Per diem vs Housing allowance?

These are the same thing, right?  I find this so confusing.  I am in the process of negotiating a contract in the Portland OR area.  The government website states $ 88.00/day per diem and $41.00/day meals and incidentals.  The company I am working with says the "housing allowance" is $1000.00/month.  That is
$1600.00 a month less than the government allows, and they don't even consider the meals and incidentals component.  I know they don't have to pay the government rate, but how do they decide how much they do pay and is it wildly different from one company to another?  A fellow traveler told me she never takes less than the full amount that the government allows.  How does she do this?  My company told me the housing allowance was what it was and no negotiating about it!  Any insight would be appreciated.

You have two options, you can either have your housing provided for you or you can get a stipend (housing allowance, per diem rate).  You just about always want to go with a stipend.  I just made a post about this here; http://www.healthcaretravelbook.com/forums/viewtopic/3/896#p2109
 
The Portland, OR County is Multnomah.  For that county the maximum per diem rate is $179 a day.  Most companies like mine avoid the confusion of monthly rates and put into an hourly rate.  To get that figure we combine both the lodging rate and the meals and incidentals rate which is that $179 figure. Then we take that number and multiply it by 7 (days in a week) then divide it by 40 (hours you’ll work in a week) and that would be your hourly tax free per diem rate.  The most amount of tax free money you can make in Portland would be $31.33 an hour.  This would be $1,253.20 a week net or $5,012.80 a month.  I’m working with an OT in Portland and gave her the maximum per diem rate.  You should be getting it too.  
 
You can’t always get the full amount of per diem (depending on the county you’re working in) because of the bill rates we get.  For instance, right now the max per diem rate in NYC would be $64 an hour tax free.  There’s no way you’ll ever get that.  That figure is not to far off from our bill rates and we have to pay you a taxable portion in your hourly rate as well.   
 
Just curious, did you get the Trinity Mission Health and Rehab of Portland position?
 
Hope that all helped, if you have anymore questions feel free to fire away.

This is something we have found very confusing/frustrating as well. Every company has their own way of paying. I'm guessing that this company is just paying you a higher taxable rate paired with this lower tax free rate (AMN & CCTC both pay this way). Other companies that pay the max tax free amount often pay a much lower taxable amount. It all typically (or at least should) balance out in the end as far as how much you see on your weekly pay check. The easiest way I have found to compare job offers from multiple companies that each pay so different like this is to break it all down to see what the final weekly check amount will be after taxes. I use paycheckcity.com (their hourly calculator) to get the taxable take home amount based on whatever state. And then you have to just break down your tax free money into a weekly rate. So, $1,000 per month divided by 31 days = $32.26 per day x 7 days a week = $225.81 per week tax free. Then of course add in if you get the meals allowance or whatever else. Like I said, it usually balances out pretty closely because all of the companies likely have a similar bill rate in the same area. But this is the only way to truly compare apples to apples when companies pay so extremely differently.

Thanks so much for the answers.  I am an RN and this is just a 6 week contract so I was going to take the housing this time because I felt getting 6 week housing was going to be too much of a hassel, but really, where is a person supposed to get housing for less than $33.00/day?  The hourly rate 35.00, which doesn't seem all that great to me.  This is not my first travel assignment, earlier this year I was in a tiny town (teeny tiny actually) in the middle of nowhere California and the pay (for another company) was much better.  I have been at home working registry and was a bit desperate to get back to full time work  - hence I ended up with the present debacle.  Anyway it probably all boils down to the fact that the words "tough" and "negotiator" just do not appear anywhere on my DNA - I am going to work on that, that and growing a backbone!  Thank you again for the insight, and any more words of wisdom you might want to share.

I hear ya...it is super frustrating!!! We took an assignment back home which is a small town and you can find housing for super cheap but we got an awesome stipend...on our current assignment in Phoenix, AZ where housing is much more (especially since we are in their high season) we got 25% less on stipend. Super annoying and makes no sense. I assume it all has to do with the bill rate and apparently Phoenix, AZ in the winter has low bill rates.

I know it can be super frustrating and confusing when recruiters start throwing out different terms that may seem like the same thing! One thing I will tell you, and I like to tell my travellers as well is that if it doesn’t make sense to you, keep asking questions. I like to spell it out exactly for you(hourly pay rate, daily per diem or meals & incidentals, and housing stipend or lodging per diem) and then I quote your “weekly take home AFTER taxes,” which is obviously an estimate.

Every company does set up their pay packages a little differently. At Clinical One we like to keep everything separated since that’s how it will look on your paycheck. And Kelli is right, everything relates back to the bill rate that we get from the hospital(all companies get the same bill rate). We take the one rate from the hospital and build your package off of that. Even though the government sets these maximums for per diems we still have to work within the bill rate that the hospital gives us.

I would say to keep asking your company to spell out exactly what you’ll be taking home in your paycheck so you won’t have any surprises! Also, paycheckcity.com or https://www.paycycle.com/external/business/paycheckCalculators.jsp are a couple great websites where you can plug in your gross pay and get a pretty great estimate of what your will be taking home in your paycheck. 

Well said Megan and Kelli!  The breakdowns can get pretty crazy and super confusing.  Given the bill rate limitations companies can't always max out the tax free money (but trust me we do try, that tax free money is pretty awesome!).  A great thing about tax advantage from some of my travelers is that even if a company doesn't give you all the tax free money that's allowed, you can still claim the remaining amount!  Now I'm no tax expert so you definitely want to consult your accountant to get the details, but I highly recommend doing that!