Travel packages run $2,200 to $3,500 per week, and the number a recruiter quotes you is not the number you take home. Contracts fill staffing gaps at hospitals and ASCs nationwide, which means you walk into a room that is already short and start scrubbing with no ramp. Browse live travel surgical tech contracts below.
A weekly package is not a wage. It bundles taxable hourly pay with non-taxed stipends for housing and meals, and agencies build those two pieces in whatever ratio makes the headline number look best. Two contracts quoting $2,900 can land differently once you account for how much of it is stipend, whether you actually qualify for the stipend, and what the overtime rate is on the taxable portion. Ask for the split before you ask for the total. See how travel pay is structured before you compare two offers.
California, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest consistently post the highest volume, with HCA, Ascension, and CommonSpirit among the health systems that regularly staff travel roles across their networks. High volume also means high competition on rate; the best-paying contract is often the one in a market nobody is naming.
Demand tends to spike in Q1 and Q3 as facilities adjust budgets and census. The practical implication is that your rate has less to do with your resume than with when you happen to be available. A traveler between contracts in a soft month accepts less than the same traveler does in a spike.
Per week, usually yes. Per year, it depends on how many weeks you work and what you are giving up. There is no employer 401k match on most contracts, no accrued PTO, and gaps between assignments are unpaid. Travelers who net well are the ones who treat the gap between contracts as a scheduling problem, not a vacation.
No, provided you can explain it. Hiring managers read a string of thirteen-week contracts one of two ways: as broad exposure across service lines and systems, or as someone who does not stay. Which one they land on is decided by how you frame it in the interview, not by the resume itself. Name the specialties you picked up and why you are choosing to settle now.