Updated September 28, 2026. Source: U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) per diem rates.
No agency can pay you more tax-free stipend than the federal per diem rate for your assignment's location allows. The ceiling on the non-taxable housing and meals stipends is set by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) per diem rates for that city or county, not by the agency — so "the highest stipends" really means "the most expensive locations".
What differs between agencies is how much of your pay they put in stipends versus taxable wages, and whether the taxable hourly rate is realistic. An offer that looks rich because nearly everything is stipend, over a low hourly wage, is one to question, not to celebrate.
GSA publishes a daily lodging rate and a daily meals-and-incidentals (M&IE) rate for every U.S. location, for each federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30). Agencies use those rates as the upper limit for non-taxable stipends. New rates take effect every October 1, so a stipend quoted in September can change for a contract that starts in October. Look up a location at gsa.gov/perdiem.
Stipends are non-taxable only when you are duplicating living expenses away from a qualifying tax home. Without one, the stipend is taxable income, however it is labelled. See the tax home checklist and tax home vs. no tax home.
Ask each agency for the same four lines: taxable hourly rate, guaranteed hours, weekly housing stipend, and weekly M&IE stipend. Check both stipends against the GSA rate for the assignment's location, then compare the taxable hourly rate. The better offer is usually the one with a sound hourly wage and stipends at or below the GSA rate — not the one with the biggest stipend line.
For more on how pay packages are built, see our main tax guide.
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