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The blended rate is not your rate

Recruiters quote one big hourly number. It is a taxable wage plus stipends, divided by your hours — and the two halves behave completely differently. Overtime is paid on the small half. Put in what you were quoted and see the offer as it actually is. Two of them, side by side.

The quote

The quote
About you — applies to both

The standard federal rate for FY2026 is $178 a day — $110 lodging plus $68 meals. Many cities are higher; look yours up on the GSA site and put the daily total here.

What the recruiter is not saying

Overtime comes off the small number

The blended rate exists to look big. Overtime does not use it — it uses your taxable hourly rate. A contract quoted at $65 an hour with a $24 taxable rate pays $36 for an overtime hour, not $97.50. Two offers with the same blended rate can pay very different overtime, and that is the difference this page shows.

Stipends are not free money — they have a ceiling

Housing and meal stipends are tax-free only up to the federal per diem for the city you are working in. The standard rate for FY2026 is $178 a day ($110 lodging, $68 meals). Anything above the ceiling is taxable wages.

Source: GSA per diem rates

No tax home, no tax-free anything

The whole structure rests on having a tax home — a real residence you keep paying for and return to. Without one you are not travelling away from home in the tax sense, and the entire stipend becomes taxable wages. Matching the GSA rate does not save it. Switch the tax home question above to see what that does to the same offer.

Source: IRS Topic 511 — business travel expenses

The small things that ride on the taxable rate

Overtime, call-back, holiday pay, unemployment, workers' compensation and disability are all worked out from the taxable wage. A low taxable rate makes every one of them smaller. That is why agencies keep it low, and why two offers that look identical are not.

What this is not

Estimates and links to the published rules — not tax advice and not a contract review. It does not model income tax, state tax or your agency's benefits. Cancelled shifts, guaranteed-hours clauses, missed-shift penalties and licence costs are in the contract, not in this page. Read the paperwork; bring this with you when you do.

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