1099 vs W-2 CRNA pay: how to compare an offer

By Aubrey Shaner, DNAP, CRNA, founder of ClearPay CRNA

I'm Aubrey, a CRNA, and I started ClearPay CRNA so that pay is the first thing you see on a CRNA job, not the last. The question I hear most is how to weigh a 1099 locum rate against a W-2 salary. They are different kinds of numbers, and setting them side by side as they are makes the 1099 figure look better than it is. This is how I compare them.

What a 1099 locum rate covers, and what it doesn't

A 1099 rate is what you are paid for each hour you work as an independent contractor, and that is all it is. On ClearPay CRNA a 1099 rate is shown by the hour. When a posting gives a day, week or contract total, we convert it to an hourly figure and say how on the figure itself.

Out of that hourly rate you pay for things an employer would otherwise cover:

• Taxes. As a contractor you pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare, and no one withholds income tax for you, so you set money aside and pay it yourself each quarter.
• Benefits. No health insurance, no retirement match, no paid time off, no CME allowance and no disability cover. An hour you don't work is an hour you don't earn.
• Malpractice. Some contracts include an occurrence policy or tail coverage and some don't. Ask, and get the answer in writing. If you have to buy your own, its cost comes out of the rate.
• Stipends. Travel, housing and per diem are often paid on top of the hourly rate and are not part of it. When a posting folds them into one figure, its card carries an "all-inclusive" tag, so you know the figure is not the hourly rate alone.

Ask how many hours you are guaranteed, too. A high rate with a thin guarantee and frequent cancellations can pay less over a year than a lower rate with a firm schedule.

What a W-2 figure covers

A W-2 salary is what an employer pays you as an employee, before taxes. The employer pays its half of Social Security and Medicare and withholds your income tax from each paycheck. Benefits usually come on top of the salary: health insurance, a retirement plan, paid time off, a CME allowance, and malpractice cover through the group or the hospital. A W-2 PRN job is shown by the hour and usually carries fewer benefits than a full-time one, so I treat a PRN rate more like a 1099 rate when I compare.

What a salary doesn't tell you is the work behind it: how many hours a week, how much call, how many weekends. Two jobs with the same salary can be very different jobs, so check the call and weekend tags on each listing.

How to compare the two

ClearPay CRNA doesn't rank 1099 and W-2 jobs together, because they are not the same kind of figure. When I want to set one beside the other, I use one rule of thumb:

Divide a W-2 salary by 1,860 to get its hourly figure, or multiply a 1099 hourly rate by 1,860 to get a yearly one.

1,860 hours is a full-time year: 52 weeks of 40 hours, less six weeks off for vacation, holidays and CME. It is the same year we use when a 1099 posting states its pay by the year; for a posting by the day or the week that states no hours, we use a 10-hour day and a 40-hour week.

Then adjust for what each figure covers. The 1099 hourly figure has to pay for the taxes, benefits, malpractice cover and time off the W-2 job includes, so it needs to be clearly higher than the W-2 hourly figure to come out ahead. How much higher depends on your own taxes, the benefits you would give up and the hours you will actually work; an accountant can put your own numbers to it. It cuts the other way as well: past 1,860 hours a year, a 1099 rate pays for every extra hour, and a salary usually doesn't. This is a rule of thumb, not tax or financial advice.

This week's posted figures

These come from the jobs live on ClearPay CRNA and refresh hourly. Only rates printed in the posting itself or stated by the agency or employer count; nothing here is converted or estimated.

1099 locum jobs with a posted or agency-stated rate: 304 of 1,869 (16%). W-2 jobs: 951 of 2,028 (47%).

Highest posted 1099 hourly rates

1. $245–$310/hr Posted 1099 locum · Northwest / Superior area, WI
2. Up to $305/hr Posted 1099 / Locum · 8-hour shifts · Pennsylvania
3. $245–$300/hr Posted 1099 / Locum · 8.5-hour shifts · Minnesota
4. $295/hr Posted 1099 / Locum · 8-hour shifts · Central NY / Syracuse area, NY
5. Up to $275/hr Posted 1099 full-time · Tucson area, AZ

Highest posted W-2 full-time salaries

1. $250,000–$528,000/yr Posted W-2 full-time · Phoenix Metro area, AZ
2. $350,604.80–$481,600/yr Posted W-2 full-time · Stockton–Modesto area, CA
3. $257,000–$475,000/yr Posted W-2 full-time · Phoenix Metro area, AZ
4. $400,000–$450,000/yr Posted W-2 full-time · Gila / Rim Country area, AZ
5. $350,000–$450,000/yr Posted W-2 full-time · Southeast / Wabash Valley area, IL

Updated Nov 7, 9:07 PM Eastern.

Where to go next

• CRNA pay by state: median posted 1099 and W-2 rates by state, from real postings.
• 1099 / Locum CRNA jobs: the locum jobs on the board, newest first.
• W-2 CRNA jobs: the full-time and PRN jobs, newest first.

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