Locum Tenens Income Calculator

1. Choose whether your rate is per day or per hour, then enter the rate, hours per shift, shifts per month and months you expect to work.
2. Add call pay when the contract pays it, and the yearly costs you carry yourself: malpractice cover, licensing, travel and other costs.
3. Enter the percentage of profit you set aside, and an employed salary to compare.

A locum tenens income calculator is a tool that turns a temporary clinical contract into a yearly income figure. A locum tenens clinician fills a post for a limited time, and is paid by the day, the shift or the hour.

That pay basis makes a locum offer hard to set beside a salary. A day rate says nothing about how many days you work, which months are empty, or which costs fall on you. This page asks for those facts and does the multiplication in the open.

The page holds no rate table by specialty and no "average locum" income. No official wage series covers locum work, so any such table would be a guess. Two other tools on this site overlap in part. The creator salary calculator also produces a salary equivalent, but it adds up content income streams. The freelancer hourly rate calculator runs the other way: it starts from an income goal and finds the rate. Neither handles shifts, call pay or malpractice cover.

The calculator builds gross pay from shifts and call, removes the costs you pay, then removes your set-aside.

1. For an hourly rate, it multiplies the rate by hours per shift to get pay per shift.
2. It multiplies pay per shift by shifts per month and adds call pay.
3. It multiplies by the months you work. Empty months earn nothing.
4. It subtracts your yearly costs. Travel is entered per working month and scaled to the months worked.
5. It takes off the set-aside percentage. No set-aside is taken when the year shows a loss.

The set-aside is the step that depends on how you are paid. An independent contractor has no tax withheld and pays self-employment tax. A clinician on an agency payroll has tax withheld like any employee, and can enter 0%. You choose the figure; the page does not know your tax position.

Example values only, not typical pay. A contract pays $1,800 a day for 10-hour shifts. The clinician works 14 shifts a month for 10 months and takes 4 call nights a month at $300 each. The contract provides malpractice cover. Licensing costs $1,500 a year, other costs $2,000, and unreimbursed travel $400 a month. The set-aside is 20%, and an employed post pays $220,000.

The day rate works out at $180 an hour, yet the income per shift hour is $146.57 once costs and the set-aside come off. Spread over 12 months, the income averages $17,100 a month.

Months Without an Assignment

Empty months are the largest swing. Working 12 months in place of 10 lifts the example from $205,200 to $246,800.

Who Pays for Malpractice Cover

Check the contract for who buys the policy and who pays for cover after the assignment ends. Adding a $9,000 premium of your own to the example lowers the result by $7,200, to $198,000.

Call Pay

Call can be paid per night, per hour or not at all. Without the 4 call nights, the example falls by $9,600 to $195,600.

The Set-Aside Percentage

A higher set-aside lowers the result. At 30% in place of 20%, the example drops to $179,550.

Daily or Hourly Basis

A day rate pays the same for a long day and a short one. $165 an hour for 12-hour shifts is $1,980 a shift, which is $180 more than the $1,800 day rate, but less per hour.

Travel and Lodging

Costs the contract reimburses do not belong in the tool. Enter only what stays with you.

How you are paid decides who handles the tax, and the IRS decides worker status on the facts, not on the label in a contract. This section reports IRS rules read on 2026-10-02. It is not tax advice.

The IRS sets the self-employment tax rate at 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. It generally applies to 92.35% of net earnings from self-employment. You usually must pay it when those net earnings are $400 or more, and you can deduct one-half of it when you figure adjusted gross income.

Two limits matter at locum income levels. The Social Security part applies only up to a yearly earnings limit, while the Medicare part applies to all net earnings. On the example profit of $256,500, the Medicare part alone is 2.9% of $236,877.75, or $6,869.45. An Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% applies to self-employment income above $200,000 for a single filer, $250,000 for a married couple filing jointly and $125,000 for a married person filing separately. These are reference facts, not your tax bill, and income tax is separate.

On status, the IRS looks at three groups of facts: behavioral control, financial control and the relationship of the parties. No single fact decides it. The article on 1099 vs W-2 tax differences explains what changes on your return.

Reading a Day Rate as Yearly Income

Enter the rate with a realistic count of shifts and working months. The result shows what the rate means over a year.

Comparing Locum Work with an Employed Post

Enter the salary. The gap is a money comparison only. An employed post may add paid leave, health cover and retirement contributions.

Comparing Two Assignments

Run each one and press Save. Look at income per shift hour, since day rates with different shift lengths are not alike.

Choosing a Set-Aside

Try two or three percentages to see the range. The guide on self-employment taxes to set aside explains how people arrive at a figure.

Planning for Tax Dates

The IRS says individuals generally make estimated tax payments when they expect to owe $1,000 or more. The guide on how quarterly estimated taxes work covers the schedule.

1. Multiplying a Month by 12

The example month grosses $26,400. Twelve of them would be $316,800, but the clinician works 10 months and grosses $264,000.

2. Calling Gross Pay Income

Gross is before costs and before the set-aside. The example grosses $264,000 and keeps $205,200 on its own figures.

3. Using the 15.3% Rate on Everything

The Social Security part stops at a yearly earnings limit. A flat 15.3% overstates self-employment tax for income above that limit.

4. Assuming Malpractice Cover Is Included

Read the contract. Cover during the assignment and cover for later claims are separate questions.

5. Comparing Day Rates Without Shift Length

$1,800 for 10 hours is $180 an hour. The same $1,800 for 12 hours is $150 an hour.

6. Entering Reimbursed Travel as a Cost

Money the contract pays back is not your cost. Counting it lowers the result for no reason.

The arithmetic is exact for the numbers you enter. The result is a planning figure, and it is only as reliable as your shift count and cost list.

This is an estimate, not tax or financial advice. Ask a qualified adviser before you leave an employed post.

Multiply pay per shift by shifts per month and by months worked, add call pay, then subtract your own costs and set-aside. $1,800 a day for 14 shifts over 10 months grosses $252,000 before call.

This page quotes no average, because no official wage series covers locum work. Your income depends on your own rate, shifts, months and costs.

Independent contractors do. The IRS sets the rate at 15.3% on 92.35% of net earnings, with the Social Security part limited to a yearly earnings cap.

It depends on the facts. The IRS weighs behavioral control, financial control and the relationship of the parties, and no single fact decides it.

The page cannot tell you, because it depends on your total income, deductions and state. Enter your own figure and confirm it with a tax adviser.

Only when you enter a cost. Enter 0 when the contract provides cover, and the premium you pay when it does not.

Use the basis in your offer. With an hourly rate the tool multiplies by hours per shift, so the two give the same result for the same pay.

Call pay is counted as income, but call time is not counted as hours. The hourly figure divides by shift hours only.

It applies to self-employment income above a threshold, according to the IRS: $200,000 for a single filer and $250,000 for a couple filing jointly.

A salary calculator compares employed pay with BLS wage data. This tool builds yearly income from a contract rate, shifts and your own costs.

No. The maths runs in your browser and nothing is sent to us. Save keeps a result only in this browser.

• IRS: Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) (US Internal Revenue Service, page reviewed 27-Jun-2026; the 15.3% rate, its two parts, the Additional Medicare Tax thresholds and the employer-equivalent deduction. Read 2026-10-02.)
• IRS Topic No. 554, Self-Employment Tax (US Internal Revenue Service, page reviewed 24-Sep-2026; the $400 threshold, the 92.35% rule and the one-half deduction.)
• IRS Topic No. 762, Independent Contractor vs. Employee (US Internal Revenue Service, page reviewed 24-Sep-2026; the common law rules on worker status.)
• IRS: Estimated Taxes (US Internal Revenue Service, page reviewed 25-Sep-2026; who must make estimated tax payments.)