The Truth About Traveling Nurse Salaries
Sure the most obvious reason to go into travel nursing is the allure of a chance to find happiness in a brand new undertaking. But, perhaps the second reason is the opportunity to earn great money and receive top-notch benefits. But how much is a travel nurse’s salary, really? There are a lot of questions you need to answer before embarking on any new journey in anything you do. Travel nursing is no exception, so here’s the scoop on traveling nurse salary.
Traveling Nurse Salaries: Annual Wage
Even if you’re vegan, you’ll be cool with how much bacon you can bring home as a travel nurse. Think about this: the average annual salary for travel nurses who work year-round is $75,000 (based on a $40/hourly wage.) That’s about $8k more than the national average for all nurses’ salary in a year. Not to mention that depending on your specialty or where you choose to locate for assignments can really affect your income, meaning you can potentially earn even more!
Also, depending on your particular assignment, there might be a sign-on or competition bonus, too.
Benefits in Addition to Travel Nurse Salary
But, you might worry about not having benefits since you’re filling a temporary spot, right? Well, that’s also a great perk of the traveling healthcare life—recruiting companies (such as Cirrus Medical Staffing) will provide nurses give all the basic medical and dental insurance paid for. Typically, they also offer you the opportunity to choose which plan would be best for you. You only need to pay for additional benefits you may add. That’s better than healthcare options for most folks!
Accommodations Can Affect Travelling Nurse Salaries
Housing is no issue for travel nurses either; it almost is easier than booking a hotel room for a weekend trip. Agencies will provide and pay for travel nurse housing on your short-term assignment. Cirrus Staffing offers free private housing in safe areas close to the hospital you are working in. These apartments come fully furnished and with utilities. Plus, if you decide to find your own residence, they’ll offer you a handsome compensation to pay for it. Additionally, 401k plans are often available as well as travel expense reimbursements.
Travel Nursing Salary: The Bottom Line
Although there are a lot of factors that will affect your actual travel nurse salary (such as hospital location, level of experience you have, etc.) there’s a lot of advantages financially no matter which assignment you fill. When it comes to dollars, travel nurse jobs make sense.
Caroline Hill is a marketing associate for Travel Nurse Source, an online nurse job board site, which connects qualified travel nurses to top agencies like Cirrus Medical Staffing. You can find more travel nursing blogs by Caroline at https://www.travelnursesource.com/notes/.