The Direction of Nurses Pay in 2022 and Beyond

Mental health nurse practitioner working remotely

Mental health nurse practitioner working remotely

TL;DR

  • In the peak of the pandemic, travel nurse salary reached up to $10,000/week.
  • As of February 2022 the average travel nurse pay is closer to $3,300/week
  • Pay will always fluctuate with supply and demand, but it’s unlikely for travel nursing rates to fall back to pre-pandemic rates.
  • Remember to look beyond pay when choosing a staffing agency

A Facebook post in a group for Traveling Nurses reads “Only making $3-4k a week?? Why not make $5-8k a week??”.

The nursing industry has definitely fallen on some challenging times. The work has become increasingly difficult, nurses are facing burn out at incredible rates, the debate on fair pay for nurses rages on, and there are even rumors of congressional pay caps.

There’s a lot to cover, but right now let’s focus on the money. 

History Of Pay For Traveling Nurses

Prior to the pandemic, traveling nurses earned about $1,800/week.

The pandemic created a “perfect storm” of an insatiable demand for traveling nurses. We’ll cover that in a moment, but suffice it to say that rates reached an unprecedented high.

During the height of the pandemic (we consider this to be the Delta spike in 2021), salaries for traveling nurses reached $10,000/week for some assignments! Nurses could earn in 2-3 months what previously took a year to earn.

The payoff is those assignments were in places described as a “war zone”.

The average pay has fluctuated throughout the pandemic, but a travel nurse should expect to earn around $3,300/week (as of early 2022), knowing that figure may change a little as time goes on.

Why The Fluctuations In Pay?

Pay for traveling nurses is determined by many things.

For starters, traveling nurses will always earn more than staff nurses because the demands of the job are greater due to the nature of the position.

Traveling nurses have always alleviated staffing shortages in hospitals and facilities that were having a hard time finding nurses to fill their staff positions.

Economics tells us that prices change based on supply and demand. If there are 10 nurses (supply) to fill 50 positions (demand), the pay rate for those nurses is going to get competitive in a hurry. Nurses would almost be able to name their rate (and in 2020 some did)!

In early 2020 there averaged around 8,000 open positions for traveling nurses. By September 2021 that figure grew by 6x to over 48,000 positions. Assignments have decreased to around 32,000 now.

When you track it, the pattern of open assignments follows the pattern for pay.

The Road Back To Normal

As the world gets back to normal (or closer to what we used to call normal), pay is likely to go down. Again, supply and demand.

Many of the staffing shortages were caused by sick nurses who were unable to work because they had Covid, or were caring for loved ones with Covid. Once they get back to work, the number of open assignments will decrease, and thus so will pay.

Although it probably won’t happen quickly or suddenly.

Burnout will most likely slow the nursing industry’s return to normal compared to other industries. When other industries figured out how to get people working remotely, nurses and others in the healthcare industry were in the thick of it.

This has no doubt added to the staffing shortage issue.

The increasing gap between pay for a staff nurse and a travel nurse is also causing some staff nurses to question whether they should quit and take travel assignments instead.

Currently traveling nurses earn 3x more than staffing nurses. This is another issue that goes too deep to fully address here, but is a challenge nonetheless.

Your Goals & What To Look For In A Staffing Agency

If you are looking for a $5,000/week assignment, you might find some. Just know what you’re getting yourself into.

Staffing shortages create chaotic work environments. 

The greater the shortage, the greater the chaos.

The greater the shortage, the greater the pay.

If however you want to earn as much as possible, but realize that you have a specific set of requirements that make an assignment ideal for you—then give us a call.

EmpowerCare stands on three guiding principles. The life-saving acronym of CPR seemed fitting given our mission of resuscitating the life-work balance for the nursing industry.

1. Convenient

We believe your relationship with a staffing agency should be convenient for you, not the staffing agency.

Assignments should be convenient based on your current and future life goals. Maybe higher pay is something you’re after right now, but later this year you’ll want to be closer to family. It’s okay if your requirements change, because we do everything in our power to find you assignments for the right pay, in the right location, with the right people.

Convenience also means working with us is simple. Onboarding is easy, so is submitting time sheets. Since we disclose everything we know about an assignment before you go there, you’ll also be able to choose if you only take assignments that use systems you’re already familiar with.

2. Personable

Too many of our travel nurses tell us they left their previous staffing agency because their recruiter wasn’t personable.

When you speak, we listen. We ask questions to get to know you so we can help you find assignments that are the best fit for you. You are not a cog in the machine, but a human being with dreams and goals that we can help you accomplish.

3. Responsive

You deserve a quick reply if you need something. If you have a question, you deserve an answer. If you have a problem, you deserve a solution.

There really isn’t any reason a traveling nurse should show up for an assignment and be surprised by what they got themselves into.

Not getting responses to emails and phone calls is unacceptable. We already have one of the most responsive teams of recruiters in the industry (you can expect responses between 7am-10pm EST), and are planning to offer an even greater level of support soon.

It’s a winning combination when that support is provided by someone who cares about making life easier for you.

So what will pay look like for traveling nurses in the future? No one can say for certain, but we believe it will be directly linked to the number of available assignments.

Why We Don’t Offer 1099 Contracts

Compensation at EmpowerCare

Compensation at EmpowerCare

EmpowerCare gives nurses the power to choose when, where and how often they work, usually right in the palm of their hands by our easy-to-use app. When one of our talented nurses works a CNA job, LPN job or RN job, they are their W-2 hired employee. We have chosen not to offer 1099 options to our healthcare workers and here are 3 main reasons why.

1. 1099 contractors must manage their payroll taxes.

When you choose a staffing agency that does 1099, you’re responsible for managing your payroll taxes throughout the year. That means your weekly/biweekly checks will be bigger in size, but at tax time you will need to pay all the taxes that would usually have been taken out in a lump sum. This could be a problem if you don’t correctly estimate your taxes or if you don’t set money aside for your taxes. Being a W-2 employee, you don’t have to do any of this. Your employer withholds a specified amount, which you determine, from each one of your paychecks to cover your taxes. Making it easier to manager.

2. W-2 employees can have access to company benefits

Being a W-2 employee, you will have access to the company benefits such as health insurance, life insurance and paid time off, as well as your travel nurse salary. These are additional benefits that you can access and use when needed. Having a benefits package, you can fall back on is so important. It shows that the employer is invested in not only you, but your future and happiness as well.

3. W-2 employees are protected

W-2 employees are protected by laws covering minimum wage, workers’ comp, unemployment, and overtime. 1099 contractors must handle their own insurance, meaning there is less protection for you in your RN job.

At EmpowerCare, we prioritize your security and benefits, choosing W-2 over 1099. Join our caring team for the best possible work experience.

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Travel Nurse Jobs: The Financial Aspect

Nurse communicating with a patient

Nurse communicating with a patient

Financial freedom or independence is something that nobody wants to forego. However, at times this aspect can make or break employments. For the people applying for travel nurse jobs; compensation, pay rates and other financial benefits are something that should be discussed in order to ensure that there are no problems later. Of course, the healthcare recruitment agency such as EmpowerCare will also take care of such issues and ensure that complete transparency is maintained. Here are a few financial considerations that a person needs to keep in his or her mind before replying in affirmative for a position for a travelling nurse.

Aspects to look out for

In the case of a travel nurse employment, the compensation and the entire range of benefits is quite lucrative. Sometimes, it may even surpass the financial benefits of a person who is a permanent staff at the medical facility. In other words, people in this profession tend to receive their normal pay according to the number of hours worked and are also entitled to overtime pay, medical benefits apart from choosing the house to work as well. In some cases, travelling nurses receive bonuses at the end of every week depending on the criticality of the assignment and the number of hours worked. However, there are many other medical facilities and establishments, which do not pay weekly, but hand out a sizeable amount at the end of the tenure of the travelling nursing staff at the hospital. Travel nursing jobs are thus very lucrative and the demand for such nurses is quite high. Medical establishments are willing to spend as long as they are able to get the desired work quality from a person. There are many medical hospitals, which either provide accommodation or an equivalent amount of allowance so that travel nurses can get a suitable accommodation somewhere nearby to the medical facility.

Salaries and other monetary benefits tend to form a major reason for taking up employment away from home as a travel nurse. Travel nursing jobs are highly lucrative and a major part of this aspect is the financial remuneration. This is also one of the major reasons for the people to take up jobs. Staffing companies like EmpowerCare tend to look into this matter quite closely and makes sure that each person gets a near perfect fit according to his or her desire of a dream-nursing job.