Why a PRN Athletic Trainer’s Hourly Rate Shouldn’t Be Just One Number

Ask an athletic trainer what they charge for PRN coverage and the answer is often simple:

“I charge $40 an hour.”

“My rate is $50.”

“I won’t work for less than $60.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with establishing a minimum rate. The problem is how that number is often determined.

Was it calculated based on the cost of maintaining professional credentials?

Does it account for years of clinical experience?

Does the rate change between a metropolitan area with dozens of available athletic trainers and a remote community where finding coverage is difficult?

Does it account for liability insurance, continuing education, medical equipment, business expenses, cost of living, or the fact that an independent clinician may receive none of the benefits associated with traditional employment?

Frequently, the answer is no.

A more sustainable approach to PRN athletic training is to stop thinking of the hourly rate as simply a wage and start thinking about it as the price of providing a professional healthcare service.

Why the Flat-Rate Model Became Normal

Flat hourly rates are convenient.

A company can post “Athletic Trainer — $40/hour,” calculate the number of scheduled hours, and know approximately what the event will cost. The athletic trainer can look at the same number and quickly decide whether the assignment is worth accepting.

The simplicity is useful.

But simplicity can also hide the economics behind providing the service.

Athletic trainers traditionally learn how to evaluate injuries, manage emergencies, rehabilitate patients, document care, and operate within healthcare systems. Far fewer receive formal training in pricing professional services.

That creates several problems.

Many clinicians anchor their PRN rate to what another athletic trainer told them they charge. Others use the rate offered by a staffing company as the definition of “market rate.” Some convert their salaried job into an hourly number. Others simply determine the lowest amount that makes giving up a Saturday worthwhile.

None of those approaches actually calculate the cost and value of providing the service.

There is also a psychological component. Athletic trainers have spent decades functioning primarily as employees. Employees are accustomed to employers determining compensation. Independent clinicians have to do something very different: determine the price of their own professional service.

That requires a business mindset that the profession has not historically emphasized.

Employee Wage and Independent PRN Rate Are Not the Same Thing

This may be the most important concept in the entire discussion.

A $40-per-hour employee and a $40-per-hour independent contractor are not necessarily receiving equivalent compensation.

An employer may be paying for or contributing toward:

• payroll taxes

• workers' compensation

• health insurance

• retirement

• paid time off

• continuing education

• professional dues

• liability insurance

• equipment

• medical supplies

• documentation systems

• administrative support

  
  

An independent clinician may be responsible for many or all of those expenses.

That means an employee wage can be useful as a starting benchmark, but it should not automatically become the PRN rate.

If a salaried athletic trainer earns $62,520 per year, dividing that by 2,080 full-time hours produces an hourly employee-equivalent rate of about $30.06 per hour.

That does not mean $30.06 should become the PRN rate.

It simply provides a starting point for valuing the clinician’s labor before adding the costs of independently providing that service.

A Proposed PRN Athletic Trainer Rate Formula

A practical model could look like this:

Recommended PRN Rate = Base Professional Rate × Cost of Living × Geographic Availability × Experience × Qualifications × Event Conditions

The base professional rate would first include:

Professional Labor Value + Professional Overhead per Billable Hour + Contractor Burden per Billable Hour

Each variable answers a different question.

1. Professional Labor Value

The first number should represent the underlying market value of an athletic trainer's clinical labor.

A reasonable starting point could come from:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data

• state or metropolitan occupational wage data

• reputable athletic training compensation surveys

• comparable healthcare positions within the local labor market

  
  

Example

If an athletic trainer earns the equivalent of $62,520 per year:

$62,520 ÷ 2,080 hours = $30.06 per hour

That $30.06 represents the approximate employee labor value.

It is not yet the recommended PRN rate.

2. Professional Overhead

Next comes something traditional hourly compensation often ignores completely:

What does it cost the athletic trainer to remain professionally capable of accepting the assignment?

Professional overhead may include:

• BOC certification maintenance

• state licensure or registration

• continuing education

• CPR/BLS certification

• professional liability insurance

• background checks

• documentation software

• business software

• professional equipment

• medical kit maintenance

• equipment replacement

• professional memberships when relevant to the work

• business licensing or administrative expenses

The mistake is dividing these expenses across a full-time work year when the clinician may work only a few hundred PRN hours annually.

A better calculation is:

Annual Professional Expenses ÷ Expected Annual PRN Billable Hours = Professional Overhead per Hour

Example

Suppose an athletic trainer spends approximately $2,500 each year on professional expenses and expects to work 500 billable PRN hours.

$2,500 ÷ 500 hours = $5 per hour

That means $5 of every billable hour is needed simply to cover the cost of staying professionally operational.

If that cost is not incorporated into pricing, the athletic trainer is effectively subsidizing the organization hiring them.

3. Contractor Burden

Professional expenses are different from contractor burden.

Contractor burden represents costs and financial risks associated with not functioning as a traditional employee.

Depending on the arrangement, this may include:

• unpaid vacation

• unpaid sick leave

• lack of employer retirement contributions

• health insurance expenses

• business administration

• accounting

• invoicing

• scheduling

• unpaid documentation or administrative time

• cancellations

• gaps between assignments

• uncompensated business development

• other employment-related costs normally absorbed by an employer

  
  

Rather than automatically adding an arbitrary percentage, the clinician can estimate these costs over the course of a year.

The calculation becomes:

Annual Contractor Costs ÷ Annual Billable PRN Hours = Contractor Burden per Hour

Example

Suppose those estimated contractor-related costs equal $8,000 per year and the athletic trainer expects to work 500 billable PRN hours.

$8,000 ÷ 500 hours = $16 per hour

Now combine the three components:

• Professional labor value: $30.06 per hour

• Professional overhead: $5.00 per hour

• Contractor burden: $16.00 per hour

Base Professional Rate = $51.06 per hour

This is before considering geography, experience, qualifications, or event conditions.

4. Cost of Living

A dollar does not have equal purchasing power everywhere.

A cost-of-living factor allows the rate to account for regional price differences.

A simple method is to use a local cost-of-living index where 100 represents the national average.

Example

If the local cost-of-living index is 108:

108 ÷ 100 = 1.08

The cost-of-living multiplier would therefore be 1.08.

An area with a lower cost of living might use a multiplier below 1.00, while a high-cost market might use a multiplier above 1.00.

A calculator could also establish a minimum floor so that a low-cost region does not artificially suppress the professional value of the clinician’s services.

5. Geographic and Workforce Availability

Cost of living and workforce availability are not the same thing.

A community can have a moderate cost of living and still be extremely difficult to staff.

This is particularly relevant for:

• rural communities

• remote locations

• geographically isolated events

• areas with few athletic trainers

• assignments requiring significant travel

• markets with repeatedly unfilled PRN opportunities

  
  

A proposed geographic multiplier might look like this:

• Normal availability: 1.00

• Somewhat difficult to staff: 1.05

• Underserved: 1.10

• Rural or difficult to staff: 1.15

• Remote or highly difficult to staff: 1.20–1.25

  
  

These percentages should ultimately be validated with workforce and marketplace data.

The important principle is that scarcity has economic value.

If an organization repeatedly cannot find an athletic trainer willing or able to accept an assignment, that information says something about the true market price of the service.

6. Experience

Experience should also have economic value.

A clinician with 15 years of independent decision-making, emergency management, event coverage, and patient care experience should not automatically receive the same compensation as someone entering professional practice.

One possible experience model could be:

• 0–2 years: 1.00

• 3–5 years: 1.05

• 6–10 years: 1.10

• 11–15 years: 1.15

• 16–20 years: 1.20

• 21+ years: 1.25

  
  

The exact percentages should be researched and validated, but the underlying principle is straightforward:

Experience should influence pricing rather than simply be acknowledged without financial value.

7. Education and Advanced Qualifications

Education requires careful handling.

Athletic training now requires a master's-level professional degree for entry into the profession. Therefore, a master's degree that represents the entry-level credential should not automatically generate an advanced education premium.

The better question is:

What qualifications does this clinician possess beyond the minimum necessary to practice?

Potential considerations could include:

• relevant post-professional master's education

• DAT, PhD, EdD, or another relevant doctorate

• recognized specialty certification

• advanced strength and conditioning credentials

• specialized emergency response education

• occupational or industrial expertise

• advanced concussion expertise

• event medicine expertise

• specialized combat sports or high-risk sport experience

  
  

A qualification factor might therefore range from approximately 1.00 to 1.10 depending on qualifications that materially contribute to the service being provided.

The credential should be relevant.

Having more letters after someone's name should not automatically increase every invoice.

8. Event Conditions

Finally, the rate should recognize the assignment itself.

A Tuesday afternoon practice scheduled three months in advance is not economically identical to an emergency request for a Saturday tournament tomorrow morning.

Variables might include:

• short-notice requests

• weekends

• holidays

• overnight hours

• unusually long shifts

• high-risk sports

• solo medical coverage

• unusually large participant populations

• uncertain end times

• assignments requiring specialized expertise

  
  

An event multiplier might look like:

• Standard assignment: 1.00

• Moderately demanding assignment: 1.05–1.10

• Short-notice or high-complexity assignment: 1.10–1.20 or higher

  
  

The goal is not to create random surcharges.

The goal is to recognize that different assignments create different demands on the clinician.

What Should Not Be Hidden Inside the Hourly Rate?

Not every expense should become part of the hourly rate.

Some expenses are better billed separately.

These may include:

• mileage

• airfare

• lodging

• parking

• tolls

• baggage

• significant travel time

• consumable medical supplies

• specialty equipment specifically required by the client

  
  

If an athletic trainer uses $60 worth of tape, wound-care supplies, gauze, gloves, and other consumables at an event, those supplies have a cost.

Hiding that cost inside the hourly rate makes it invisible.

Example Event Invoice

Professional services: $68 per hour

Eight-hour minimum: $544

Medical kit and supply fee: $40

Mileage reimbursement: $58

Parking: $15

Total Event Cost: $657

That distinction is important.

The professional rate tells the client what the clinician's expertise and availability cost.

The total event cost tells the client what it actually costs to provide healthcare coverage for the event.

Those are not necessarily the same number.

What Might the Final Calculation Look Like?

Consider an athletic trainer whose base professional rate has been calculated as follows:

• Professional labor value: $30.06 per hour

• Professional overhead: $5.00 per hour

• Contractor burden: $16.00 per hour

Base Professional Rate: $51.06 per hour

Now apply the additional factors:

• Cost-of-living factor: 1.08

• Geographic availability factor: 1.10

• Experience factor: 1.10

• Qualification factor: 1.03

• Standard event factor: 1.00

  
  

The calculation becomes:

$51.06 × 1.08 × 1.10 × 1.10 × 1.03 = approximately $68.72 per hour

The recommended PRN rate would therefore be approximately: $69 per hour

That is considerably different from simply deciding that “$40 seems reasonable.”

More importantly, every part of the $69 can be explained.

Why This Matters for Athletic Training

The objective of a PRN rate calculator should not be to guarantee that every athletic trainer earns the same amount.

It should do almost the opposite.

It should provide a framework that explains why two athletic trainers performing different assignments in different markets may appropriately charge different rates.

A clinician with 20 years of experience working an independently staffed tournament in a remote location should not necessarily cost the same as an entry-level clinician covering a local practice with equipment, supplies, and support provided by the organization.

The profession has become comfortable discussing an hourly number without discussing everything that number is expected to pay for.

That needs to change.

Athletic trainers should understand the difference between: wage, professional rate, overhead, expenses, reimbursement, and total event cost.

Once those concepts are separated, negotiating PRN compensation becomes less about:

“What do you think I'm worth?”

and more about:

“Here is what it costs to provide this professional healthcare service.”

That is a much stronger position for both the clinician and the organization hiring them.

A Better Question

Perhaps the question should no longer be:

“What is the going hourly rate for an athletic trainer?”

Instead, we should be asking:

“What should it reasonably cost to place a qualified, credentialed, insured, experienced, appropriately equipped healthcare professional at this specific event, in this specific location, under these specific conditions?”

That is a much more complicated question.

It is also a much better way to determine the value of PRN athletic training.

scd Nov 2026