A Traveler's Contract: Breaking It Down
What’s In A Contract?
If you are new to the travel therapy world, you may be nervous about signing your first assignment contract. It seems like a lot between reviewing the start and end dates, hourly pay, per diems, and not knowing if you are getting a good deal.
In this article we will break down the different aspects of a travel therapy contract so you have a better understanding of what’s included, and what can be negotiated.
The vast majority of each contract will include legal details such as
Professional Responsibilities
Alcohol and Drug Policy
Background Check Information
Health Record Information
Referral Bonus
Holiday/Vacation/Sick Pay Benefits
Injury On The Job
Harassment policy
Grievance Process
And more lawyer worded paragraphs that will typically scare anyone reading a contract
I take the time to read all pages for each contract incase something changes. It’s the typical contract information making you feel that if anything goes wrong, the company can’t be held responsible, but still worth reading so you know exactly what you are signing.
The remaining portion of the contract will be the specifics of your assignment, which is where you want to spend extra time reviewing. I would recommend reading the entire contract so you know what you are signing, but pay close attention to this section as it is where you find the specifics in regards to what you are getting paid, as well as, your work hours (guaranteed or not), and start/end dates.
Without going into details for our current location or pay break down, listed below is an example of our contract
Start and End date:
These should match what you discussed with your recruiter. Ultimately most contracts will be either 13 weeks or 26 weeks, but can be negotiated. If you decide on a 26 week contract or longer, you will have better negotiation power regarding increased pay or time off, etc.
Name of Facility:
Pretty self explanatory; make sure you aren’t expected to go between two or more facilities (unless that’s what you agreed upon). If so, are they paying you mileage between facilities or for your driving time from one facility to the next (if expected to be at more than one facility in a single day).
Report to:
Jane Smith (who to ask for when you arrive at facility Day 1 and/or your boss/director). Should also include their contact information, should you need to get ahold of them on or before the first day, as well as the address of the facility where you are expected to work.
Shift:
Not all contracts have this, but it is pretty much expected that therapists (SLP, OT, PT) will primarily be working days.
Weekend obligations:
Some contracts say “as needed”, some may say “every other weekend”, and if you negotiated no weekend work, make sure it says so. We haven’t had any issue with this, but it would be more difficult to decline weekend work if our contract stated “as needed”.
Hours: 8:00-5:00
If you are working in outpatient or inpatient; there are likely very specific work hours. Having done several assignments in skilled nursing facilities, I have found they typically put 8:00-5:00 pm, or “Flexible Start Time” with 8 hour days. Of all the settings, the SNF has been the most flexible (I’m sure home health is as well, but I have yet to work in that setting). Contracts may also read “Typical Schedule Monday-Friday”, if this is what you agreed to, make sure it is in writing.
PreArranged Time Off:
This is a big one. It is very important to request time off during the negotiation period, to make sure it is in your contract prior to it being signed by both parties. Honestly, we find this so hard, because you have to plan your 13 weeks well ahead of time to ensure you have vacation when you want it. You may not know this far ahead when friends or family will be visiting. We have found that if we do not know exact dates, we will ask that the days be entered as “TBD” so we can adjust them as needed should travel plans change. This is the best way to guarantee that you will have time off during your assignment. Some jobs will not allow more than a couple days when first negotiated, in fact, we were once told, no more than 3. Usually if we do a 13 week assignment, we might have one or two 3 day weekends, but typically work without vacation because between assignments we take 1-2 weeks off to travel. If we negotiate an extension, that’s when we ask for a few days or up to 1 week if needed.
Spencer enjoying his pre-arranged time off while hiking Tumbledown Mountain in Maine (yes he hiked all 5 miles)
Holidays: I understand that I will be working on the following holiday(s) .
We see this statement A LOT in our contracts, but no holidays have ever been specifically listed. While I’m sure it’s possible to work a holiday, the directors at our facilities have went through great effort to ensure we don’t work any holiday. They don’t want to pay a traveler time and a half pay for a holiday if they can help it. Having said that, double check just incase you want that holiday off.
Hourly Wage:
This is the make or break section. Be sure to double check your hourly wage as well as overtime wage before signing. Although many companies try hard to not have travelers work over time, it happens more than you think and you want to make sure you are getting paid for it. Remember, the hourly wage will not be as high as a typical PT/OT/SLP/Nurse hourly wage as you will be receiving meal and living per diems which account for a large portion of your take home pay. Hourly wages can vary. We have seen a range from $15/hour up to $29/hour. It depends on the contract, the per diems you are receiving and the company. What is most important is that your take home pay is what you are expecting and were quoted by your recruiter before you sign your paperwork.
Overtime Wage:
This can be negotiated. Our first few contracts we assumed overtime wage was time and a half like all our jobs. Well, it can be, but consider this. Lets say you are making an hourly wage of 15$ per hour. You receive your meal and living per diems making your take home pay quite good for a normal 40 hour week. However, once you are into overtime, you don’t receive any additional meal or living per diems. Therefore, if your overtime is just time and a half, for every hour overtime you work, you receive only 22.50$/hour. Hardly worth the extra time at work. Despite the fact that you are receiving that $22.50, your company could be charging 4 times that to your employer cashing in on YOUR OVERTIME work. We have since negotiated our overtime rate to account for this discrepancy as we were finding that we were getting overtime more frequently than expected, especially in places where we were the only PT. Again, most companies try and prevent travelers from working overtime. Out of 7 assignments, I have had overtime during 2, as has my wife. But, should it happen, since you are doing the work, make sure you are getting paid for it.
On call pay/hour; Call back pay; Call back parameters:
For travel PT,OT, SLP, it’s likely these won’t apply and we haven’t had anything written in these sections.
Productivity:
Each location is different. For outpatient you want to ask what a typical caseload is during your interview process, and if you are expected to see only 1-2 patients per hour, it would be good to have that in writing. As for SNF, always ask during an interview what the productivity standards are. I have seen a wide range with 75% being the absolute lowest, but on average they are pushing 85%-90%. That is incredibly high. I always make sure to have absolutely nothing in my contract that states I must meet a productivity standard at a SNF. I have heard terrible stories of new travelers getting sucked into a contract with a productivity standard in their contract and then getting cut without any pay because they couldn’t meet it. It is very important though that you ask during your interview and feel comfortable with meeting or getting near their expectations for productivity if you accept the job, because once you start work, you will be expected to meet those standards. I was the only PT at a SNF, and despite them having no other interest for perm or travelers, I was being asked after only one week with a new system why I wasn’t at 90%. Luckily I didn’t have anything specific in my contract about productivity.
Meal and incidental per diem:
Example: $40 per day worked for a total of $280 per week (based on 7 day week, but 5 day work week) This is a tax free portion of your pay that varies based on location. Again, make sure when you do the math of your contract that the meal and living per diems, as well as the hourly wage equal what your take pay was quoted by your recruiter. To get a better idea of what the going rate is for living and meal per diems, Click here for the GSA website and enter your location. It gives you a rough idea of what you could get on the higher end.
Living per diem:
Example: 100$ per day worked for a total of 700 per week (based on 7 day week, but 5 day work week) (see above paragraph for further details)
Dress code:
Whatever they expect! Our section is sometimes left blank and we receive an email regarding our dress code from our recruiter. Each company may be different, but the dress code usually matches what you would expect from each setting as a permanent employee. Hospital=scrubs (may want specific color); SNF=scrubs or business casual; Outpatient= polo shirt with khakis and new balance? Ha, no, but you get the picture.
Travel Allowance: This is the money you will be reimbursed for the cost of traveling to your assignment. This amount varies and as of yet, only one contract has had enough of a travel allowance to actually cover our full travel expenses. I could see how if you were driving longer hours and staying at budget hotels that it could cover the costs, but we typically turn our drives into an adventure taking extra time and more frequent stops. Either way, this can be negotiated to an extent, but will be limited by the company and what they can offer.
License Reimbursement:
Every company we have worked with has reimbursed us for licensure. We have obtained new licenses two different ways. The first is that the company does the leg work and fronts the cost of the license. In turn, we agree that if we fail to accept work in that state (with that company) we pay the license fees. The other option is we personally pursue licensure in a state we want, then submit documentation of our receipts for reimbursement once we accept an assignment. We did a blog post on this in the past. Click here to read more about it.
Cancellation policies: You will likely see “2 weeks” or “4 weeks”. I’ll be honest, before Covid-19 took it’s toll on travel jobs, it was much easier to negotiate “4 week cancellations” and we still had several that were only “2 weeks”. Typically this can be negotiated, though some skilled nursing facilities are very strict and won’t budge. Most settings will agree to the “4 week cancelation”. We always try to negotiate for 4 weeks because that gives you extra time to plan for your next destination and not be out of work at the drop of a hat. As a traveling pair, it is also very important as we have to be concerned with finding two jobs on short notice with a “2 week cancellation”.
Once you have managed to confirm all of these specific details of you assignment, if it looks good….SIGN IT. Get that job!
If for any reason something isn’t right
Wrong End date
Incorrect hourly wage (it happens, a few times!)
Lower per diems than you were quoted
Literally anything that isn’t correct
Let your recruiter know, make sure it is corrected and RE-READ IT
Once you are satisfied, sign it and get to work!
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