Six Important Things To Include in Your Next Travel Physical Therapy Contract
Chillin’ at a park in Lake Tahoe enjoying the fall foliage with our sweet pup, Honey Bee. 🍯🐝
Picture this.
You finally muster the courage to quit your job and take your first travel physical therapy contract. You leave everyone and everything you’ve ever known and move to a random city. You arrive at your contract location and all is well for the first couple of weeks… until the hospital census drops.
As a result, your supervisor sends you home after lunch two days in a row. You’re stoked to get extra time off! But when you check your paystub, you realize you didn’t get paid for those 8 hours you were called off. Not cool, right?
This continues to happen each week. You're flexed off more and more until you're working <30 hours per week. Your weekly pay drops dramatically, and now you’re making less than you were making as a permanent PT.
This sucks! You didn’t get into travel to get paid less than you did as a staff PT. Maybe travel physical therapy isn't all it's cracked up to be... Or maybe, you just came into it unprepared.
I wrote this blog post to save you from learning the hard way.
You know what they say, right? — “If it ain’t writ[ten], it ain’t shit”!
“If it ain’t writ, it ain’t shit!”
As a travel therapist, your contract must have certain information written in to protect your pay and to protect you from landing in sh*tty situations.
Keep reading to learn some of the most important line items to include in your next travel PT contract.
36-to-40-hour guarantee, AKA guaranteed hours
Having guaranteed hours written into your contract is the best way to make sure you get paid the maximum amount during your travel PT contract.
Having 40 hours guaranteed means that you will be paid for 40 hours of work no matter what. For example, if you get called off early due to low census or your first/last patient of the day cancels.
As long as you did not leave the building voluntarily (e.g. you requested time off, went home sick, etc.), you will be paid for all 40 hours of work.
It’s important to note – not all travel contracts will offer guaranteed hours.
If getting paid is a top priority for you, it's a good strategy to select contracts that offer guaranteed hours (your recruiter will be able to tell you this information). And if not, you still have the option to try and negotiate guaranteed hours into your contract.
I wouldn’t accept a contract with anything less than 36 hours guaranteed (32 guaranteed hours bare minimum – even if it was my dream job). I’m not trying to uproot my life and be available to work for 40 hours a week but only get paid for </= 30 hours.
There have been several occasions in my 5+ years of travel where a recruiter has verbally told me I have a 40-hour guaranteed work week (40 hr GWW). Then, after I start the job, they turn around and tell me that the facility actually has a policy where they can call me off for up to 8 hours per week.
Sounds like conflicting information, am I right?
This is a perfect example of why you must have guaranteed hours written into your contract.
In each of these instances, I had a respectful conversation with my recruiter and referenced the 40-hour guaranteed work week written into my contract. Because I had it written in, each of these recruiters honored my 40-hour guarantee.
If the guarantee wasn't written into the contract, I'm sure I would’ve lost out on some money.
14-to-30-day cancellation clause
Do not – I repeat – DO NOT accept a contract without ensuring there is a cancellation clause in your travel therapy contract.
The last thing you want is to uproot your life and move to a new city, only to show up to work one day and find out they canceled your contract on a whim.
Ideally, you have a 2- to 4-week cancellation clause. This means they're required to give you that much notice before canceling your contract. A couple weeks will give you enough time to find another contract without having a significant gap between jobs (and keep you from losing out on money!).
Like guaranteed hours, not all contracts will have a cancellation clause built in. It may be something you have to ask for or negotiate into your contract.
One of the main horror stories of travel therapy is when a traveler gets canceled, then stuck in a 3-month lease, losing thousands of dollars to rent a place they're not going to use.
You can avoid this situation by having a cancellation clause in your contract and negotiating a month-to-month lease with your landlord. Most landlords will have rented to travel healthcare workers before and understand the volatility of our jobs.
Confirm any dates off requested
When you submit to a travel PT job, your recruiter will ask you if you need any dates off during your contract.
So, these dates should be in your interviewer’s hands when you get an interview call. But, I would still double-check that these dates are okay with your supervisor on your interview call.
Last but not least, make sure these dates at written into your contract before signing.
If you end up accidentally scheduled on one of those dates for any reason, you can refer to the contract to clear things up.
You don’t miss that important wedding, family event, or vacation, after all.
Overlooking Lake Tahoe on the Monkey Rock Trail. If it weren’t for the flexibility & extra time off that travel PT contracts allow, we wouldn’t be able to visit epic places like this! I took 6 days off in the middle of a contract so we could spend a significant amount of time at Lake Tahoe in the fall. My contract location was just 2 hours away in Susanville, CA.
Confirm taxable wage & stipends match what your recruiter quoted you
Information can get lost easily during your travel therapy job search. There are lots of hypothetical situations, numbers, and contracts thrown around in the job search process.
During the job search, keep a detailed log of potential jobs, including screenshots of pay quotes if you’re communicating by text. If you usually communicate via phone call, also ask for pay quotes in writing via text/email.
Once you nail that interview and receive your travel therapy contract, run the numbers and confirm that your pay is similar to what your recruiter quoted. There are a lot of factors at play and the numbers might not match up exactly, but it should be in the ballpark!
If it’s significantly less than you were quoted, have a respectful conversation with your recruiter and ask for a breakdown of the pay situation so you can understand what’s going on.
Good travel therapy recruiters will often match what they initially quoted you, as long as you’re respectful and kind in your approach.
Overtime rate is AT LEAST equivalent to your “blended” hourly rate
If you expect to work overtime (something important to ask during the interview), calculate your “blended rate”.
Your blended rate estimates your net pay (including your taxable hourly rate + your stipends), broken down by hour.
You can calculate your blended rate like this:
*NOTE: This assumes an estimated 20% tax rate… 100% - 20% = 80%. So multiply your hourly rate times 0.80.
*If you’re estimating a 25% tax rate, multiply your hourly rate times .75.
*If you’re estimating a 30% tax rate, multiply your hourly rate times .70.
Confused?
Here’s a real-time example of a blended rate calculation with hypothetical numbers:
$47.55 hourly rate (before taxes)
$413 meals & incidentals stipend
$686 housing stipend
Substitute the numbers in from your own contract and see what you end up with!
Once you’ve calculated your blended rate, make sure your overtime rate is at the very least equal to your blended rate.… Preferably more!
Think about it… if you’re making LESS for your OT hours than you were hourly for your first 40 hours, is it even worth it?… Probably not.
Chances are, your travel agency is charging the facility more per hour than the original bill rate they charged for the first 40 hours, so you deserve to make more money too!
It’s important to note, your overtime rate will likely be something you will have to learn to negotiate with your recruiter as your OT rate will often just be 1.5x your hourly rate by default.
Important non-negotiables — e.g. No weekends, no double-booking, no floating to other units, etc.
If you don’t want to be double-booked or floated to other units during your contract, it is imperative that you ask these important questions during the interview!
In my experience, if I’ve asked these questions during the interview, they’ve never gone against their word.
Regardless, I still make sure it’s included in the contract.
If push came to shove and I was asked to do something unreasonable/unethical, I would refer back to the contract and explain there's a reason that's written — because that's what they told me.
Now, this doesn’t guarantee that they will go by their original word. But it will give you something to fall back on.
If they continued to push back and dig their heels in, I would kindly give my notice and bow out.
Chillin’ in our 2nd self-built campervan, Fran the Van. We built this tiny home on wheels with our own two hands (see Our Instagram Reels for the build process). Deciding to do travel therapy + vanlife are two of the most impactful decisions we’ve ever made!
Conclusion: Key Points for Your Next Travel Physical Therapy Contract
Remember, if it ain't writ... it ain’t shit!
Guaranteed Hours (36-to-40-hours):
Ensure you have a guaranteed number of hours (e.g., 40 hours) in your contract to protect your pay even if you get called off due to low census or patient cancellations.
14-to-30-day Cancellation Clause:
Always include a cancellation clause (ideally 2-4 weeks' notice) to prevent unexpected contract cancellations that could leave you in a tough situation.
Confirm Requested Dates Off:
Double-check that any requested time off is not only communicated to your manager, but also explicitly written into your contract to avoid scheduling conflicts from miscommunication.
Verify Pay Quotes with Contract:
Keep a detailed record of pay quotes and ensure that your final pay matches what your recruiter initially quoted. Discuss discrepancies respectfully with your recruiter.
Overtime Rate Matching Blended Rate:
Calculate your "blended rate" (hourly taxable pay + stipends combined — broken down by hour) and make sure your overtime rate is at least equal to this rate, preferably more.
No Double-Booking or Floating:
Address concerns about double-booking or floating to other units during your interview, and ensure these terms are included in your contract to avoid misunderstandings later.
Remember, having these key ideas written into your contract is essential for protecting your interests and ensuring a successful and fair experience at your travel physical therapy contract.
If any issues arise during your assignment, you can reference your contract to resolve them.
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