The bill rate is what the facility pays your agency for each hour you work, and every part of your pay package comes out of it. You rarely see it, but knowing how it is split lets you judge an offer instead of just accepting it. Read how it breaks down below, then use it on your next offer.
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What Is a Bill Rate?
The bill rate is the hourly amount that a healthcare facility pays your staffing agency for your services. When a hospital needs a travel PT and contacts an agency, they negotiate an hourly bill rate. That bill rate is the total revenue the agency receives for each hour you work.
From that bill rate, the agency must cover your taxable pay, your tax-free stipends, employer-side payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), workers' compensation insurance, health insurance contributions, professional liability insurance, and their operating margin (profit).
What's left after all those costs is the agency's margin.
How Bill Rates Are Determined
Bill rates aren't random — they're influenced by several market factors. Geographic location matters significantly because facilities in high cost-of-living areas or underserved regions pay higher rates. The clinical setting affects rates too. Demand and urgency play a huge role: a facility that has been trying to fill a position for months may increase the bill rate substantially. Finally, specialty and experience requirements matter — a position requiring wound care certification or acute care experience commands a premium.
Bill rates differ by discipline, setting and market, and agencies rarely publish them. What contracts are advertised at, by discipline and state, is on our pay transparency board.
Why You Usually Can’t Get the Bill Rate Directly
Asking is fine, but don’t expect a number. What you can do is insist on a complete written line-item breakdown of your pay package: taxable hourly rate, housing stipend, M&IE stipend, travel reimbursement, benefits valuation, overtime rate, and any guaranteed hours clauses. Compare offers from multiple agencies for the same assignment based on total weekly take-home, not on the hourly figure alone.
Working with two or three recruiters at different agencies for any given assignment is a practical way to identify when a package is below market — the comparison itself is the leverage.
Use our Pay Package Calculator to estimate the bill rate for any position and see where your pay package falls.
The Anatomy of a Bill Rate Breakdown
Let's walk through how it works. Say a facility pays an hourly bill rate for a travel PT working a full-time week. The bill rate times the weekly hours is the agency's total weekly revenue.
Here's how that breaks down: your taxable hourly rate times your hours is your taxable pay. The housing stipend and M&IE stipend added to it make up your total compensation. Out of what remains, the agency pays employer payroll taxes (FICA, etc.) on the taxable portion, workers' comp insurance, its health insurance contribution, and professional liability insurance. Whatever is left after all of that is the agency's margin.
Whether that split is fair depends on the numbers, which is why the written line-item breakdown matters.
Red Flags: When You're Getting a Bad Deal
Compare your total weekly compensation (taxable pay + stipends) against the estimated bill rate revenue (bill rate × hours). If the gap looks large, ask the agency what it covers. Other red flags include pay packages significantly below what other agencies offer for similar positions in the same area, and "take it or leave it" responses when you try to negotiate.
How to Use Bill Rate Knowledge in Negotiations
You don't need to know the exact bill rate to negotiate effectively. Research typical rates for your discipline, setting, and location. Compare offers from multiple agencies for the same or similar positions. Ask your recruiter directly — phrase it as a partnership question: "I'd like to understand the bill rate so we can figure out the best package structure together."
If an agency won't share the bill rate, that's their prerogative. But you can still use market data and competing offers to ensure you're getting a fair deal. If you'd like an offer to measure against that market data, ask a recruiter for one with every line shown: Find my next contract.
Know Your Worth
Our Bill Rate Calculator helps you estimate what facilities pay and whether your package is fair.
Calculate Bill Rates →