How to read a blended pay quote
A “blended rate” is one number built from several others: hourly wages, weekly allowances, guaranteed hours, and overtime terms. This guide shows the arithmetic with hypothetical examples, so you can see how wages, allowances, and hours differ between two quotes.
What “blended” means
A blended rate combines the week’s wages and the week’s allowances into one gross package, then divides by a number of hours. It is a package average rather than the base hourly wage. Two quotes with nearly the same blended rate can rest on very different wages, allowances, hours, and overtime terms.
These are hypothetical offers. Replace every amount and hour assumption with your written offer terms.
Two hypothetical quotes, side by side
Suppose a recruiter quotes Offer A as a $55 blended rate for a 36-hour week. Ask what it is built from, and assume the written answer is: 36 regular hours at $30/hour in wages, plus a separate $900 weekly allowance.
36 hours × $30/hour = $1,080 wages
$1,080 wages + $900 weekly allowance = $1,980 gross package
$1,980 ÷ 36 hours = $55 blended rate
Now suppose a second recruiter quotes Offer B at a $56.11 blended rate for the same 36 hours, built from 36 hours at $45/hour plus a $400 weekly allowance:
36 hours × $45/hour = $1,620 wages
$1,620 wages + $400 weekly allowance = $2,020 gross package
$2,020 ÷ 36 hours = $56.11 blended rate
Offer B pays $540 more in hourly wages and $500 less in allowance, for a gross package $40 higher each week. Compare tax treatment, guaranteed hours, and assignment costs separately.
| Item | Offer A (hypothetical) | Offer B (hypothetical) |
|---|---|---|
| Regular hours | 36 | 36 |
| Hourly wage | $30 | $45 |
| Weekly wages | $1,080 | $1,620 |
| Weekly allowance | $900 | $400 |
| Gross package | $1,980 | $2,020 |
| Blended rate | $55.00 | $56.11 |
Compare weekly assignment costs
The gross package excludes taxes and assignment costs. In this hypothetical example, assume that Offer A’s assignment costs you $550 a week (nearby housing, short commute) while Offer B’s costs $850 (rent in two places, longer drive). Subtracting these assumed costs:
Offer A: $1,980 − $550 = $1,430 before tax
Offer B: $2,020 − $850 = $1,170 before tax
After these assumed costs, Offer A is $260 higher per week. The results are before tax. Replace the example costs with your own estimates.
See travel stipends and tax home for employee reimbursement conditions. Leave the calculator allowance marked taxable while treatment is uncertain.
Include ongoing costs at home as well as assignment costs: if you keep paying rent at home while paying for housing near the assignment, both rents count against that offer. Travel works the same way — paid travel hours are income, but the fuel, miles, and unpaid travel time behind them are costs. The calculator has fields for these duplicated housing and travel costs, plus official references you can use when choosing your assumptions.
Which blend? Regular hours vs all work hours
There is more than one way to build a blended rate, and quotes do not always say which one they use:
- Regular-hour blend: regular-hours wages plus allowances, divided by regular hours only (36 in the examples above). In this quote format, overtime pay is additional.
- All-work-hours blend: the gross package divided by all hours worked, overtime included. Here the overtime pay is already inside the single number.
Record whether the quoted rate uses regular hours or all work hours, and whether overtime is included or paid separately. Use the matching quote format in the calculator.
When overtime is already included
For an all-work-hours quote, the gross package already includes overtime. This hypothetical example separates its components. Assume a quote of $75/hour “all-in” for a 48-hour week: 40 regular hours plus 8 overtime hours.
48 hours × $75/hour = $3,600 gross package
Weekly allowance, stated separately: $1,000
8 OT hours at the explicitly agreed $75/hour = $600 overtime pay
$3,600 − $1,000 − $600 = $2,000 remaining regular wages
$2,000 ÷ 40 regular hours = $50/hour implied base
Allowance, overtime, and regular wages add back to $3,600. Paid travel, if any, stays separate from this example; enter any paid travel separately in the calculator.
The overtime rate in this example is assumed to be $75/hour. Use the rate in your written offer when checking its arithmetic.
Questions to ask your recruiter
Bring this list to every quote, and ask for the answers in writing so you can check the breakdown. The offer checklist turns these into boxes you can tick off and print.
- What is the base hourly wage, separate from all allowances?
- How many regular hours per week are guaranteed and paid?
- What is the weekly allowance, stated separately from wages, and on which days is it paid?
- Is overtime included or additional? What dollar rate, wage base, and daily or weekly hours threshold apply?
- Is the blended rate divided by regular hours or by all work hours?
- Is the allowance prorated if I work fewer hours or miss a shift? What happens to it if the contract is cancelled early?
- Which travel is paid, at what rate, and for how many hours — and how many total hours will I actually spend travelling?
- Am I paying for housing twice (home plus assignment)? Which housing costs, if any, does the employer cover?
- Are there other weekly costs I should expect — parking, tolls, licensing, onboarding fees?
- Can you confirm all of the above in writing before I sign?
Run your own numbers
Once you have written answers, enter them as your own assumptions:
- Calculator — compare two offers with your tax assumption and weekly costs.
- Offer checklist — record each confirmation and print a summary.
- Jobs — find employer listings to compare.
- Resources — official cost and education references.