Hey Amanda. First, I'm sorry that your first contract is not living up to expectations.
When you ask what hourly rate is too low, I'm not sure there is an answer for that. I believe perhaps you might have read about the trappings of some tax advantage programs where they exempt you from taxes on a large chunk of your rate and it ends up being below what the IRS would deem a fair rate for an RN. However, you are not participating in any such program because you ARE being taxed on everything. Since the IRS is getting theirs, I don't know who it would be that would deem your rate "too low" (other than yourself of course).
Traveling as a itinerant (a transient, as labeled by the IRS) means that you have to factor in all the associated costs when looking at a contract. While you are being taxed on your housing, it is actually still being provided for you. As a staff RN, you might have earned $30 an hour, but still had to pay $1000 a month for an apartment. However, as a traveler, you might only be earning $27 an hour, but you also only pay, let's say $300 a month in taxes on a $1000 apartment. You no longer have the outlay for the housing and the $3 an hour difference is only an extra $432 a month ($3/hr x 36 hrs a week x 4 weeks). So in that instance, even though your take home pay is less, you are still earning more because you are paying less in housing costs. Not much consolation I know, but that's how you should look at it.
I am frequently asked by nurses if travelers still make tons of money. I personally NEVER made "tons" of money. However, I earned what I needed to pay my bills and I could work all winter in Hawaii, San Diego, or Ft Lauderdale instead of Ohio. This is what sealed the deal for me. I have worked assignments where I made a great rate and I have worked assignments where I could have made more as a staff RN. The important thing was that I had enough to pay my bills. If I ever needed to make more money, I had an honest discussion with my recruiter about what I needed to make for an hourly rate to enable me to take an assignment. I have also asked my recruiter to just search certain states where I wanted to go (travel nursing is 100% about the location for me) and asked her to find me the positions with the highest pay or largest completion bonuses. This worked well when I wanted to take a few months off after an assignment or pay off some bills.
If you are someone who has a certain amount of debt obligations, you have to be super savvy when it comes to budgeting and knowing what rate you need to make so that there are no surprises when the paycheck comes. Sure, Boston is a great place to work, but if you cannot make a wage that allows you to meet your expenses, it might be a place you have to cross off your travel option list.
My first assignment in Hawaii was great. But at that time I had a house and about $10,000 in credit card bills. I wanted to stay longer, I just could not afford it. Could you have prepared better financially, probably. But I too was not really prepared for what I made on my first assignment. It paid my mortgage, but it also put me further in debt. It does take a few assignments to get to know what you need to make as far as an hourly rate to meet your obligations (or at least it did for me).
I'm really sorry that the only advise I seem to be able to offer is "live and learn", but sometimes that's all you can do. For your second assignment, take what you have learned from this one and ask more detailed questions of your recruiter. What will be an approximate cost of my housing? How much will I be taxed on that? What money is taken out for benefits and how often? Anything that affects your bottom line is a fair question when you are looking at assignments. Also, shop around. I have had assignment offering that were identical (I'm talking SAME hospital, SAME unit) with two different travel companies. The money difference between the contracts was over $400 a month. Not all companies allocate the same.
You can also do as I mentioned before, ask your recruiter for the areas that are paying well or have a good completion bonus. Sure Boston is great, but what if you could have worked in Northern California, or Phoenix, or whatever other places might be on your "to do" list for $10 an hour more? While your recruiter is certainly anxious to get you on the road, you play this game at your pace and find the assignments that are right for you.
Again, I know not much advice here, but I hope it helps when it comes time to look for contract #2.
David
http://travelnursesbible.com
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