Start here: reading a travel therapy pay package

This site is for travel therapists who have an offer in hand, or expect one, and want to understand how the money in it is built. Start with the explanation of a pay package, then compare your offer with the current medians for your discipline, which come from the Travel Therapy Pay Index for October 2026.

By ProTherapy Staffing, published October 25, 2026.

Who is this site for?

PTs, OTs, SLPs, PTAs and COTAs, new to travel or not, who are trying to judge an offer. Travel pay is not one salary. The facility pays the agency one contract rate, the agency keeps its margin, and what is left is split between a taxable hourly wage and stipends for housing and meals, plus any travel reimbursement and bonuses.

That split is why two offers with the same weekly gross can leave different amounts in your account, and why the pages here ask you to read an offer line by line rather than by its total.

Pay also moves with place, setting and timing. The same discipline can pay differently from state to state, or in a skilled nursing facility and a school in the same state, which is why the medians here are broken out rather than blended into one number.

Where should you start?

  1. Pay packages explained: every line of a package, from the taxable wage to the housing and meals stipends, to read with your offer in hand.
  2. Pay by discipline: current median weekly pay for PTs, OTs, SLPs, PTAs and COTAs on open contracts, with the number of contracts behind each figure.
  3. Why two agencies quote different pay for the same job: how one contract rate is divided, and the questions that show you an agency’s margin.
  4. Are travel therapy bonuses taxed? One of the newer guides, on why completion and extension bonuses are wages, with links to the IRS and the Department of Labor.
  5. Are the license fees and CEUs your agency pays for taxable? A newer guide built on two IRS publications, with what an offer should spell out.

When you are ready to ask for more, how to negotiate your pay has plain scripts for the call.

If you want an offer broken down so you can check it against these pages, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.

What on this site comes from data, and what is written?

The medians on the pay by discipline page and the weekly figures on the contract pay page are rendered from one pinned snapshot of current postings, the same one behind the Travel Therapy Pay Index, and are printed with its date. The current pin is October 2026. A median is the middle of current postings, not an offer, and when the pin moves the pages are rendered again rather than retyped.

The tax answers at the foot of the home page are quotations from IRS Publication 463, each with its link and the date it was read. The one that matters for every stipend reads: “If your allowance is less than or equal to the federal rate, the allowance won’t be included in box 1 of your Form W-2.” The federal rate for each place comes from GSA, which sets “the per diem rates that federal agencies use to reimburse their employees for lodging and meals and incidental expenses.” The newer guides are generated from a data file that lists every source with the date it was read.

The rest is written: the package explainer, the negotiation scripts, the PTA and PT comparison and the FAQ page are guidance in plain words. Where the home page and the package explainer type the GSA meals range, they name the fiscal year of the rates it comes from.

How do you reach a recruiter?

Use the “Find my next contract” link on this page or the form at the foot of a guide. It asks your discipline and the states you want, and a recruiter takes it from there. Ask for the offer broken down line by line, in writing, so you can set it against the pages above.

ProTherapy Staffing, which publishes this site, is owned and run by licensed physical therapists. The pay index is computed from the publisher’s own current contracts, so read it as one agency’s postings, not a survey of the market. If you would rather watch postings first, the job alerts page sends new contracts in your discipline by email, daily or weekly as you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Is the median on this site what I will be offered?

No. It is the middle of the current postings for a discipline in the October 2026 pin, not an offer. Your offer depends on the state, setting and facility, and on how the agency splits the contract rate.

Are stipends taxed?

Not when they are paid for travel away from your tax home at or below the federal rate. IRS Publication 463 says such an allowance is not included in box 1 of your Form W-2, and that any excess is.

Why does the same job pay differently at two agencies?

The facility pays one contract rate whichever agency fills the job. The difference in your pay comes from how each agency divides that rate between its costs, its margin and your package.

Sources

From ProTherapy Staffing ProTherapy Staffing — PT-Owned · Nationwide View Jobs →