While compensation offers can vary greatly depending on the contract or agency offering, pay packages for travel MRI tech jobs typically have four major components: hourly taxable wages, meals and incidentals, housing, and travel.
Hourly Pay
Full-time MRI techs working at healthcare facilities receive a salary, but most travel allied health employers offer hourly wages. Every pay package must include a taxable hourly wage, and the amount can vary depending on the shifts offered, location, and specialty required of the assignment.
Housing
Housing stipends can be included in a payment from an allied staffing agency. This is typically offered in two ways. Either the company is providing housing, or the traveler is taking the housing stipend. It is more beneficial for the traveler to take the housing stipend for two primary reasons. First, they will have a choice in where they stay. Everyone’s definitions of comfortable and acceptable are different. The second reason the housing stipend is more beneficial for them is that it can be given as a nontaxable amount.
Meals and Incidentals
Also known as per diems, meal and incidental stipends provide travelers a daily budget for daily living expenses. These standards vary depending on the cost of living in cities and states across the country.
Travel Expenses
Travel is the last portion of the pay package. While a travel stipend can be used to cover the cost of a flight for the traveler, it is more often than not used to subsidize the traveler’s expenses to and from an assignment. Travel expenses can be offered as a reimbursement rate per mile, though many agencies will opt to offer a flat rate to and from an assignment.