Nurse capping nurse pay

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses and their jobs and salaries have been at the forefront of the conversation. It started with how thankful the world is for them, moved to how burnt out they are becoming, and now has currently settled on how quickly many of them are leaving their jobs and becoming travel nurses.

How Travel Nursing Works

Travel nurses sign on for agency-arranged contracts that can be anywhere from eight to 26 weeks long. These agencies then charge hospitals a fee, which covers the nurses’ salaries, as well as the agencies’ other expenses. Travel nurses usually make significantly more money than they do when they work on staff for a hospital, so many nurses decide to take this route. In addition to the money, they often find the opportunity to live and work in a new place appealing, and some are even able to take travel nursing contracts in nearby towns, which means more pay and no need to move. The downside of travel nursing is that it is contract-based, which means no long-term job security. This, combined with the fact that they’re often jumping into crisis situations or understaffed facilities, is a significant part of the reason why they’re paid so much. It can be taxing and expensive to have to look for a job, move, and learn a new job every few months, so travel nursing agencies pay handsomely in order to attract nurses to these roles.

The Current Nurse Situation

Across the country, hospitals and other medical facilities are woefully understaffed with nurses, which means more patients per nurse. Not only is this dangerous for patients, but it’s also exhausting and demoralizing for nurses as they are stretched thinner and see fewer positive outcomes for their patients. When the COVID-19 pandemic was peaking, hospitals realized they weren’t prepared to handle the influx of COVID patients, so they hired travel nurses to help alleviate some of the burdens on their staff nurses. As the pandemic progressed and medical facilities settled in for the long haul, however, staff nurses became increasingly burnt out by the long hours, discouraging days, and poor working conditions whether they worked with COVID patients or not. As a result, more and more nurses left their jobs (many to take travel nursing opportunities), and instead of raising pay or improving the working conditions of the nurses they had left, most hospitals resolved to hire more travel nurses. This frustrated the nurses who had stayed on, and we're now seeing these travel nurses make significantly more money for doing the same job. As a result, more staff nurses quit – some to become travel nurses and some nursing entirely and the cycle has continued, exacerbating the massive shortage of nurses across the country. Now, young nurses are being given far more responsibility than they are qualified for or want, and all nurses are being stretched thin. Even though having travel nurses come in would be helpful, in theory, the staff nurses still have to spend much of their time training them, which creates more frustration in the lower-paid group and reduces the travel nurses’ effectiveness.

Why People Are Talking About Nurse Pay Caps

In response to the nationwide nursing shortage, a group of nearly 200 bipartisan federal legislators has asked for a federal investigation into travel nurse staffing agencies, citing their concern that the agencies have been taking advantage of the pandemic and price-gouging hospitals that need to supplement their nursing staffs quickly. These higher prices then result in more profit for the staffing agencies but less ability for hospitals to hire and raise pay for their permanent nursing staff. Similarly, the American Hospital Association, the American Health Care Association, and the National Center for Assisted Living filed a request with the Federal Trade Commission to investigate these staffing agencies for antitrust violations. Some states have even begun or completed legislation that will cap how much travel nursing agencies can charge hospitals, hoping to put an end to the price-gouging. As news of these efforts came out, many nurses are now – understandably – concerned that forcing the agencies to lower their rates will result in salary caps for them. In response to this, legislators have clarified that they only want to reduce the amount of profit the staffing agencies were making from over-charging hospitals and would not support capping or reducing nurses’ salaries. However, it’s difficult to guarantee that this won’t happen as a result of capping the agencies’ rates, which is where the concern arises.

Capping Nurse Pay FAQ

1. Why do travel nurses get paid more?

   Travel nurses get paid more because they’re intended to fill in in crisis situations. These nurses take contracts that are usually about three to six months long, and they often go to hospitals that don’t have enough nurses to fulfill their demands. Because travel nurses are often more experienced nurses, and because of their willingness to uproot their lives for a period of time and go work in often undesirable locations, they are paid a significant amount of money to make up for their trouble. In addition to this, travel nurses are paid by the staffing agencies that find contracts and charge hospitals for them, so their paychecks also aren’t limited by hospital budgets.

2. What is the highest wage for a nurse?

   The highest wage for a nurse is over $180,000. Many Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists can make over $150,000 – some make over $180,000 in certain places. These nurses are highly trained and have master’s degrees, making them very valuable. Other high-paying nurse jobs include that of a Certified Nurse Midwife, Nurse Practitioner roles, and ICU nurses. Salary levels will change based on the particular role and experience level, but these are generally some of the highest-paying nursing roles with annual salaries that can reach into the $110,000s. In addition to these positions, travel nurses can make up to $130,870 a year. This varies depending on the number and type of contracts they receive, the level of experience they have, and their specialty, but it’s possible to make this much.

3. Is travel nurse pay decreasing?

   No, travel nurse pay isn’t decreasing. There have been requests for investigations into travel nurse agencies to see if they’re violating antitrust and consumer protection laws by using the pandemic as an opportunity to overcharge hospitals, but nothing that would directly affect travel nurse pay levels has been suggested. Some states have implemented or have started working to implement caps on how much travel nursing agencies can charge hospitals, intending to cut down on the exorbitant amount of profit these agencies have been making on hospitals’ lack of staff. The legislators and health representatives that have been pushing for these investigations and laws have made it clear that they are only trying to cut down on the amount of money the agencies are pocketing as profit, not travel nurses’ salaries. However, many people – especially nurses – are afraid that all this will cause the agencies to lower how much they’re paying their travel nurses instead of just lowering their profits.