Caregiver costs

Caregiver costs by state and city: hourly rates, pay rules and monthly budgets

By the CaregiverConnect team · Updated 2026-10-31 · Sources checked on the same date and listed at the end.

An hour of in-home care has no single national price. What you pay depends on who employs the caregiver, which state and city the work happens in, how many hours you need and whether any of them are overtime. This page sets out the public reference figures for 2026, explains which rules move the cost, and works through sample budgets so you can see the arithmetic.

Three different numbers people call "caregiver rates"

Published caregiver rates measure different things, so this site keeps them apart and labels each one.

What a caregiver is paid. If you hire someone yourself, you agree an hourly wage with them and you are their employer. The law sets a floor, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes what employed aides earn: a useful reference, but it describes aides on a payroll, not private arrangements.
What an agency charges a family. A home care agency bills you an hourly price that covers the aide's wage plus the agency's payroll taxes, insurance, scheduling, supervision and margin. CareScout's Cost of Care Survey is the national benchmark.
What a government program pays. Medicaid home care programs, such as In-Home Supportive Services in California, pay providers a wage set by the program or county. It applies only to hours the program authorizes.

None of these is "the market rate" for a private caregiver. Nobody publishes one, and this site does not invent one.

National reference figures for 2026

Figure	Amount	Kind	Source and notes
Federal minimum wage	$7.25 an hour	Pay floor	Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 206. Section 206(f) extends it to domestic service workers in a household. A higher state or local minimum overrides it (29 U.S.C. 218).
California minimum wage	$16.90 an hour	Pay floor	Statewide since January 1, 2026; a city or industry rate can be higher (California Labor Commissioner).
Washington minimum wage	$17.13 an hour	Pay floor	The 2026 statewide rate; Washington has announced $17.73 for 2027 (Washington L&I).
Home health and personal care aides, national median	$17.21 an hour	Wage paid to employed aides	SOC 31-1120, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey for May 2025, as published on O*NET OnLine. One in ten aides earned $13.00 or less and one in ten $21.65 or more. About 4,677,100 people held these jobs in 2025.
Agency non-medical caregiver, national median	$35 an hour	Agency price to families	CareScout survey, collected July to November 2025. State medians run from $24 in Mississippi to $46 in Wyoming; California is $40.
Agency care, 44 hours a week, national median	$6,673 a month	Agency price to families	CareScout's monthly figure, based on 44 hours a week for 52 weeks divided by 12.

The gap between the aide median and the agency median pays for everything besides the wage: taxes, insurance, sick-day cover and paperwork. A family that hires directly takes those on.

What drives caregiver cost per hour

Where the work happens

The legal floor is set by the highest of the federal, state and local minimum wage that applies at the work address. The federal rate reached $7.25 in 2009 under the schedule written into 29 U.S.C. 206, and that is still the figure in the statute. States and cities may set a higher one, and the higher rate then applies (29 U.S.C. 218). California's statewide $16.90 is more than twice the federal floor, and parts of Los Angeles and San Diego are higher again, as the California cost page explains. Agency prices also track geography: CareScout's state medians span $22 an hour.

Who the employer is

The same tasks cost a different hourly total from an agency, whose price includes its overheads, than from a caregiver you employ, where you take on the duties covered below. Under federal rules, some exemptions available to a family are not available to an agency: 29 CFR 552.109 says third-party employers cannot claim the companionship or live-in overtime exemptions, even when the family is a joint employer.

What the job involves

Federal law separates "companionship services" from care. Under 29 CFR 552.6, companionship means fellowship and protection: conversation, reading, games, walks, errands, appointments, and being present to keep the person safe. Help with dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring, meals and medications is care, and the role stays "companionship" only while care is no more than 20 percent of the week's hours; nursing-type tasks fall outside it altogether. Heavier personal care, dementia supervision and lifting usually mean more hours and a more experienced caregiver.

When the hours fall

Overtime, nights and live-in arrangements change the bill most. The federal rules follow; state rules can be stricter.

Federal pay rules for home caregivers: overtime, sleep time and live-in work

The federal baseline under the Fair Labor Standards Act. A state law with a higher wage or shorter workweek takes priority (29 U.S.C. 218).

Minimum wage applies to domestic work. A worker employed in domestic service in a household must be paid at least the federal minimum (29 U.S.C. 206(f)). The rule lists companions, home health aides and personal care aides among them (29 CFR 552.3).
Overtime after 40 hours. A domestic service employee who works more than 40 hours in a workweek earns 1.5 times the regular rate for each hour past 40 (29 U.S.C. 207(l)).
Companionship exemption. A household that employs someone purely for companionship, as defined above, may claim an exemption from federal minimum wage and overtime (29 U.S.C. 213(a)(15)). Agencies cannot. The exemption is federal only: California's minimum wage, for example, applies to all employers not covered by a higher rate. Once care tasks exceed 20 percent of the week, the federal exemption no longer applies either.
Live-in workers. A live-in domestic worker is exempt from federal overtime (29 U.S.C. 213(b)(21)), yet is still owed the minimum wage for all hours worked. The family and worker may agree to exclude sleep time, meal time and other periods of complete freedom from duty; any interruption by a call to duty counts as hours worked, and the agreement should be redone if real hours drift (29 CFR 552.102).
24-hour shifts. For an employee on duty 24 hours or more, a bona fide sleeping period of up to 8 hours can be excluded by agreement, but only if the employer furnishes adequate sleeping facilities and the employee can usually get an uninterrupted night's sleep. Interruptions count as hours worked, and if the employee cannot get at least 5 hours' sleep the whole period is working time. Without an agreement, the sleep hours count as work (29 CFR 785.22).
Room and board. Meals and lodging can be credited against wages only when the worker accepts them voluntarily, within limits in 29 CFR 552.102.

The cost of being a household employer

When you hire a caregiver directly, the wage is not the whole cost. At the federal level, the IRS sets out the main duties for 2026 (Tax Topic 756):

Social Security and Medicare. Once a single household worker's cash pay reaches $3,000 in 2026, 7.65% comes out of their pay and you add a matching 7.65%. Pay to a spouse, a child under 21 or (with exceptions) a parent is left out.
Federal unemployment tax. When household cash pay tops $1,000 in any calendar quarter, FUTA is owed on each worker's first $7,000.
Schedule H. These taxes are reported on Schedule H with your Form 1040.

States add their own taxes and insurance rules; California, for one, requires workers' compensation even for a single employee. The California page lists that state's thresholds.

How to budget for a caregiver: worked examples

Illustrative calculations on two cited inputs, not quotes: the national aide median of $17.21 an hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025, via O*NET) stands in for a direct hire's wage, and the CareScout national median of $35 an hour for an agency's price. Monthly = weekly × 52 ÷ 12, CareScout's convention. The direct-hire column assumes federal overtime applies and no stricter state rule.

Schedule (illustrative)	Hours a week	Direct hire at $17.21	Agency at $35
Four 5-hour visits	20	20 × $17.21 = $344.20 a week; about $1,492 a month	20 × $35 = $700 weekly, roughly $3,033 monthly
Five 8-hour days	40	40 × $17.21 = $688.40 weekly, roughly $2,983 monthly	40 × $35 = $1,400 weekly, roughly $6,067 monthly
44 hours, CareScout's standard week	44	40 × $17.21 + 4 × $25.82 (time and a half) = $791.68 weekly, roughly $3,431 monthly	44 × $35 = $1,540 weekly, roughly $6,673 monthly, matching CareScout's published national monthly median

For the direct hire, add the employer half of Social Security and Medicare, 7.65%: on the 40-hour row that is $688.40 × 7.65% = about $52.66 a week, or about $228 a month, plus federal unemployment tax and any state taxes and insurance. The agency price already includes the agency's own payroll costs.

Building your own budget

Write down the hours you actually need each day, including nights and weekends, and whether someone must be awake.
Find the wage floor for the work address on your state or city page.
Agree a rate with the caregiver, then apply the overtime rule for your state to the schedule.
Multiply by 52 and divide by 12 for a monthly figure, then add employer taxes, insurance and paid sick leave where your state requires it.

The service guides work through specific arrangements: overnight care, live-in care, dementia care and companion care. For coverage choices, see live-in versus 24-hour care.

How to read the state and city cost pages

The live box at the top shows the hourly rates that caregivers near that city have listed on their CaregiverConnect profiles, with the sample size and date. Test and sample profiles are left out, and when too few have listed a rate the box says so. It shows asking rates from one website, not a market survey.
Local reference figures follow: the minimum wage that applies at the work address, the BLS median for aides in that metro area, and the county's program wage where one exists.
Budget examples use those local inputs, with the hours, the overtime rule and the arithmetic written out.
Links to caregivers and care-type pages in that city.

State pages carry the state-wide rules: minimum wage, overtime, paid sick leave and employer taxes.

Where CaregiverConnect fits

CaregiverConnect is a marketplace, not an agency. Families post for free, caregivers apply and list their own hourly rate, and you hire directly, agree the rate yourselves and become the household employer, with no commission taken from the wage. It employs nobody and runs no background checks; caregivers can attach evidence of their own screening, but vetting stays with you. The hiring guide explains reference checks, trial shifts and written agreements, and caregiver interview questions gives a checklist. Premium plans are optional; see pricing.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a caregiver cost per hour in the US?

Home health and personal care aides on a payroll earned a median of $17.21 an hour in May 2025 (BLS OEWS survey, shown on O*NET), while the CareScout 2025 survey found a median agency price of $35 an hour for a non-medical caregiver. A direct hire’s rate is agreed with you, at no less than the local minimum wage.

What is the minimum wage for a home caregiver?

The federal floor is $7.25 an hour, and it covers domestic service workers in a household. Where a state or city sets a higher minimum, the higher figure applies: for example $16.90 statewide in California and $17.13 in Washington in 2026. A household that employs someone only for companionship may be exempt from the federal minimum, but state law may not follow that exemption; California’s minimum wage applies to all employers.

How much does full-time in-home care cost per month?

CareScout puts the national agency median at $6,673 a month for 44 hours a week. Hiring directly at the national aide median of $17.21 an hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025), paying 1.5 times for hours past 40, works out to about $3,431 a month for the same 44 hours, before employer taxes. Both are illustrative calculations from published medians, not quotes.

Do I have to pay a caregiver overtime?

Under federal law, yes: hours past 40 in a workweek are paid at 1.5 times the regular rate, unless the household can use the companionship exemption or the worker lives in the home. Agencies cannot use either exemption, and state law may require overtime sooner.

Do I have to pay a caregiver for sleeping hours?

Federal rules let an employer and an employee on a 24-hour or longer shift agree to exclude up to 8 hours of sleep, if adequate sleeping facilities are provided and the caregiver usually sleeps through. Calls to duty count as work, and if sleep is broken so badly that fewer than 5 hours are possible, the whole period is paid. Without an agreement, the sleep hours are paid. State rules can be stricter: California’s Wage Order 15 counts all time a worker is subject to the employer’s control as hours worked.

Sources

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