified as taxable wages subject to income tax and FICA.
- Read your take-home: weekly, monthly, contract total, and annualized — plus your overtime rate next to your blended rate, your effective tax rate on the whole package, and the same package's take-home across popular no-income-tax states.
blended_rate = (base × contracted_hrs + stipends) ÷ contracted_hrs OT_pay = OT_hrs × 1.5 × base net = taxable_wages − fed − FICA − state + tax_free_stipendsThe blended rate divides the whole weekly package over your contracted hours — that's the apples-to-apples number nurses compare. But overtime is built only on the taxable base rate: OT hours are paid at 1.5× base (2× base for California double-time), because bona fide stipends are excluded from the FLSA 'regular rate.' Take-home is your taxable wages (regular + overtime pay) minus federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare and your assignment state's income tax, plus your tax-free stipends added back. Because stipends carry no tax, the effective tax rate on the whole package is strikingly low — and that's the upside that offsets the low overtime rate.
- base
- Taxable base hourly rate (the W-2 wage rate)
- contracted_hrs
- Scheduled hours per week (e.g. 36 for a 3×12)
- stipends
- Weekly housing + M&IE stipends (tax-free when you qualify)
- OT_hrs
- Overtime hours, split by your assignment state's daily/weekly rule
- fed
- Federal income tax (single filer, standard deduction, 2026 brackets)
- FICA
- Social Security 6.2% (to the $184,500 2026 wage base) + Medicare 1.45%
- state
- Assignment-state income tax on the taxable wages
Frequently asked questions
Related calculators
See all- Compare ContractsRank 2–3 offers on real take-home and cost-of-living-adjusted value.
- Compare StatesSame package, all 50 states — ranked by take-home and real value.
- Stipend AnalysisCheck stipends vs GSA limits and score your tax-home eligibility.
- Salary to HourlySalary → hourly with honest PTO accounting.
- Tax Return EstimatorEstimate your federal + state refund or balance due (estimator only).