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Embarking on the compassionate journey of nursing involves not only caring for others but also navigating the many education paths. Obtaining certain degrees or certifications can make all the difference in your salary in many industries, but does the same apply to nursing? From LPNs to advanced practitioners, we’ll explore how different degrees can shape both your knowledge and compensation.

Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs)

To be an LPN, you typically complete a diploma or certificate from a one-year practical nursing program, which is a shorter and more focused education compared to RNs with higher degrees. While LPNs are invaluable contributors to healthcare, the scope of their practice is more limited to basic nursing care, which leads to a lower salary compared to other degrees.

Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN)

An associate degree not only broadens the scope of practice but also offers a bump in salary compared to an LPN. Nurses with an ADN are better equipped to treat patients, administer medications, and perform diagnostics, and their increased responsibilities are reflected in higher compensation.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

While RNs with a BSN have the same main job responsibilities as those with an ADN, BSN-prepared nurses have a more extensive education, especially with leadership-focused classes, that help qualify them to take on nursing supervisor or nursing management roles. This opens up opportunities for more career advancement with higher earning potential.

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Registered Nurses with a master’s degree often take on advanced practice roles in either a clinical setting or non-clinical setting. Some of these jobs include nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, nurse anesthetist, nurse educator, and forensic nurse. The mastery of skill and ability to provide more specialized care—such as analyzing tests, prescribing medications, and diagnosing health issues—contributes to a higher salary.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

The highest level of degree you can achieve within nursing is a DNP or Ph.D. Nurses with doctoral degrees are not only caregivers but also healthcare leaders, contributors to research, or educators for future nurses. With the ability to take on roles at the academic and executive levels, nurses with a doctorate tend to have the highest salary.

It’s crucial to note, though, that the type of degree you have is not the only factor when it comes to salary. Location, years of experience, certifications, specialization, and even healthcare setting are also major contributors to your salary. So, while continuing your education can create more opportunities for your professional and financial growth, the spectrum of earning potential as a nurse is vast. What’s important is making sure you know what you want to achieve in your career and finding a recruiter who will help get you there!

Our job board is the perfect place to look when you are ready for your next assignment or looking for your first assignment! Find both the role and the location that speak to you and your priorities.

If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:

START HERE

Travel Nurse Guide: Step-by-Step (now offered in a PDF Downloadable version!)

In my series of articles on Preliminary Contract Negotiations, I discussed negotiating overtime in step 11. In this article, I’m going to delve a little deeper…

The case for Travel Nurse Overtime Negotiation

If you have no intentions of working any overtime, ever, you can skip this part. However, if you’re like me and want as much overtime as possible, this is a negotiating point.

Some travel nurse companies will negotiate overtime rates separate from the contracted hourly rate. The following information is important, and armed with it will help you negotiate for a higher overtime rate. Why? This is because all of your expenses/benefits are covered on the travel nurse agencies part in the contracted amount of hours. Any hours you work over the contracted amount are simply a benefit (and increased revenue) for the travel nurse agency. Most companies will offer you time and half of your base rate (minus any tax-free amounts) for overtime. I always negotiate for a higher overtime rate, and if the travel agency does not budge on this, I remind them that me working overtime is beneficial for me…but them.

Overtime isn’t simply the 1.5 times your taxable rate

Although this is the standard in the permanent staffing world, travel nursing pay is set up differently. We are contractors and can negotiate whatever rate we want – within the constraints of the agency agreement, of course!

1. Determine the “effective taxable wage”

For the sake of the conversation, let’s say that your take-home wage is $1200 a week; you have a 36hr guarantee; and a taxable wage of $18/hr. Many companies will try to pay you overtime on only the taxable wage of $18. And most will only pay the ‘taxable wage’ ($18/hr in this example) for hours 36-40.

The reason is because housing and M&I are based on your guaranteed 36 hrs. However, the bill rate to the hospital doesn’t change, so the company profits on the difference. We are going to try to recover some of that money back into your hands.

Go to paycheckcity.com and play with the calculator until you reach a taxable wage that would make you the $1200/wk take home if you were taxed on 100% of your money for 36 hrs. (This varies by state). For this example, we will assume it’s $44/hr. Once you know your ‘effective taxable wage,’ you are better positioned for negotiations.

2. Negotiate the ‘Secondary Rate.

For hours 37-40, you can negotiate a secondary rate with the agency. Generally, I recommend that you base this on the ‘effective taxable wage.’ In this example, $44/hr.

3. Determine your Overtime rate.

Now that you know your ‘effective taxable rate,’ you can better determine what the OT rate should be. It’s unlikely that the agency ‘can’ pay you time and half of the ‘effective taxable rate’ because this is likely higher than the actual bill rate. BUT, you have a place to start! In this example, time and half of the ‘effective taxable rate’ would be $66/hr.

My recommendation is to work with a ‘triple’ rate as a start for OT negotiations. In this example, the taxable rate is $18, so the ‘triple’ rate would be $54/hour. This is likely much closer to a realistic OT rate than the $66 (time and half of the ‘effective taxable wage.’

4. Be Realistic

The agency has to make money too! You want this to be a win-win situation! These tips are only a suggestion on a place, to begin with, negotiations. Your trust level with your agency/recruiter will play a role in your negotiations, which is why it’s essential to have an agency/recruiter that you trust.

When you work OT, it should be putting more in your pocket and the agencies as well.

Personally Speaking: I’ve had contracts that I couldn’t get a good OT rate and told the agency that I wouldn’t work OT with that rate (and I didn’t). Then I’ve had contracts where my ability and drive to work OT was a great factor in negotiating a great rate. Simply stating, ‘I’m hoping to work a bunch of OT this contract. Let’s make this a ‘money-maker for BOTH of us!’ and my recruiter was able to get me a fabulous OT rate.

5. Don’t Forget…

It’s important to remember if you are taking call/call-back or working holidays during your contract that this is reflected in your contract at the correct rate!

I hope that these travel nurse overtime negotiation tips have been helpful. How do you experienced travelers negotiate OT? Looking for more information about your Travel Nurse Pay? Do you have other tips or suggestions? Please post in the comments to share with our readers!

Looking for an Agency?

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Tips to determine your best Travel Nurse Pay Package options

Many components make up a travel nurse’s pay package. When comparing pay packages, don’t just look at the numbers. Travel nurses should dig deeper to see what other benefits are provided. Those additional benefits and bonuses can result in thousands of realized dollars on each contract.

Whether you’re ready to take on your first contract in travel nursing—or perhaps you’ve been at it for a while—determining the best compensation package can be daunting. With so many variables and agencies making promising claims, it’s important to understand what will work best for you and your financial well-being. As part of our ongoing “Truth in Travel Nursing” series, The Gypsy Nurse team has compiled the following first key steps in what to look for in your travel nurse pay package.

Hourly Equivalent

Several factors impact the hourly rate offered for travel nursing assignments. These include:

location: or the region and cost of living where the assignment is located
nursing specialties
timing: how quickly you can start the assignment
even some general supply and demand factors

A travel nurse’s pay will generally consist of two main components:

The regular, taxable hourly rate
The non-taxable reimbursements for housing and meals/incidentals. These are also called stipends, subsidies, allowances, or per diems. These reimbursement payments are meant to cover meals and lodging costs resulting from the duplicate costs of living away from home for the job. Note that you will not receive a housing subsidy if you take company housing.

While sometimes the taxable hourly rate can seem low, agencies structure pay packages to be tax-efficient for the nurse. The less money that goes to a taxable hourly rate and the more that goes to the non-taxable subsidies, the better the net pay for the nurse. This cannot be very clear. Let’s look at some variables and what they may mean for your situation.

Take a Closer Look at Your Taxable Rate

The taxable hourly rate calculates several benefits should you need to use them. Unemployment, workers’ compensation, and disability payments are based on taxable income. Taxable earnings are also where social security contributions originate. Therefore, if you are nearing retirement, lower taxable earnings could significantly impact your future social security payments. In addition, if you need to borrow money for a home or auto loan, the lender will determine your loan amount qualifications from your taxable income.

Take a Closer Look at Non-Taxable Amounts:

Higher non-taxed reimbursements will make your net paycheck increase. At face value, this is appealing. However, it may not be quite that simple. The tax code allows tax-free stipends only while working away from one’s tax home. In many pay-package discussions, the aspect of “per diems” comes up. Here is some further information to help clarify:

You must be eligible for the tax-free per diems. Do you qualify?

There is a widespread myth that if you live (tax home) more than 50 miles away from your assignment, you are entitled to, eligible for, or guaranteed the per diems completely free of taxes. IRS Publication 463 states that you can accept tax-free stipends if “you need to sleep or rest to meet the demands of your work while away from home.” There are no guidelines, no specific distance given that would constitute your need to sleep or rest. Therefore, if a traveler prefers to drive 70 miles each way to work and back each shift, they do not qualify for tax-free lodging allowances. Why? Because they are commuting. Further, if you commute or are within a “commutable distance,” you don’t qualify. There are no duplicate lodging expenses to reimburse.

The Per Diem amounts

The General Services Administration (a federal government agency) sets GSA Per Diem Rates. These are “the maximum allowances federal employees are reimbursed for expenses incurred while on official travel.” Although designed for government employees, these rates are also applied by the IRS to private sector employees. The travel nurse industry uses these in determining per diem rates. Therefore, these reimbursements are paid free of taxes. Above all, you mustn’t assume you will be paid the exact current GSA table rates. Here are three GSA realities:

GSA rates are the maximum amounts that can be reimbursed without the requirement to turn in receipts. There is NOT a requirement that these maximum amounts be paid out.
GSA rates are based more on short-term hotel housing, which tends to be pricier than the longer-term housing used for a typical travel nurse assignment.
Bill rates are what determine what travel pay and per diems will be. Very rarely is an agency bill rate high enough to pay out the GSA table maximum amount and retain a profit.

Stick with The Gypsy Nurse as we continue to evaluate additional factors that ultimately make up your compensation and your paycheck. We’ll continue to explore more benefits, total package value, guaranteed pay, low census protection, and more in our next article.

If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:

START HERE

salary

Earning Potential in Nursing: How Different Degrees Affect Salary

Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs)

Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN)

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:

Travel Nurse Guide: Step-by-Step (now offered in a PDF Downloadable version!)

Categories

Travel Healthcare Jobs

Recent Articles

Overtime Negotiation

The case for Travel Nurse Overtime Negotiation

Overtime isn’t simply the 1.5 times your taxable rate

1. Determine the “effective taxable wage”

2. Negotiate the ‘Secondary Rate.

3. Determine your Overtime rate.

4. Be Realistic

5. Don’t Forget…

Looking for an Agency?

Check out these Top Ranked Agencies

Categories

Travel Healthcare Jobs

Recent Articles

Diagnosing Your Travel Nurse Pay Package- Part 1