The job board built for travel nurses.
Recruiters quote a weekly package. What you want to know is what lands in your account, what the taxable base really is, and whether the stipend is inside the federal per-diem rate for that city. Enter the offer and see all of it, then add a second offer and compare them side by side.
Enter the assignment city and state to compare the stipend with the GSA lodging and M&IE rate for that location.
Stipends are generally tax-free only with a qualifying tax home, a temporary assignment, and amounts within the federal (GSA) rate for the work location; anything above the rate is usually taxed. Take-home is a rough estimate from the tax rate you enter and ignores benefits, deductions and state differences. This is arithmetic, not tax advice.
The calculator does the math on the offer in front of you. Your RoadNurses resume carries your licenses, certifications and contract history, so you can answer a recruiter with one tap instead of a packet. Free, always.
A stipend is the tax-free part of a travel contract: a weekly allowance for lodging and for meals and incidentals while you work a temporary assignment away from your tax home. It is paid on top of a taxable hourly rate, and together they make up the weekly package agencies advertise.
Agencies build the package so that most of the money arrives as tax-free stipends. That raises your take-home, but the taxable base is what drives overtime, PTO, disability and unemployment benefits, Social Security credits and what a lender sees on a mortgage application. A very low taxable base can also draw IRS attention, so ask how the package was built.
The federal government publishes maximum per-diem rates for lodging and for meals and incidentals by location and month. Stipends up to those rates are generally accepted as tax-free reimbursements when you have a qualifying tax home. Stipends above them are usually treated as taxable wages for the excess. This calculator checks your stipend against the rate for the assignment city.
Your tax home is the place where you regularly live and pay to keep a residence, and where you return between assignments. Without a tax home that you maintain while you travel, the IRS treats you as itinerant and your stipends become taxable income. A tax professional can confirm your situation; this tool only does the arithmetic.
Usually not in full. Most contracts prorate or claw back the stipend when you miss hours, and the missed-shift clause is where a good-looking package gets expensive. Read that clause before you sign.
Agency housing is convenient, but you give up the housing stipend to get it. If you can find furnished short-term housing for less than the stipend, the difference is yours every week. Put the rent you can actually find into the calculator and it shows the monthly gap.