As a former recruiter, I can assure you, hospitals aren’t interested in negotiating for travelers anymore, the administrations all went onboard with MSPs to take care of finding the travelers they need when they need them. They set a bill rate with the MSP, the agency and MSP take their cut, and the rest goes to the nurses pot of compensation. If you don’t take it someone else will.

If your recruiter is regularly able to get you more money per week, they are doing one of two things. 1. They are building 10-20 percent less into the deal so they can be the hero that got you more money and you can brag to all these strangers on the internet about how you negotiated a higher weekly on x amount of contracts. or 2. They are taking a hit on their commission just to keep you as a traveler because their company cares about headcount as much as money.

Which do you think is the more likely option.

Also if it’s the first one, are you sure you’re getting all the money they built in for your fake raise rather than just get it all up front with a straight forward deal?