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The day rate sounds huge until you count the benefits nobody gives you.
$1,400 a day sounds like $350,000 a year — but 14 days a month for 10 working months is $196,000, and after self-paid health insurance and the missing 401(k) match, that locum gig trails a $260,000 employed job by over $80,000. This calculator annualizes your real pace, prices the benefits gap, and shows the day rate that actually breaks even.
Physicians use it at the negotiating table: $1,400/day at a real pace is $196k — $82k behind a $260k employed job, so the break-even day rate is the floor, not the opener.
Rates vary wildly by specialty and desperation: hospitalist and emergency medicine run $1,200–$2,000/day, anesthesia and radiology can exceed $2,500, and primary care sits $900–$1,400. But the quoted rate is only half the negotiation — the break-even output here is your floor. Against a $260,000 employed package at 14 days a month, break-even is roughly $2,000/day once benefits are priced; anything below that and you are paying for the flexibility. Also confirm what the agency covers separately: housing, travel, and malpractice (with tail coverage — an uncovered tail can cost $15,000–$50,000) should be ON TOP of the day rate, never inside it.
Full-speed locum is 10–11 months; the rest gets eaten by credentialing gaps (30–90 days per new facility, state license waits, and hospital privileging). The agencies sell 12-month continuity, but assignments cancel, credentialing stalls, and holidays close clinics — experienced locum physicians budget 10 months and treat month 11 as upside. The calculator's default 10 is the honest planning number. Stacking licenses in compact states and staying privileged at 2–3 facilities simultaneously is how full-time locum doctors protect the denominator.
Per worked day, locum usually pays 20–40% more; per year, it depends on pace and benefits. A $260,000 employed job with $18,000 of benefits equals roughly $2,000/day at a 14-day, 10-month locum pace — the exact trade the break-even rate shows. Locum wins for physicians who can sustain high utilization (multiple licenses, flexible geography), who value schedule control, or whose specialty commands premium rates. Employment wins on stability, benefits, retirement match, and not spending unpaid weeks on credentialing paperwork. Many physicians hybrid: employed base plus locum weekends at the premium rate, which captures the day-rate upside without the benefits gap.