First and foremost, travel nursing orientation pay is mandatory by law. It is illegal to not pay an employee for anything that’s mandatory, such as in-person training classes or online educational modules. If you haven’t been paid for something you were required to do, please contact your recruiter and ask why.
Second, make sure you bring up travel nursing orientation pay with your recruiter before you sign any contract. Make sure the rate you are being paid during orientation is specified, taxable or tax-free, and in writing. It’s much easier to ensure an agency’s accountability when you have everything in writing.
Like every other offering travel nurses get when travel nursing, orientation pay comes out of the bill rate hospitals pay the travel nursing agencies. It’s important to understand that this bill rate that hospitals pay agencies is the travel nursing agency’s only source of revenue. Some agencies will elect to not pay travel nurses for orientation, or not pay in full, to make more money for themselves.
If you’re a travel nurse, the hospital has no contract with you. The hospitals have contracts with agencies and agencies have contracts with you. So, make sure your orientation pay is clearly outlined in your contract with the agency in order to make sure you get paid for every hour that is mandatory. If you don’t get it in writing, the agency gets to decide where the money goes and they will very likely pocket it for themselves.
Make sure you also have the number of guaranteed hours per week in your contract with the agency. The contract you sign is with the travel nursing agency, not the hospital. What happens often is that during orientation you might not work a full week, 36 hours. Therefore, you will not be paid in full during orientation. If you don’t get paid in full during orientation because you didn’t work 36 hours, that is something to take up with the agency. You’ll only have leverage however if you have a specified number of guaranteed hours per week in writing. The hospitals in their contract with the travel nursing agency specify how many guaranteed hours their bill rate offers, and the contract you sign with the agency also should specify how many guaranteed hours of work you get per week.
Agencies will choose the words in your contract carefully. Because of that you should read every word and look out for a few things:
- Make sure your start or end dates are clearly defined and your orientation days are after your start date.
- Make sure you have a floor of guaranteed hours per week clearly stipulated
- If they do not have guaranteed hours in the contract, make sure you have a commitment to orientation pay in writing
If your travel nursing orientation pay isn’t clearly defined, what some agencies may do is pay you a lower rate than your hourly rate. They may also pay you in taxable income instead of tax-free. Unless you have an agreement in writing it really is up to them. Orientation pay will not come up in any marketing materials or conversations with recruiters. Orientation pay will not come up in the interview as the hospital has zero responsibility in the matter as they pay the agencies directly
You will have to be the one to bring up orientation pay and it will have to be clearly defined in the contract. If you don’t you will realize that you’re not getting paid in full when your paycheck comes significantly lower than what you thought you bargained for.
Payment for mandatory computer modules is also negotiable. These modules can take up 10-20 hours of your time and if you aren’t getting paid for something that’s mandatory then that is illegal and you need to be getting paid. Some nurses have never gotten paid for them because they’ve never asked, some nurses get paid a flat fee & some nurses have negotiated to receive $10 per hour. HealthTrust, a nationwide Vendor Management System (VMS) pays a flat fee for these mandatory education modules and Kaiser does as well.
There are some healthcare facilities out there that will call your agency out if you’re not getting paid in full for everything that’s mandatory. But you can also bring up to your agency that you’ll notify the DOL and they will comply with anything reasonable to avoid a lawsuit.