How the numbers are calculated.

What counts as total time commitment

Total time commitment is every hour the opportunity takes each month that you enter:

• Clinical work — the paid hours of each shift.
• Commuting — the round trip, counted for every shift.
• Documentation — unpaid charting after each shift.
• Other unpaid work — anything else per shift you aren't paid for.
• Administrative time — recurring monthly hours such as scheduling, required meetings, training, or credentialing maintenance.

Every formula

Calculations keep full precision internally. Values are rounded only for display.

A worked example

$150/hour, two 12-hour shifts per month, a 45-minute commute each way, and 30 minutes of documentation after each shift, with no expenses:

• Clinical hours: 12 × 2 = 24 hours. Gross monthly income: $150 × 24 = $3,600.
• Commute: 45 × 2 ÷ 60 × 2 shifts = 3 hours. Documentation: 30 ÷ 60 × 2 = 1 hour.
• Total time commitment: 24 + 3 + 1 = 28 hours.
• True Hourly Rate Before Taxes: $3,600 ÷ 28 ≈ $128.57/hour.

Income goal

If you enter a desired additional monthly gross income, MoonlightMD divides the gap between that goal and your current gross monthly income by your hourly rate to estimate the additional clinical hours needed, then by your shift length to estimate the additional shifts. It assumes the same hourly compensation, shift length, per-shift expenses, and per-shift hidden time. The goal is gross income — before expenses and taxes.

Employment type

W-2, 1099, or other is recorded for your reference only and does not change any calculation. Tax treatment, deductible expenses, and benefits differ between employment types in ways that depend on your individual situation.

Planning with a goal and available time

Required average gross income per available hour = your monthly gross income goal ÷ the hours per month you're willing to spend (including commuting, charting, and admin). For example, $4,000 over 24 hours is about $166.67 per available hour. It is arithmetic about your own goal — not a market rate, not a True Hourly Rate, and not a sign that such compensation is available. An annual goal is divided by 12.

A scenario adds together the monthly gross income, clinical hours, hidden hours, and entered expenses of the opportunities you combine (optionally with a different number of shifts per opportunity). Its Blended True Hourly Rate Before Taxes is total income after entered expenses ÷ total time — weighted by time, not an average of the individual rates. Progress toward your goal compares modeled gross income with your gross goal; remaining available time is your available hours minus the scenario's total time.

Community data aggregation

• Statistics are computed by the database from voluntary, self-reported submissions — never by AI.
• A segment (category, plus at most two of specialty, state, and employment type) is shown only when it has at least 10 submissions. Below that, neither statistics nor the count are shown.
• The median and 25th/75th percentiles use linear interpolation (PostgreSQL's PERCENTILE_CONT).
• Advertised hourly compensation and True Hourly Rate Before Taxes are computed and displayed separately. A submission contributes to True Hourly Rate only if it includes commute, documentation time, and minimum shifts per month; recurring expenses are included when provided.
• Unusual values are flagged for review but not removed automatically; moderated submissions are excluded.
• The data reflects who has contributed. It is not a comprehensive or representative picture of the market.

AI features

AI is used only to organize, explain, and extract — never to calculate. Every number in MoonlightMD, including those shown to or alongside AI output, comes from the deterministic calculator or the database. AI plans receive pre-calculated figures and are instructed not to invent compensation, jobs, or rules; any dollar figure in a plan that doesn't match your data is flagged as unverified. Imported postings show each field as explicitly stated or not specified, and a stated value is kept only if its supporting quote is actually found in your text.

What the metric does not include

True Hourly Rate Before Taxes does not automatically account for:

• Income taxes (federal, state, local, or self-employment)
• Benefits
• Retirement contributions
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Opportunity cost of your time
• Initial credentialing burden (unless entered as recurring administrative time)
• Malpractice costs, unless you enter them as an expense
• State-specific employment rules
• Individual contractual terms

MoonlightMD also has no compensation dataset. It does not know what any opportunity “should” pay and never shows averages, percentiles, or benchmarks.

Important limitations

MoonlightMD provides educational, informational, organizational, calculation, and decision-support tools. Results are only as accurate as the numbers you enter. It does not provide medical, tax, financial, legal, or employment advice, and it does not make credentialing or licensing determinations. Verify requirements with the appropriate employers, training programs, licensing authorities, credentialing organizations, tax professionals, attorneys, or other qualified sources.

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