How to Read a Travel Therapy Pay Package
Line by line: taxable rate, housing, M&IE, guaranteed hours, missed-shift penalties and the four questions that expose a weak offer in one phone call.
Pay packages · 12 min read
Guides
Sixteen guides written for travel therapists and allied health clinicians, with every factual claim sourced to the IRS, GSA, BLS, CMS or a state revenue department. Where a tax rule applies identically to travel nurses, we say so. We take no agency money.
Travel Therapy Tax Home, Explained
The single rule that decides whether your stipends are tax-free. What the IRS actually requires, the three-factor test, and the 12-month trap.
Taxes · 13 min read
Red Flags in a Travel Therapy Contract Before You Sign
Fourteen clauses worth arguing about, from cancellation penalties and guaranteed-hours loopholes to stipend clawbacks and non-competes.
Contracts · 14 min read
Highest-Paying States for Travel Therapists 2026 (PT/OT/SLP)
We ran one identical package through all 51 US tax codes for 2026. The state-tax gap is real — and much smaller than the recruiter chat rooms claim.
Market data · 11 min read
GSA Per Diem Rates for Travel Therapists
Where stipend ceilings come from, how to look up your assignment city, and what the 75% first-and-last-day rule means for a 13-week contract.
Taxes · 10 min read
What Is a Housing Stipend?
Why half your package arrives untaxed, what the accountable plan rules require, and the $18,848 a year that rides on whether you have a tax home. Same rules for travel nurses and therapists.
Housing · 12 min read
How Much Is a Housing Stipend?
Why there is no useful average, the three things that actually set your number, and the taxable-rate split that moves take-home by $4,527 a year on an identical package.
Housing · 11 min read
Can You Keep a Housing Stipend If You Stay With Family?
The meals stipend survives; the housing stipend becomes wages if you pay no rent. Why staying with family usually still beats renting, on real numbers.
Housing · 9 min read
The 50-Mile Rule: What Happens When the Contract Is Near Home
Agency policy, not IRS law. The test that actually decides it, what commuting on a travel package costs, and the local rate that beats travelling once rent is paid.
Taxes · 9 min read
Company Housing vs Housing Stipend: Which Nets More?
The honest arithmetic, including the cases where company housing wins — short assignments, expensive metros and first contracts.
Housing · 11 min read
Travel PT vs Travel Nurse Pay: How Therapy Contracts Compare
Why therapy packages are steadier, smaller at the peaks, and structurally different from nursing — and what that means for how you negotiate.
Market data · 11 min read
Is Travel Therapy Worth It? The Real Numbers
A full-year model with the costs nobody puts in the spreadsheet: gap weeks, duplicate housing, licences, health cover and lost retirement match.
Career · 13 min read
Your First Travel Therapy Contract: 12 Mistakes That Cost Money
Almost every expensive mistake is made before you sign, and almost all of them are fixable in one afternoon of asking better questions.
Getting started · 13 min read
Travel Therapy Multi-State Taxes: Which Returns Do You Actually File?
Nonresident returns, the resident return, the credit for taxes paid to another state, reciprocity — and why your withholding is probably wrong.
Taxes · 13 min read
Travel Therapy Licensing: Compacts, Timelines and What It Costs
The trap nobody mentions: a state can be a compact member and still not issue you anything. How to check before you accept.
Licensure · 12 min read
SNF vs Outpatient vs Home Health: Which Setting Pays More?
The Medicare payment rules behind the rate differences — and why a per-visit home health package cannot be compared on blended rate at all.
Settings · 12 min read
Start with the numbers
Every guide here points back to the same place: the travel therapy pay calculator. Put your own offer in and see what it is worth after 2026 federal, FICA and state tax.