It’s no surprise that there’s now high demand for travel nurses due to the worldwide pandemic of Coronavirus. Health workers, staffing agencies have been trying their hardest to ease things by recruiting as many trained nurses as possible. They have even waived the license requirement as in this emergency, they need many people. All of which has led to a travel nurse salary hike due to COVID-19. And here we will discuss everything about this travel nurse salary hike in this article. Read on if you wish to know about the situation or think of pursuing your career as a travel nurse!
Table of Contents
Why is there a hike in the travel nurse salary?
Retired RNs are coming back to serve in this unprecedented time. Staffing agencies and recruiters are constantly recruiting travel nurses to meet at least a few of the requirements. There is a huge crunch of 305% in this industry due to this pandemic crisis. Naturally, the demand for travel nurses is also on the rise in units of intensive care. The demand has been increasing since last year March. According to NurseFly, a travel nurse recruiter, there have been constant issues of an insufficient number of travel nurses, health workers, nurses in hospitals battling the COVID 19 pandemic globally.
NurseFly said that ICU workers have to travel more than ever in this time of need. The paychecks of travel nurses also have increased about 80%-90% after the pandemic hit the world hard.
A recent report suggested that the average pay of travel nurses hiked to $2,355/week on November 21. It was $1,577/week before the pandemic. There are also higher rates in few states.
Opportunities for travel ICU nurses are in high motion worldwide due to high demand in health sectors.
NurseFly posted almost about 300% more job opportunities on their platforms in March. They are also recruiting 1900% more in various jobs which are needed in the COVID-19 battle.
More about how COVID 19 triggers rates up
Hospitals have been forced to increase their use of travel nurses and other temporary clinical staff to compensate for the demands of treating COVID 19patients. Also, to replace staff that got infected with the virus. The crunch of health staff has arisen due to the increasing cost of some crucial drugs and PPE kits.
Kaufman Hall released a report that said health facilities profits decreased 20% from the pandemic of Coronavirus. Labor charges hiked 10% from the number of 2019. Total expenditure for a discharge (adjusted) hiked 12% more during October 2020 than October 2019.
The unprecedented crisis of the Coronavirus pandemic has led to high demand for nurses, health care workers. The hiked demand triggers the remuneration of them all over the world. Some pay packages in New York offered $10,000.
Estimate of travel nurse salary package
A standard international travel nurse salary package includes per hour basis taxable wage ($3200), monthly household stipend ($1200), monthly basis travel stipend ($500) stipend for education continuation ($500), monthly food stipend ($800). Hence an international travel nurse’s total standard monthly salary should be approximately $8200 based on a $20 hourly income at almost 40 hours in a week without taxation.
According to a report, the highest-paid country for international travel nurses is Luxembourg. The average paycheck for a registered nurse is $91000 yearly based on $44.31 hourly at around 40 hours per week. The United States offers almost $73500 annually and $6100 monthly. Multiple international recruiters provide high sign-on bonus wages of around $6000.
Benefits of a travel nurse
A few travel nurse employment agencies provide travel nurses extra benefits, namely retirement alternatives and health, vision, life insurance. It would be best you knew that retirement alternatives, including a 401(k), could be the ineffective alternative if a nurse’s taxable earnings are underpaid. It is profitable to finance in a single retirement account that provides withdrawal without taxation like Roth IRA. 401(k) allows donating an individual nurse’s salary before it comes under taxation. The major portion of the travel nurse salary is tax-free. Investing in a pension account plan such as 401(k)s can reduce overall taxable travel nurse salary. This process stimulates the problems in terms of loan qualification. Travel registered nurses should take suggestions from financial experts regarding travel nurse salary packages. Financial experts can guide you through analyzing the total financial expenses.
Ways to increase travel nurse salary package
Location plays a key effective role for the travel nurse salary increment. Particular countries and cities provide high salary packages due to the great demand for registered nurses. Besides, few countries increase the pay scale based on the timing of the year. For instance, Alaska offers a higher salary package than Hawaii during the winter season. International travel nurses can increase their salary by relocating to remote and unpopular areas.
How can international travel nurses increase salary?
International travel nurses can increase net income by giving service to high-paid cities or countries. Besides working in a high-demand specialty field, namely ICU Labor NICU Orthopedics OR ER, a travel nurse can make more money. International travel nurses can negotiate their salary increment by showing the experience in the high-demand specialty. After getting adequate experience in a specific field, individuals should emphasize that on the travel nursing resume. Besides, this should be highlighted in front of the international travel nurse employer to increase the salary package. Thus you will increase international travel nurse salary based on specialty nursing experience. Furthermore, a specialty certified travel nurse who is willing to be in a particularly high-demand field can be more remunerative to a travel nurse organization than a non-certified, only trained nurse.
Lucrative option to enhance the financial condition
International travel nursing may be a lucrative option to enhance the financial condition and entire net income. Multiple benefits come with staff nursing jobs other than a high salary package. Travel nurses gather important knowledge in specialty field related, learn expertise namely flexibility, enhance confidence level and eventually develop the career. Thus international travel nurses can diversify their job application through immense importance nursing experiences.
International travel nurse jobs are flexible, and relocation can be a long-term or temporary basis. Most of the travel nurses can pursue short-term basis nursing assignments. Additionally, international travel nursing provides the opportunity to explore all over the world.
Travel nurse salary COVID
Nursing services come with lots of rationality. Now, the question that comes to mind is, can liability also go with making a quick buck? The reply is Yes! Now the next question will be Do Travel-Nurse visit exotic destinations like Hawaii? You may get a jaw-dropping response- YES! The salary you can achieve from the Travel Nurse job depends on the specialized sector and other criteria.
Scroll down carefully, and one can get a brief idea about the travel nurse job salary, all how’s and why’s have been taken care of in the following-
General RNs are paid less than travel nurses. There are two valid bases for which a Travel Nurse can earn more money.
Firstly, higher pay is directly proportional to higher demand. Nursing hiring agencies have coordination with medical clinics, hospitals, medical houses; they have a huge necessity for medical attendants. For this high demand, they agree to give more remuneration to get more skilled staff. This will solve the shortage of staff or crisis urgency.
Secondly, Travel nurses can generate more revenue than staff nurses, not based on salary also on additional incentives. Travel nurses can save their income as their reimbursements are non-taxable, where staff nurses lose theirs for high tax charges.
Incentives and benefits of travel nurse
Let us see what the incentives and benefits travel nurses can cherish are:
Incentives can add extra to travel nurse’s stipends. Travel nurse’s salary covers hourly payment, referring to gratuity. House rent, food, travel allowances, and all job expenses are included in the stipends they get. Those are luckily considered as not earnings, so they are not in the taxable circle. This is the main beneficial key point for getting enough money. Unfortunately, regular RNs didn’t get that facility. So, naturally, the Travel nurses will have more salary than regular nurses.
Past records showed that places like California, Texas, and Washington had higher pay scales for travel nurses. In Hawaii, the living cost is much lower than in other cities.
The approximate amount a travel nurse can get
Labor Bureau (BLS) recently studied stated that enrolled medical attendants in the US can generate around $71730 per annum. A travel nurse can achieve an additional $30,000, so the total will be $100,000.Sometimes there will be an additional of it. According to BLS, hourly pay is also different in both cases. For New York, general nurses can earn $41.16/ hour, where the travel nurse score will be $48.87/hour. This survey initiated by the Zip recruiter listed the hourly payment of travel nurses. Also, in this Covid situation, the hike will be around $92,000 per week, or for a 13-week project, TN can get $100,000.
Salary or payment structure is always variable depending on location, specialization, job position, and TN contract. Not everything comes in smooth packaging, and there has to be a catch. The catch is travel nurse has to work for long-time assignments like at a stretch 12 months. Then you can avail yourself of the benefits of a travel nurse. If the assignment is for 2-3 months, then yearly pay will decrease. So, the more challenges you accept and the more time it takes, the more money flow will rise.
What is the education eligibility for itinerant nurses?
Rather than obtaining a travel-friendly mindset, many nursing companies want a full-time field work experience for at least 12 months. Bachelor in Nursing (BSN) is the basic criteria to hire for many nursing agencies. Specialized RNs with BSN are highly preferable.
Only BSN is not applicable for several recruiter companies. Specific qualifications are needed as per requirements for that post.
For the national and international projects, language skill is an essential one as per region. Specific language spoken test or certification is mandatory for many companies. Besides BSN, additional associated qualification(ADN) adds extra points during the selection process. With all these criteria, one should have a positive mindset, love to communicate with people, sensitive and courageous mind. Agencies will be the best choices to start with.
What must a travel nursing profile look like?
Check out these seven major points for a travel nursing job profile:
- The job title clarifies that aiding people became for fun with travel.
- A new day filled with new experience as your work will always be different from rural healthcare to super-specialty hospitals.
- You can choose your freedom by selecting schedule, work area.
- A new home will always be waiting as you can travel to any destination. No worries about searching for houses. Such a relief.
- Travel nurses have no worries about the strict work policies of hospitals. Part-time joiners will always set free from these rules and laws.
- Meeting with new people, new city, new destination, food, culture, nature will bring an adventurous work life one can dream of.
- Lastly but most importantly, the salary part. For a travel nurse, the salary hike is higher than normal in-state working nurses. With a well-to-do earning aspect, tax-free travel, fooding lodging are extra cherries in this cake.
A brief discussion about the salary structure
Travel-nurse job is highly demanding and comparative for nowadays. The salary aspect will vary as per company to company and for work specialization also. One of the famous recruiter sites stated that travel nurses could earn more normal registered RNs. The approximate amount will be $41,000 to $101,000 per year.
Incentives and benefits can vary from agency to agency. Middle east companies will give more benefits than international agencies. The occupation growth is 16% that others, according to the labor Bureau. Median countries will pay registered RNs approximately $36 per hour.
Aspects to look in a travel nurse job
Some other aspects to look upon in a travel-nurse job:
- Tax-free travel with free meal services.
- Retirement plans.
- Exiting incentives structure.
- Medical insurance, coverage.
- The nurse job salary hike is promising.
- Freedom of work time selection
Final Thoughts
As we bring you to the end of our article, we hope you have all the required information about the ravel nurse salary and the demand with the coronavirus pandemic. Also, we have covered the requirements of a travel nurse. So, if you have up your mind to serve the people during this crisis, we hope this article is helpful for you.
