Owned and published by ProTherapy Staffing.

Start here: choosing and working with a travel therapy recruiter

This site is for travel therapists who want to judge the recruiter on the other end of the phone before they sign, and to know what to do when something goes wrong afterwards. Start with the guide to vetting an agency, take the seven questions to your next call, and keep the paycheck guide for your first pay stub.

By ProTherapy Staffing, published October 25, 2026.

Who is this site for?

New travelers choosing a first agency, travelers comparing recruiters at more than one agency, and travelers already on a contract whose pay, hours or safety is not what they were promised.

A recruiter finds your assignments, negotiates the details and is your main contact while you travel. The agency sets the pay structure, benefits and policies that recruiter works within. A good recruiter cannot fix an opaque agency, and a good agency can still give you a recruiter who does not listen, so the pages here help you test each.

Where should you start?

  1. How to vet a travel therapy agency: one of the newer guides, on the pay breakdown, who holds your contract, license, housing and cancellation terms, your recruiter and ownership, with links to the IRS, GSA, the Department of Labor and the FTC.
  2. Seven questions to ask a recruiter before you sign: setting, package split, the hours the contract commits to, cancellation terms, supervision, credentialing and who answers when something goes wrong.
  3. Recruiter red flags and green flags: the warning signs and good signs, to check against before you commit.
  4. Your paycheck doesn’t match the quote: a newer guide on checking a pay stub against your written offer, raising a mismatch, and where a wage complaint goes if it stays wrong.
  5. Working with multiple recruiters: how to keep a double submission from costing you a contract, and what to tell each recruiter about the others.

If you are hurt or unsafe on an assignment, who is responsible covers the agency’s and the facility’s duties and who to tell.

If you want to put those questions to a recruiter about a real contract, ask a ProTherapy recruiter: Find my next contract.

What on this site comes from data, and what is written?

This site is written advice with a few rendered parts. The questions at the foot of the home page are answered in quotation from public sources, each with its link and the date it was read: the Department of Labor on paid time off, overtime and travel time, and the IRS on per diem and accountable plans. On paid leave, the Department of Labor says: “The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays.” On stipends paid under an accountable plan, IRS Publication 463 says: “You must return any excess reimbursement or allowance within a reasonable period of time.”

The newer guides are generated from a data file that lists each source with the date it was read. The ownership line at the head of every page is rendered from the owner’s attested wording, and the words around every form come from one shared file that the network checks for promises it cannot keep.

Everything else, including the red flags, the questions to ask and the page on recruiters and agencies, is guidance written for this site. It carries no pay figures: pay belongs to the offer in front of you.

What should you have ready before the first call?

Three things make a first call with any recruiter useful. Know your license position: the states you hold a license in, and, if you are a PT or PTA, whether your home state takes part in the PT Compact. Know the settings you will and will not take, and the earliest date you could start. And if you have a written offer from somewhere else, bring it, so you can compare line by line rather than by the weekly total.

Then listen for the answers this site keeps returning to: who employs you and holds your contract, how the package is split, what happens if the facility cancels, and who you call when something goes wrong at night or on a weekend. A recruiter who answers those plainly, in writing, has passed the test that matters.

How do you reach a recruiter?

Use the “Find my next contract” link on this page or the form at the foot of a guide. It asks your discipline and the states you want, and a recruiter takes it from there. Then test that recruiter the way this site suggests: ask how many travelers they support, whether they have a clinical background, and for the full pay breakdown in writing.

ProTherapy Staffing, which publishes this site, is owned and run by licensed physical therapists. Hold its recruiters to the same questions as any other agency’s. If you are not ready to talk, the job alerts page sends new contracts in your discipline by email, daily or weekly as you choose.

Frequently asked questions

Is a recruiter the same as the agency?

No. The recruiter is the person you deal with; the agency sets the pay structure, benefits and policies that recruiter works within, so judge both.

What should I get in writing before I sign?

Every line of the package, meaning the hourly rate, each stipend, travel reimbursement and benefits, plus the hours the contract commits to and the cancellation terms.

What do I do if my paycheck does not match the offer?

Compare the stub with the written offer line by line and raise any gap with your recruiter in writing. If it stays wrong, the paycheck guide explains where a wage complaint can go.

Sources