The travel physical therapy financial calculator is an easy to use tool to help travel therapists understand their work compensation. Although anyone can use this tool, it is specifically designed for travelers, because of the confusion that can surround the different packages they receive with hourly pay and stipends.

Gross (Pre-Tax) Tab:

How to use the Travel Physical Therapy Financial Calculator

Use of the travel physical therapy financial calculator is very simple. All you need to know is the number of hours and days you will work per week, your hourly rate,  and the amount of your weekly housing and meal stipend.  You will be provided with all the required information when presented with an offer for each job contract. Once you have the proposed contract, populate the yellow cells with the information.

All of the calculations will be done for you. Follow column A to your hourly rate and see your total compensation information. You can then compare the results to other possible hourly rates above or below yours. The information provided by the travel physical therapy financial calculator can aid in negotiating your hourly rate and stipends.

NOTE: If you are presented with a unique hourly rate that doesn’t fall in the chart, you can use the yellow highlighted cell, I 9, to enter your customized rate. Your output for this will be listed in row 26. If your hourly rate falls cleanly into the table provided, then there is no need to put a customized rate in cell I 9. The only place you ever need to input information are the yellow highlighted cells.

Net (After-Tax) Tab:

The use of this tool functions identically to the tab described above, except for the addition of your tax rate. This tab gives you a more realistic expectation of take-home earnings after taxes. You will likely not be given a tax rate, but we have found that 25% is a good estimate. Once you start receiving pay stubs, you can calculate your exact tax rate.

You can do this by using the amount of total taxes (federal, state, etc.) taken from your paycheck and dividing by your pretax earnings for that paycheck. You can multiply this number by 100 to get a percentage. Until you know your exact tax rate, using 25% will work fine for this tab as a reasonable and realistic starting point.

I hope that this tool will help clear the muddy waters of travel PT finances and allow PTs to achieve a desirable compensation. I know first hand that it can be overwhelming, and this tool can provide a simple reference to aid in your decision making. Often you will have to make very quick decisions about a job or contract and this tool will allow you to do this with improved confidence in your decision.

Download the Travel Physical Therapy Financial Calculator by registering below.