Travel LPN / LVN Pay in 2026: Listing Medians, BLS Staff Wages and the Stipend Ceiling

Travel contracts for licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and, in California and Texas, licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) exist, but there is far less public pay data for them than for travel RNs. This page sets out what can actually be sourced: a job-board listing median, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ staff LPN wages by state, the GSA rule that caps a tax-free stipend, and how the compact license applies. Where a number cannot be sourced, we say so instead of estimating it. TravelNurseCalc is a pay calculator and data site, not an agency or a job board.

What travel LPN listings pay

When we read BluePipes’ travel Licensed Practical Nurse listings page on 27 October 2026, it showed a median of $1,383 a week and an average of $1,228 a week for travel LPN listings over the previous seven days, with 772 jobs as of 27 October 2026. The states with the most listings were North Carolina (98), New York (93) and Louisiana (65). BluePipes titles the page “Licensed Practical Nurse”; it does not use the term LVN, but LVN contracts are the same licence category under a different state name.

Three things about that figure:

• It is a listing median, taken from advertised packages, not a measurement of what LPNs actually signed for.
• It is a gross weekly package. Travel listings normally quote the taxable hourly rate and the tax-free housing and meal stipends added together.
• It moves daily. A figure read a week later will differ.

We could not read BluePipes’ travel jobs hub page during this session (it returned an error), so we cannot say whether BluePipes publishes separate LVN or state-level LPN pages. The LPN page above is the one we could read.

What staff LPNs earn: the BLS figures

The sourced wage benchmark is the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025 (retrieved 25 October 2026 from bls.gov/oes), which we hold in full for every state on the LPN salary hub. Nationally:

For comparison, the same survey gives registered nurses a national median of $97,550 a year ($46.90 an hour).

The states with the highest BLS LPN medians are Washington at $83,150 a year ($39.98 an hour), Alaska at $80,800, Oregon at $80,470, Massachusetts at $80,220 and Rhode Island at $80,090, followed by California ($79,750), New Hampshire ($77,110), Arizona ($77,070), Nevada ($76,160) and the District of Columbia ($75,740). The lowest are Mississippi ($50,220), South Dakota ($52,750) and West Virginia ($55,360). Every state has its own page with percentiles, employment and the median paycheck after federal tax and FICA.

Comparing the two honestly

The BluePipes median ($1,383 a week) and the BLS median ($30.96 an hour) are not the same kind of number, and putting them side by side without adjustment misleads in both directions.

• The BLS wage is taxable pay for a staff job. At 36 hours a week, $30.96 an hour is $1,114.56; at 40 hours it is $1,238.40 (our arithmetic on the BLS hourly figure). That is wages before any stipend.
• The listing figure is a package. It includes stipends that are only tax-free for a traveler who maintains a qualifying tax home and is working away from it. For a traveler without one, the whole package is taxable wages, and the comparison with the BLS figure becomes a straight wage comparison that is far less favourable than the headline suggests.
• The listing median is national and weighted to wherever the jobs are. With North Carolina, New York and Louisiana leading the count on the day we read it, it reflects those markets more than Washington or Oregon.

The useful comparison is therefore two separate ones. First, compare the taxable hourly rate in a travel offer with the BLS median for that state. Second, compare the stipend in the offer with the GSA ceiling for the assignment locality, which is the next section. A recruiter who quotes only the blended weekly figure is giving you one number where you need two.

The stipend ceiling is the same for LPNs as for RNs

The IRS per diem rules do not depend on licence level. For a traveler with a qualifying tax home, two ceilings apply, taken from GSA’s FY2027 locality rates (October 2026 to September 2027):

• The housing stipend ceiling is the GSA lodging rate × 7.
• The combined per diem ceiling is (lodging + meals and incidentals) × 7.

In GSA’s standard-rate areas, which cover any place with no named locality, FY2027 lodging is $113 a night and M&IE is $68 a day. That is a $791 a week housing ceiling and a $1,267 a week combined ceiling. In the three states that led the BluePipes LPN listings:

Compare a housing stipend with the housing column, not the combined one. A housing stipend above the lodging ceiling should be treated as taxable wages, and overstating a stipend is the direction that creates audit exposure. Note that in a standard-rate area the combined ceiling ($1,267) is close to the BluePipes LPN listing median ($1,383): on a package like that, most of the week is stipend and the taxable hourly rate may be low, which matters for overtime, Social Security credits and any pay that is calculated from the hourly rate. Check an offer’s stipend against the locality and the month with the stipend calculator; every locality’s monthly schedule is on the per diem pages for New York, North Carolina and Louisiana.

Licensure: the compact covers LPN/VN licences

The Nurse Licensure Compact is not an RN-only arrangement. The NLC’s own FAQ page, read 27 October 2026, states: “The NLC pertains to RN and LPN/VN licenses only.” It adds that “An APRN must hold an individual APRN license in each state of APRN practice.” So an LPN or LVN whose primary state of residence is a compact state can hold a multistate licence and take contracts in other compact states on it, exactly as an RN can; an LPN living in a non-compact state needs a single-state licence for each assignment state. Our compact license lookup lists the member states we hold on file. We could not read NCSBN’s main compact page during this session, so the member count is not quoted here.

What a travel LPN offer should contain

A travel LPN contract is built the same way as an RN contract, and the same questions apply:

1. The taxable hourly rate, stated separately from the stipends.
2. The housing and meal stipends per week, each checked against the GSA locality rate for the month you will be there.
3. Guaranteed hours and the cancellation terms for low census (see the guaranteed hours guide).
4. The shift the rate assumes, and whether a night differential is paid on top of the taxable rate.
5. Any overtime rate and how it is calculated.

Grade the whole package with Contract Grade and model the take-home with the tax calculator. The state pages under the LPN salary hub give the BLS wage to measure the taxable rate against.

Looking for a travel LPN contract

If you want help finding a contract, use our find a travel nurse job page: tell us what you want and, with your permission, we introduce you to a partner recruiter, or say so if none covers it yet. The form’s specialty list is written for RN units, so an LPN or LVN should choose “Other” as the specialty and say “LPN” or “LVN” in the notes; the licence field has a “Student / not licensed yet” option for anyone still in a practical nursing program. We are not an agency, we do not place anyone ourselves, and we do not publish partner names or counts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do travel LPNs make per week?

No government agency measures travel LPN pay. The nearest public figure is a job-board listing median. When we read BluePipes’ travel Licensed Practical Nurse listings page on 27 October 2026, it showed a median of $1,383 a week and an average of $1,228 a week for listings over the previous seven days, with 772 jobs as of 27 October 2026. Those are advertised packages, usually including tax-free stipends, not a survey of signed contracts.

How does travel LPN pay compare with a staff LPN salary?

They are different kinds of number. The BLS May 2025 national median for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses is $64,400 a year, or $30.96 an hour, in taxable wages. A travel listing’s weekly figure is a gross package that normally includes housing and meal stipends, which are tax-free only for a traveler with a qualifying tax home. Compare the taxable hourly rate in a travel offer with the BLS wage, and compare the stipend with the GSA ceiling, rather than comparing the two headline numbers.

Does the Nurse Licensure Compact cover LPNs and LVNs?

Yes. The NLC’s own FAQ, read 27 October 2026, states that the compact pertains to RN and LPN/VN licenses only, and that an APRN must hold an individual license in each state of practice. An LPN or LVN whose primary state of residence is a compact state can hold a multistate license and work in other compact states on it.

What is the maximum tax-free housing stipend for a travel LPN?

The same rule as for RNs. For a traveler with a qualifying tax home, the weekly housing ceiling is the GSA lodging rate for the assignment locality times seven. In GSA’s FY2027 standard-rate areas that is $113 a night, or $791 a week; adding the $68 meals and incidentals rate gives a combined per diem ceiling of $1,267 a week, which is a different, higher number than the housing ceiling.

Data reviewed 27 October 2026. Weekly pay figures attributed to BluePipes are that site’s own, as published on 27 October 2026. BLS figures are from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025, retrieved 25 October 2026. GSA figures are GSA’s FY2027 locality rates. Compact wording is from the NLC’s FAQ page as read on 27 October 2026. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.