Are these nursing calculators free?

Yes. All three calculators run entirely in the browser, require no registration, and do not persist your inputs. The math is computed client-side from the numbers you type; nothing is sent to a server.

What is the IRS 12-month rule for travel nurse stipends?

Under IRS Publication 463, a work assignment that lasts or is realistically expected to last more than one year in a single metropolitan area converts from temporary to indefinite. When that happens, the housing and meal stipends that were non-taxable reimbursements become taxable wages retroactively. The Travel Contract Analyzer and Agency vs Staff calculator both flag this risk automatically.

Which states enforce sign-on bonus clawback contracts most aggressively?

California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Oregon all have wage-law provisions that materially restrict employer wage-repayment schemes. The Sign-on Bonus Clawback Analyzer computes a state-specific tier and links to the governing statute.

Can a travel contract actually pay more than a staff job at the same hospital?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, depending on the benefits gap. A travel contract's headline weekly gross excludes employer-paid health insurance, 401(k) match, pension accrual, CE reimbursement, and paid time off — the Agency vs Staff calculator quantifies all of these, computes the net take-home, and solves the break-even weekly-gross where travel beats staff.

What is IRS §1341 claim-of-right doctrine?

When you repay a bonus in a later tax year that you already paid federal income tax on, IRS §1341 claim-of-right lets you recover the tax paid. The threshold is a repayment greater than $3,000. The Sign-on Bonus Clawback Analyzer estimates this tax recovery (typically ~22% of the repaid amount for most brackets) and applies it to the practical clawback exposure.

Nursing Calculators: Travel, Staff, and Sign-On Math

Three free calculators for RNs making compensation decisions. Each one answers a single decision with transparent math you can audit: is this travel contract legal under IRS stipend rules; does the agency offer beat a staff offer net-of-benefits; and what does a sign-on bonus actually cost if you leave early.

Nurse recruiters quote the headline weekly number. Hospital HR quotes the base hourly. Neither one tells you the net. The gap between what you think you're being paid and what shows up in your bank account after federal tax, FICA, the benefits gap, and — for travelers — IRS Publication 463 stipend-legality exposure is where the real compensation decision lives. These calculators fill that gap with transparent math, visible sources, and no registration wall.

Live calculators

CALC-01

Travel Nurse Contract Analyzer

Paste a travel contract. See weekly gross split into taxable wage vs stipends, IRS Pub 463 stipend legality, 12-month same-metro audit risk, cancellation exposure, and effective annualized pay compared to BLS OEWS staff-RN medians.

Use when: Evaluating a travel-agency offer. Decision: is the advertised weekly rate actually defensible under IRS stipend rules for your tax-home situation.

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CALC-03

Agency vs Staff Pay Equivalence Calculator

Compare a W-2 staff-nurse total compensation package (base + shift differentials + OT + health + 401(k) match + pension + CE + disability) against a travel contract's net take-home (gross minus federal tax, FICA, and the benefits gap). Solves the crossover weekly-gross algebraically and auto-flips stipends taxable past the IRS 12-month rule.

Use when: Deciding between a travel assignment and an equivalent staff offer. Decision: what's the real pay differential after benefits and taxes — not just headline weekly.

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CALC-05

Sign-on Bonus Clawback Analyzer

Model clawback exposure on a sign-on or retention bonus. Computes contract-formula proration + state-by-state enforceability tier (9 states with meaningful wage-repayment restrictions) + IRS §1341 claim-of-right tax recovery + effective-hourly-penalty + FMLA / USERRA / Title VII exit-reason protection levers.

Use when: Considering leaving before the clawback cliff, or negotiating a bonus contract before signing. Decision: what does the bonus really cost under my state's wage law.

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CALC-02

Shift Differential Premium Calculator

Model weekly gross with stacked night / weekend / holiday / charge / preceptor differentials under stack-vs-highest-single policy. Computes state-specific daily OT (CA 8-hour Labor Code §510, AK 8-hour, NV 8-hour, CO 12-hour COMPS Order 39, KY 7th-consecutive-day, IL ODRISA, FLSA 40/wk baseline) plus IRS Pub 15 supplemental-vs-aggregate withholding treatment for differential-heavy paychecks.

Use when: Understanding what your weekly paycheck will actually be under a shift schedule at a specific hospital + state. Decision: is the advertised differential stacking real, and how much daily OT do the state rules generate for your schedule.

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CALC-06

BSN / MSN / DNP Career Ladder ROI Calculator

Model the full investment cost of an education-ladder step (ADN→BSN, BSN→MSN NP, BSN→DNP) against expected post-completion wage delta. Accounts for IRC §127 ($5,250) + §221 ($2,500) + §25A ($2,000 LLC) tax treatment, HRSA Nurse Corps ($100K) + Song-Brown ($50K) loan forgiveness, and APRN full-practice-authority state status (29 states per AANP 2024).

Use when: Weighing whether to pursue the next credential tier. Decision: does the tuition + lost earnings + lost shift differentials during school actually pay back — and what does HRSA / Song-Brown / employer reimbursement change.

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CALC-07

Per-Diem Hourly Floor Calculator

The refusal-floor tool — for daily per-diem / PRN shift decisions. Given an equivalent-role staff RN package (base + KFF employer health + 401(k) match + PTO + ancillary benefits), compute the hourly rate below which the offered per-diem shift nets less total comp than a pro-rata slice of the staff role. Applies a 20% flexibility premium (market-signal calibrated to NSI 2024 Nursing Salary Survey). W-2 PRN vs 1099 local-contract branch with SE-tax gap math. State reporting-time-pay context for CA (IWC Wage Orders §5), DC, MA, NJ, NY, RI — NOT Labor Code §510.

Use when: A PRN pool coordinator or 1099 local-agency offers a per-diem shift at a specific hourly rate and you need to decide before end-of-shift. Decision: does this rate clear the floor given the benefits I give up + the no-call risk I'm taking on.

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CALC-08

CRNA Transition ROI Calculator

Model a full CRNA-school transition: opportunity cost of lost RN wages during a 28-36 month program + tuition + living expenses, against post-grad CRNA compensation (BLS 29-1151 May 2024 median ~$212K) by state. Accounts for COA 2025 DNP mandate, 2,000+ clinical hours + 600+ anesthesia cases minimums, 42 CFR §410.69 Medicare opt-out state status (19 states), and HRSA loan forgiveness eligibility.

Use when: Deciding whether to pursue CRNA school — the single highest-compensated nursing specialty. Decision: does the $400K+ total-cost-of-transition (lost wages dominate) pay back across a 30-year career, and how does state opt-out status change the reimbursement pathway.

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How to pick the right calculator

Decision flowchart

You have a specific travel contract in hand → run it through the Travel Nurse Contract Analyzer. This tells you if the stipends are defensible under IRS Pub 463 for your tax-home and whether the contract math matches what the recruiter pitched.
You're comparing a travel offer against a staff offer (or trying to decide whether to convert travel to staff, or vice versa) → use the Agency vs Staff Pay Equivalence Calculator. It normalizes both offers to net-of-benefits weekly take-home and solves the crossover weekly-gross algebraically.
You have a sign-on or retention bonus with a clawback clause and you're considering leaving before the cliff — or you're negotiating a bonus contract before signing → use the Sign-on Bonus Clawback Analyzer. State-specific enforceability tier + IRS §1341 tax recovery + FMLA/USERRA/Title VII exit-reason levers.

What these tools deliberately don't do

These calculators are decision-support, not legal advice. They surface the same math an employment attorney would walk you through on the first phone call, so you arrive at that call already oriented — but they do not substitute for consultation with a nurse-employment attorney when real money is at stake. Every statute citation in the Clawback Analyzer links to the underlying state labor code; every pay comparison in the Agency vs Staff tool shows its assumptions; every stipend flag in the Contract Analyzer cites IRS Publication 463 directly.

Clinical decisions are out of scope. So are licensure disputes, disciplinary proceedings, and NCLEX preparation. For those, start at the State Board of Nursing licensure guide, the NPDB guide for nurses, or the NCLEX-RN guide.

Related guides

Deeper context for each calculator:

Travel nursing complete guide — contract lifecycle, agency landscape, IRS Pub 463 exposure framework, post-pandemic rate normalization.
RN salary in California, New York, Texas — state-specific pay data against which the calculators benchmark.
CCRN, CEN, OCN, CNOR — specialty cert pay differentials the calculators account for.
Top hospital systems and travel agencies — 16 gate-passing employer intelligence pages.
RN resume guide + RN application pack generator — when the math works out, ship the application.

Source policy

Pay data references BLS OEWS 29-1141 Registered Nurses. Stipend rules reference IRS Publication 463 Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses. Clawback enforceability tiers cite state wage-law statutes (CA Labor Code §§ 2920-2922; NY Labor Law § 193; MA Wage Act § 148; WA RCW 49.48; IL 820 ILCS 115; CT § 31-71e; NJ N.J.S.A. 34:11) and IRS Publication 525 for the claim-of-right §1341 framework. FMLA retaliation framing cites 29 U.S.C. § 2615; USERRA cites 38 U.S.C. §§ 4301-4335; Title VII cites 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e. All page content last verified: 2026-06-04. Pages outside our 90-day verification window are demoted per POLICY-01-nursing.