FY2027 GSA Per Diem Rates for Winston-Salem, North Carolina
These are the federal per diem rates for Winston-Salem for fiscal year 2027 (1 October 2026 – 30 September 2027). They set the ceiling on how much of your pay package an agency can pay as a tax-free housing and meal stipend rather than as taxable wages.
GSA sets this rate for the Standard Rate locality (Applies for all locations without specified rates County), which covers Winston-Salem and nearby areas. A locality usually spans more than the city it is named after.
Lodging (all year)
$113/night
Weekly housing ceiling: $791/week
Meals & Incidentals (M&IE)
$68/day
Weekly meals ceiling: $476/week Already includes incidentals — nothing to add on top.
Combined ceiling
$1,267/week
The most a compliant stipend package can total in Winston-Salem, for a traveller with a qualifying tax home.
No seasonal variation in Winston-Salem
GSA holds Winston-Salem at $113/night for all twelve months of FY2027, so the ceiling is the same whenever your contract runs. That is not true everywhere — 63 of the localities we track move by month, some by several hundred dollars a week. If you are comparing this assignment against one in another city, check that city's schedule rather than assuming its rate is flat too.
Compare localities in the GSA Rate Explorer →How travel nurse stipends use these caps
Agencies normally split a package into a lower taxable hourly rate plus tax-free stipends for housing and meals. The IRS expects those stipends to stay within the per diem limits for the assignment location. Pay above the ceiling does not become illegal — it becomes taxable wages, and it is your return that has to account for it.
In Winston-Salem the ceiling is $791/week for housing , plus $476/week for meals and incidentals.
Two things travellers most often get wrong about this number. First, it is a maximum, not a target — a package paying well under it is common and not necessarily a bad offer, but a package paying over it has a tax consequence nobody may have mentioned. Second, the stipend is only tax-free if you genuinely maintain a tax home you are duplicating expenses for; without one, the whole stipend is taxable regardless of what GSA publishes.
One detail that catches people out: the first and last day of travel are reimbursed at 75% of the M&IE rate, not the full day rate. On a 13-week contract that is a rounding error; on a string of short assignments it adds up.
Find housing for this stipend
See whether the stipend actually covers furnished housing in Winston-Salem. If it does not, you are subsidising the assignment out of pocket.
Affiliate link
Where these numbers come from
Published by the U.S. General Services Administration for fiscal year 2027, retrieved 2026-09-28. Rates change each 1 October. Always confirm against GSA.gov. This page is an educational tool, not tax advice — see our methodology.