🚨 Strike Nurse Pricing Calculator
Strike nursing is not standard travel staffing. When picket lines go up, hospitals pay 2x to 4x normal rates for nurses who can deploy in 24 to 48 hours, and the agency covers housing, meals, transportation, and rapid credentialing. This calculator, straight from Dee's How To Charge workbook, builds the whole chain: strike pay with overtime on guaranteed hours, your markup-based bill rate, deployment costs that switch from hotel to apartment after week 2, a profit picture at six strike durations, and the comp plan for the recruiter and account executive behind it. Run your numbers once free; the $27 one-time unlock keeps every section live forever and includes the Excel workbook.
Strike nurse pay structure
Strike nurses command premium pay because of rapid deployment, uncertain duration, and crossing picket lines. Rates run 2x to 4x normal travel.
Standard RN travel rate for this specialty.
Typically 2.0x to 4.0x base rate.
Strike contracts typically guarantee 36 to 48+ hrs/week. Hours over 40 pay overtime.
One-time mobilization costs
Everything it costs to get one nurse to the assignment. These are your costs, not the nurse pay.
Round trip, initial deployment.
Expedited background, license verify, drug screen.
Facility orientation materials, badges, access.
Short-term professional liability coverage.
Internal cost to source and deploy the nurse.
Weekly recurring costs (agency-covered)
Daily cost times days per week for each line. Housing switches from hotel to apartment after week 2 on extended assignments.
Extended assignment: return trip home
For assignments over 30 days, nurses may need a return trip home for a break.
Billing model
What you charge the facility. Strike billing is typically flat weekly rates or premium hourly with guaranteed minimums.
Strike nursing markups range from 35% to 60%+.
Assignment P&L durations (weeks per tier)
Strikes last weeks to months. Set the weeks for each duration tier to see revenue, cost, and profit at each length.
Multi-nurse deployment
Hospitals do not replace one nurse. They replace entire units. Scale your numbers.
Guaranteed minimum terms
Strikes can settle overnight. These contract terms protect the agency from sudden cancellations; they are reference terms and do not change the math above.
Common: 2 to 4 week minimum.
If the facility sends the nurse home early, you still bill this.
Rate increase per extension period (reward for staying).
Role 1: Strike recruiter (W2)
Not a high-volume desk: a rapid-response, high-skill role sourcing credentialed nurses who can mobilize on 24 to 72 hour notice. Quality gate: bonus is earned only when the nurse deploys AND works a minimum of 3 days.
Mid-market range: $52,000 to $65,000. Strike recruiters command a premium over standard healthcare staffing.
Paid per nurse successfully deployed AND working a minimum of 3 days.
One recruiter managing 5 to 15 active mobilizations per month is realistic.
Earned each time a nurse extends beyond the contracted minimum.
Nurses who extend stay 1 to 2 additional weeks on average; model conservatively at 1.5.
Above this number, each additional placement earns the accelerator bonus.
Role 2: Strike account executive (W2)
The Strike AE sells strike contracts BEFORE a dispute escalates. Commission is anchored to gross profit, never bill rate, and a holdback protects the agency if a strike settles in the first 30 days.
Senior relationship-driven role. Market range: $70,000 to $90,000.
Anchored to GP, not revenue. Range: 5-10% of GP.
Strike contracts are rare and large. 0.5 = one new contract every 2 months.
Flat bonus when a signed contract triggers an actual deployment.
0.3 = roughly one activation every 3 to 4 months.
Withheld for the first 30 days; released if the strike does not settle in the first week.
Profit check volume
Total nurses deployed across all active strike assignments this month.
Role 2B: 1099 strike account executive (commission-only)
The 1099 Strike AE has no base salary and covers their own taxes and expenses, which is why the commission % is higher than the W2 rate.
Range: 10-15% of GP, higher than the W2 rate to compensate for self-employment taxes and no benefits.
Set independently from the W2 holdback; document it in the contractor agreement.
Estimates for planning, not financial advice. Rates, premiums, and burden numbers are the workbook's guidance ranges; your market and your carriers decide the real ones.
Does this resonate?
Strike staffing rewards the agency that is ready first. Get ready.
If rapid-response staffing sounds like your kind of business, the platform can turn it into a real plan: positioning, licensing checklist, and the week-by-week path from first facility agreement to a deployable roster.
Build my launch plan free →Good questions about this math
What do strike nurses get paid?
The workbook models strike pay as your standard travel rate times a strike premium multiplier, typically 2.0x to 4.0x. On a $75 base that is $150 to $300 an hour, plus time and a half on hours over 40 of the guaranteed weekly minimum. During the January 2026 NYC NYSNA strike, hospitals paid replacement nurses up to $10,000 a week.
Why are strike nurse rates so much higher than normal travel rates?
Three reasons the sheet prices in: rapid deployment (nurses mobilize in 24 to 72 hours), uncertain duration (a strike can settle overnight or run for months), and the personal decision to cross a picket line. On top of nurse pay, the agency covers flights, housing, meals, local transportation, and rapid credentialing, so both the premium and the markup have real costs behind them.
How does the housing and travel cost model work?
The sheet builds a one-time mobilization cost (travel, credentialing, orientation, malpractice, recruiter time) plus weekly recurring costs. Housing runs at the hotel rate for the first two weeks and switches to a furnished apartment rate afterward, and assignments past four weeks add a round trip home every few weeks. The duration P&L applies all of that automatically at each strike length.
What markup should I charge on strike staffing?
The sheet's guidance is 35% to 60%+ on the burdened nurse cost, with typical specialty markups in the 40% to 55% range. Margins improve with duration as one-time mobilization costs amortize: at the default inputs a 1-week warning strike runs a thin margin while an 8 to 12 week strike settles near the high teens per nurse.
What contract protections do I need for strike contracts?
Strikes can settle at any hour, so the sheet includes a cancellation fee schedule (full week bill for under 24 hours notice, down to mobilization-cost recovery past 7 days), a minimum assignment length, guaranteed weekly hours you bill even if the facility releases the nurse early, and an extension rate bump that rewards nurses for staying.
Do I get the Excel version?
Yes. The $27 unlock includes the standalone Strike Nurse Pricing workbook from Dee's How To Charge master, plus the START HERE guide tab, yours to download and keep.
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