Every number sourced to a federal primary source or a published industry report with a visible date: BLS OES 29-1141 for permanent-staff wage comparisons, IRS Publication 463 for travel-contract tax-home rules, GSA CONUS tables for per-diem ceilings. Built so a nurse can sanity-check a contract before the recruiter's end-of-week deadline.
Paste a travel-nurse contract's numbers and see what the recruiter isn't quantifying: stipend legality under IRS Pub 463 (tax-home audit risk), cancellation exposure if the contract cancels mid-way, agency-specific weekly deductions, and how the contract annualizes against BLS 29-1141 permanent-staff pay for the assignment state.
Sources: IRS Pub 463 · GSA CONUS · BLS OES 29-1141 · agency recruiting pages + SEC 10-K filings
Contract says you owe $X back if you leave early. Real practical exposure after state wage-repayment law (CA §§ 2920-2922, NY Labor Law 193, MA Wage Act), exit-reason protections (Title VII, FMLA, USERRA), and IRS §1341 tax recovery is typically materially less. Understand the exposure before paying.
Sources: state wage-payment statutes · IRS Pub 525 · FMLA · USERRA · Title VII
Travel ads quote weekly gross; staff ads quote base hourly. The two are not comparable until you strip federal tax + FICA + benefits-gap from travel and add employer-paid health insurance + 401(k) match + pension to staff. Surfaces the crossover weekly gross and applies the IRS Pub 463 12-month rule that voids stipend non-taxability past 52 weeks at one location.
Sources: BLS OES 29-1141 · IRS Pub 463 (12-month rule) · KFF 2024 Employer Health Benefits Survey · Vanguard How America Saves
The most-used daily calculator for working RNs. Base + stacked (or highest-single) night/weekend/holiday/charge/preceptor differentials + state-aware daily overtime (CA Labor Code §510, AK §23.10.060, NV §608.018, CO COMPS #39, KY §337.050, IL ODRISA) + IRS Publication 15 supplemental-vs-aggregate withholding reality.
Sources: FLSA 29 USC §207 · CA §510 · AK §23.10.060 · NV §608.018 · CO COMPS #39 · KY §337.050 · IL 820 ILCS 140 · IRS Pub 15
Is the degree worth it? Honest math: program cost + lost-earnings during reduced-hours schedule + IRC §127 employer-reimbursement cap ($5,250/yr tax-free) + HRSA Nurse Corps ($100K) and Song-Brown ($50K) forgiveness + Lifetime Learning Credit + student loan interest deduction + APRN full-practice-authority state scope + NPV over your working horizon. Tuition is the small number — lost-earnings is the real cost.
Sources: BLS 29-1171 NP · 29-1151 CRNA · 29-1161 CNM · IRC §127 · §221 · §25A · HRSA Nurse Corps · CA Song-Brown · AANP 2024 Practice Environment
Is CRNA school worth it for you? Full opportunity-cost math for the RN-to-CRNA transition: 28-36 months of lost RN wages (full-time intensity — you can't work during the program) + tuition + living expenses vs $212,650 BLS 29-1151 median. COA DNP mandate (2025-01-01) + 42 CFR §410.69 Medicare opt-out status for 19 states + 2,000+ clinical hour minimum. Tuition is a minority of the real cost.
Sources: BLS 29-1151 · 42 CFR §410.69 · COA accreditation standards · AANA scope of practice · CMS Medicare opt-out records · HRSA Nurse Corps
Should you take this PRN shift? Computes the hourly floor below which the per-diem rate does NOT match an equivalent-role staff total-comp package (base + KFF-2024 employer health $8,951 + Vanguard 4% 401(k) match + 120 hrs PTO + ancillary benefits), plus a 20% flexibility premium (NSI 2024 per-diem market signal). Branches on W-2 PRN vs 1099 local-contract with IRS Schedule SE self-employment-tax gap math. State reporting-time-pay context for CA (IWC Wage Orders §5, NOT Labor Code §510), DC, MA, NJ, NY.
Sources: KFF 2024 Employer Health Benefits · Vanguard How America Saves 2024 · IRS Topic 554 SE Tax · IWC Wage Orders §5 · CA DIR reporting-time FAQ · 12 NYCRR §142 · 454 CMR 27.04 · N.J.A.C. 12:56 · D.C. Code §32-1003
The travel-nurse market quotes weekly gross — a single large-looking number like "$3,800/wk" that conflates taxable wages with non-taxable stipends, ignores the tax-home rules that determine whether the stipend half is actually non-taxable, and doesn't model the contract cancellation exposure that turns a 13-week commitment into 3 weeks of pay plus an out-of-pocket flight home.
Indeed, NurseRecruiter, and travel-nurse job boards show the advertised rate. They don't show the math on stipend legality under IRS Publication 463, which is where nurses lose $10,000–$25,000 when an audit reclassifies stipends as taxable wages. The flagship Travel Nurse Contract Analyzer makes that math visible.
