Caregiver costs in Long Beach: the state wage floor, local reference rates and weekly budgets

Which minimum wage applies to a Long Beach caregiver

The City of Long Beach's Financial Management department keeps a minimum wage page for local employers. It shows the California schedule, which reached $16.90 an hour for all employers on January 1, 2026, and lists only two City wage ordinances, both for named industries:

• Hotel workers (Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 5.48, from the voter-approved Measure N): $26.50 an hour from July 1, 2026.
• Concessionaire workers at the Long Beach Airport and the Long Beach Convention Center (Chapter 16.60): also $26.50 from July 1, 2026.

Neither covers someone caring for a person in a private home, so for a household caregiver the floor is the state rate. According to DIR's Labor Commissioner, domestic workers, caregivers and personal attendants among them, must get the minimum wage. Only two groups are left out: sitters younger than 18, and a parent, spouse or child of the person doing the hiring.

The City also addresses a common mix-up. Los Angeles County announces a raise every July under its own ordinance, which the County's Department of Consumer and Business Affairs puts at $18.47 from July 1, 2026. Long Beach's page says the County notice "only applies to unincorporated areas of the Los Angeles County and does not apply to businesses located in the City of Long Beach."

The rate follows the address of the work: hours a caregiver works inside the City of Los Angeles fall under that city's $18.42 ordinance (Wages LA), covered on the Los Angeles cost page.

Long Beach reference points: state floor, IHSS, survey wages, agency price

Each figure answers a different question:

No public survey tracks what private caregivers ask. The panel above this article reflects rates caregivers near Long Beach list themselves; it is not a CaregiverConnect price. For IHSS locally, see the Los Angeles County IHSS guide.

How the BLS wage spread compares with the 2026 floor

The Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) does not publish a Long Beach-only figure for occupation 31-1120, which groups home health aides with personal care aides. The nearest published geography on O*NET OnLine is the metro area BLS names Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim. Its May 2025 hourly percentiles were $16.50 at the 10th, 25th and 50th, $17.13 at the 75th and $18.28 at the 90th.

Read against the law at the time, the bottom half of that distribution sat on the $16.50 state minimum wage in force throughout 2025 (DIR). The state floor has since risen 40 cents to $16.90, so in 2026 a Long Beach employer paying the minimum is paying more than the May 2025 metro median, while the 90th percentile of $18.28 is still below the $19.64 IHSS wage. The survey counts aides working for agencies, facilities and other employers, so treat it as context for a private offer, not a price list.

Formal training shows up in the same survey: across the metro area, half of certified nursing assistants (SOC 31-1131) earned $22.78 an hour or more, and the top tenth $29.38 or more. (We were unable to fetch the narrower Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale division table, so it is not used.)

Long Beach budgets with overtime: 20 hours, 40 hours and live-in

Illustrative arithmetic only. The inputs are the $16.90 state minimum; an illustrative private rate of $21 an hour, picked because it is above the $19.64 Los Angeles County IHSS wage, not because any survey reports it; and the $40 CareScout California agency median. Monthly figures are weekly × 52 ÷ 12. The four-day and five-day patterns show where the state's personal-attendant overtime begins: 1.5 × pay for the tenth hour of a day or the 46th of a week (DIR). Federal law draws a second line at 40 weekly hours for anyone caring for your relative from outside the home, unless the job is exempt companionship (29 U.S.C. 207(l); 29 CFR 552.6); the 20- and 40-hour rows stay at or under it, and live-in workers are exempt from it (29 U.S.C. 213(b)(21)).

The 40-hour row shows the cost of a compressed week: the same 40 hours spread over five 8-hour days would have no overtime, and at $21 would be $840 a week, about $3,640 a month. Employing the caregiver yourself adds a 7.65% employer share of Social Security and Medicare after $3,000 of 2026 cash pay (IRS Topic 756), roughly $292 a month on the $21 four-day row. The live-in caregiver's two days off still need covering by someone else.

For around-the-clock patterns, compare live-in and 24-hour care; for nights alone, see overnight care costs.

Live-in and overnight rules that shape a Long Beach budget

Long Beach adds nothing to state law here, so state rules decide what a live-in or overnight arrangement costs.

• Is the caregiver a personal attendant? Wage Order 15 uses the term for someone a private householder employs to supervise, feed or dress a person who needs watching over on account of age, physical disability or mental deficiency, and only when little other work is done. DIR draws the line at 20 percent of time on cooking, cleaning, laundry and similar tasks.
• Attendant overtime under the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights starts beyond 9 hours in a workday or 45 in a workweek. That is a state rule: an attendant who lives out and does mostly personal care also comes under federal overtime from the 41st weekly hour (29 CFR 552.100). Wage Order 15's definitions, minimum wage and meals-and-lodging sections still apply to attendants; most of its other provisions do not.
• Live-in housekeeper-caregivers who are not attendants earn time and a half beyond 9 hours in a day, plus the opening 9 hours of a sixth or seventh straight working day, with double pay beyond 9 hours on those two days (DIR).
• Nights. Wage Order 15 counts every hour you control the caregiver's time, so required waking or staying put to respond is paid.
• Room and board. Crediting them against the minimum wage requires that the caregiver agree voluntarily, in writing, before the job begins. For 2026 a private room can be credited at no more than $79.46 a week ($65.59 if shared), and meals at $6.10 (breakfast), $8.42 (lunch) and $11.28 (dinner). Nothing can be deducted for meals not received or lodging not used.

The live-in care cost guide adds the federal rules.

What changes the hourly rate you agree in Long Beach

• The task list. Help that is mainly company, outings and reminders is priced differently from hands-on bathing, toileting and lifting. Read companion care in Long Beach against personal care in Long Beach, and what companion care costs for how visits are commonly structured.
• Credentials. The metro-area gap between the aide median ($16.50) and the certified nursing assistant median ($22.78) in the BLS OEWS May 2025 data (via O*NET) is one measure of what training is worth to employers.
• Memory care. Dementia tends to raise the number of hours needed, and a caregiver with dementia experience may ask a higher rate. See dementia care in Long Beach and in-home dementia care costs.
• Day length. As the budget table shows, a 10-hour day adds an overtime hour that an 8-hour day avoids. If you want four long days, budget for it.
• Driving. Settle in advance whether the caregiver drives your relative to appointments, in whose car, and whether you pay mileage.

The interview checklist for families lists the pay, minimum-shift and cancellation questions to settle before the first shift.

Employer duties and extra costs for a Long Beach household

• Paid sick leave. State law requires that an employee be allowed to use at least 40 hours or five days of paid sick leave a year, whichever is more; a caregiver on 10-hour days is entitled to at least 50 hours (DIR).
• EDD registration and state tax. The deadline to register is 15 days after a calendar quarter's cash wages first total $750, leaving meals and lodging out of the count. SDI is withheld from the caregiver at that point; once the quarter hits $1,000, Unemployment Insurance and Employment Training Tax become your cost too. State income tax is reported, but withholding it is not required (EDD).
• Federal tax. At $3,000 or more in 2026 cash wages, 7.65% from the employee plus 7.65% from you, reported on Schedule H; and once a quarter's household wages pass $1,000, FUTA applies to each worker's first $7,000 (IRS Topic 756). Wages paid to your spouse, your child under 21 or your parent are generally excluded.
• Workers' compensation. Required for California employers with even one employee (DIR).

The hiring guide walks through the setup.

Long Beach help for older adults, and finding a caregiver

The City of Long Beach has its own Department of Health and Human Services. Its Healthy Aging Center (formerly the Senior Links Program, set up in 1999) offers referrals and short-term case management, including public health nursing and social work visits, for Long Beach residents aged 55 and over. It is at 1150 E. 4th St, Room 111, open Monday to Friday 8am to 4:30pm, (562) 570-3529. It can be a useful first call if you are not yet sure how many hours of help are needed. The state Labor Commissioner enforces the $16.90 wage floor.

When you know the schedule, compare caregivers in Long Beach or live-in caregivers in Long Beach. CaregiverConnect only connects you: it is not an agency, it charges nothing to browse or post, and it takes no cut of the wage, which you pay straight to the caregiver at the rate they set. The site runs no background checks, so the checking falls to you as the employer. Paid plans are optional; see pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. City of Long Beach, Financial Management: minimum wage (state schedule, hotel and concessionaire worker rates, County notice)
2. California DIR, Minimum wage FAQ ($16.90 from January 1, 2026)
3. LA County DCBA: new minimum wage for unincorporated LA County, July 1, 2026
4. City of Los Angeles, Office of Wage Standards: July 1, 2026 rate increase notice
5. California DIR, Domestic Worker Bill of Rights FAQ
6. California DIR, IWC Wage Order 15 (household occupations)
7. California DIR, Paid sick leave FAQ
8. U.S. Code, 29 U.S.C. 207 (overtime; subsection (l), domestic service), via Cornell LII
9. U.S. Code, 29 U.S.C. 213 (b)(21) exemption for live-in domestic workers, via Cornell LII
10. eCFR, 29 CFR 552.100 (minimum wage and overtime for domestic service)
11. eCFR, 29 CFR 552.6 (companionship services defined)
12. O*NET OnLine (U.S. Department of Labor), California local wages for home health and personal care aides, BLS OEWS May 2025 data
13. O*NET OnLine, California local wages for nursing assistants, BLS May 2025 data
14. CDSS, IHSS wages by county (workbook, sheet "IP Effective 10-1-2026")
15. CareScout, Cost of Care Survey 2025, median cost data tables (PDF)
16. IRS Topic 756, Employment taxes for household employees
17. EDD, Household employers
18. California DIR, Workers' compensation: information for employers
19. City of Long Beach Health and Human Services, Healthy Aging Center