Per Diem Housing Rates for Travel Nurses

Per diem rates are the IRS’s way of saying “this is what it reasonably costs to live in this city temporarily.” They matter to travel nurses because your housing and meal stipends need to stay within IRS-acceptable limits to remain tax-free.

Understanding how per diem rates work lets you negotiate better packages and flag agencies that are paying you less than the market supports.

What Are GSA Per Diem Rates?

The General Services Administration publishes maximum per diem rates for every county in the United States. These rates set the ceiling for what the federal government reimburses employees for lodging and meals when traveling for work.

Travel nursing agencies use these rates as a reference point. Your stipends don’t have to match GSA rates exactly — agencies use their own calculations — but staying in a reasonable range is what makes stipends defensible as tax-free compensation.

The GSA publishes two components:

• Lodging rate: Maximum nightly lodging reimbursement
• M&IE (Meals and Incidental Expenses): Daily food and incidentals allowance

You can look up rates for any city or county at gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates.

High Per Diem Markets

Location matters a lot. A travel nurse assignment in San Francisco has a GSA lodging rate of $275+/night. The same nurse in rural Tennessee might see $98/night.

Cities with consistently high per diem rates include:

• San Francisco, CA ($275–$295/night)
• New York City, NY ($258–$299/night)
• Washington, DC ($258/night)
• Boston, MA ($225–$258/night)
• Seattle, WA ($195–$225/night)
• San Diego, CA ($195/night)
• Chicago, IL ($178–$195/night)

High cost-of-living assignments pay more in stipends, which means more tax-free income. The catch: housing actually is more expensive, so the net benefit varies.

How Agencies Use Per Diem in Your Package

Most agencies don’t pay you the full GSA per diem rate. They pay you what they determine is the actual cost of duplicating your living expenses in the assignment city — which is typically 70–80% of the GSA rate.

What matters is that your stipend represents legitimate, tax-free compensation for expenses you’re actually incurring — not just a way to shift taxable income off the books. You need to be maintaining a primary residence elsewhere (your tax home) and genuinely duplicating housing costs.

If an agency offers you a stipend dramatically above local housing costs, that’s a red flag for your taxes, not a windfall.

Comparing Stipends to Per Diem

When evaluating a pay package, look up the GSA rates for your assignment city. If your housing stipend is less than 50% of the lodging per diem, you may be leaving money on the table. Push back or negotiate.

If your stipend is more than 150% of the per diem rate, ask your tax professional whether the amount is supportable. An unusually high stipend creates audit risk.

The sweet spot is a stipend that reflects actual local housing costs — enough to cover a decent furnished apartment in that market, not a windfall that has nothing to do with your actual expenses.

Look up your next assignment city on gsa.gov before accepting the offer. Compare the lodging rate to what furnished apartments actually cost in that area — the gap tells you whether the agency’s stipend is fair.