IHSS Amador County: the Sutter Creek office, Public Authority registry and $19.40 pay

Who can get IHSS in Amador County

Amador County says IHSS pays for help so that you can go on living safely in your own home. Three groups may be eligible: people over 65, people with a disability and people who are blind, and disabled children are included too. The county pitches it as an option that lets people avoid moving out to residential care (it names nursing homes and board and care), and notes that income and other eligibility rules apply.

The remaining rules are set statewide by CDSS (the state's Department of Social Services). You need:

• California residency;
• an eligibility determination from Medi-Cal;
• a home of your own or one you picked; CDSS does not count acute hospitals, long-term care or licensed community care facilities;
• a Health Care Certification (SOC 873) that the county has received before anything is authorized.

The county's list of help IHSS can pay for runs from housecleaning, cooking, laundry and grocery shopping to personal care (bathing, grooming, toileting help and paramedical tasks, for instance), someone to accompany the recipient to medical visits, and, for a mentally impaired person, protective supervision.

How to apply: the IHSS Amador County phone number

Ring Social Services on (209) 223-6550, or (844) 835-3685 without charge. The office address is 10877 Conductor Blvd. in Sutter Creek (CA 95685), and it is staffed weekdays, 8:00 am until 5:00 pm.

1. Send in the application. CDSS tells applicants to fill in the SOC 295 and return it to the county IHSS office. Versions exist in Spanish, Armenian, Korean, Russian and several other languages besides English.
2. Expect a visit. County social workers visit applicants at home to establish eligibility. From what you can and cannot safely manage alone, they decide on the services and approve a number of hours for each.
3. Get the doctor's form back. Hours cannot begin until the county holds your SOC 873.
4. Annual review. Each year brings a reassessment, according to CDSS, and you may request one sooner whenever your situation changes.

Approval makes you the employer of whoever you hire. CDSS describes that as taking responsibility for recruiting, training, overseeing and, where necessary, letting the provider go. People without a provider lined up can ask for a referral from the registry run by the Public Authority (see below).

IHSS pay in Amador County: $19.40 an hour from August 2026

Open the CDSS wage workbook to its "IP Effective 10-1-2026" tab (we saved a copy on October 16, 2026) and Amador County's row shows $19.40 an hour, effective August 1, 2026. That rate is beaten by 18 counties, while 39 pay less.

Be aware that the Public Authority's page still says "Effective 1/1/2025 - $18.00/hourly" for IHSS and WPCS providers. That figure has been overtaken; the state workbook carries the current rate. Pay levels vary across California, CDSS explains, as every county's employer of record holds its own negotiations with the union. The state issues the checks and deducts disability insurance and Social Security for eligible providers. What sets your rate is where the recipient's case is open, so a client whose case is in El Dorado or Calaveras County is paid for at that county's level.

EDD's Local Area Unemployment Statistics put Amador County's average unemployment between August 2025 and August 2026 at about 5.8% of the labor force, a little above California's 5.3%. The Labor Center at UC Berkeley, in an inventory last modified September 30, 2026, records no local minimum wage for the county or its cities, leaving private care pay to begin at the state's $16.90. Every county is compared in IHSS pay by county.

The Amador County IHSS Public Authority and its registry

Its mission, as the IHSS Public Authority of Amador County states it, is to improve life for eligible recipients through access to a registry of providers giving positive, timely and effective care. The county page lists what it does:

• recruits and screens independent providers;
• facilitates the orientations state law requires;
• maintains the provider registry and refers registry providers to IHSS consumers;
• offers support services to recipients and providers alike;
• manages health benefits for providers who qualify.

Right now the Public Authority is advertising for registry providers. The perks it names are flexible schedules, referrals for work anywhere in Amador County, and Emergency Back Up Provider Services (EBUPS): short, urgent assignments that can carry a pay differential. It also names health, vision and dental cover for those who meet the requirements, plus possible overtime and travel reimbursement. It reserves the sole right to list, refer (with or without comment), suspend or drop providers from the registry.

Reach the Public Authority on (209) 223-6781 at 10877 Conductor Blvd., Sutter Creek, CA 95685. Provider training is offered through a partnership with Homebridge; the county's training page links to an Amador County sign-up.

How to become an IHSS provider in Amador County

California will not pay any IHSS provider who has not completed enrollment and a background check. The Amador County Public Authority asks applicants to read through every step first. The first stage is online:

1. Register on the enrollment site and write down your login and security answers; capitals matter, and the answers are requested again before the videos play.
2. Watch two required videos, one from the state and one from the Public Authority.
3. Sit in on an SEIU presentation over Zoom or in person, or get in touch with the SEIU representative who covers Amador.
4. E-sign the paperwork. You receive copies later at your appointment. Two of them, the SOC 426 and SOC 846, are mandatory statewide under CDSS rules.
5. Schedule your in-person appointment on the site and attend it with your Social Security card and a current driver's license (or another photo ID from a US government agency). Without them the appointment may be moved.

Fingerprinting follows. Take the Live Scan form, which you get at the appointment or can print from the enrollment site, to a fingerprinting service. The Public Authority says the cost falls on you, is not paid back, and is somewhere between $48 and $80. File away your copy and receipt yourself; the Public Authority has no use for them. When enrollment, a cleared criminal record check and a SOC 426A (filled in by you and signed by your consumer) are all in place, payroll setup begins and timesheets can be issued.

Live Scan in Amador County

Only two sites are known to the Public Authority to handle IHSS provider Live Scans: Going Postal in Jackson and the Jackson Police Department, both by appointment. When we checked on October 16, 2026, the Attorney General's list for Amador County showed three public sites, every one of them in Jackson:

On top of any rolling fee, the Attorney General says, come the government charges for the state and federal record checks. Because the Sheriff's site is not one of the two the Public Authority mentions, check with the Public Authority before you go there. The steps every county shares are in our guide on how to become an IHSS provider, and paid family caregiving in California is written for relatives.

Extra steps to join the Amador County registry

Enrolling with no consumer of your own, so that the registry can refer clients to you, involves more requirements set by the Public Authority:

• a registry application form;
• an assessment;
• four references in all: a pair from past jobs and a pair of personal ones, with relatives ruled out for both;
• a registry provider information session, currently about monthly.

Only providers who meet all of these are listed. If you are coming back to the registry, the Public Authority will get in touch with every consumer you previously worked for and count them as work references as well.

Timesheets, sick leave and hours for Amador County providers

• Online timesheets. On www.etimesheets.ihss.ca.gov, the Electronic Services Portal, providers fill in and submit hours, see payment history and set up direct deposit, and recipients approve or turn down each timesheet. Sign-up problems are handled by the state's IHSS Service Desk, (866) 376-7066, on weekdays from 8 to 5.
• First timesheets. In Amador County they are issued only once enrollment, a cleared check and the signed SOC 426A are complete.
• Weekly ceiling. Whatever the number of recipients, state law limits a provider to 66 hours in a workweek, save for a small set of CDSS exemptions.
• Sick leave. After their first 100 hours of authorized work, providers get 40 paid hours for 2026/27, usable from July 1, 2026. Claim hours online through the portal, or on a paper SOC 2302; any balance is gone after June 30.

The county page marks the health, vision and dental benefits as subject to requirements but does not spell them out, so call the Public Authority on (209) 223-6781 and ask if you would qualify.

IHSS in Jackson, Ione, Sutter Creek and the rest of Amador County

All the IHSS contacts Amador County publishes lead to Conductor Blvd. in Sutter Creek, and the first assessment takes place at home. A family in Jackson, Ione, Sutter Creek or anywhere else in the county follows the same route, though all of the listed Live Scan sites are in Jackson.

EDD estimates put average unemployment between August 2025 and August 2026 at about 4.6% of Jackson's labor force, under California's 5.3%. Ione's figure was about 6.5% and Sutter Creek's about 10.3%. IHSS hours in all three towns are paid at the same $19.40 county rate.

• Caregivers: caregiver jobs in Amador County, home health aide jobs in Jackson, caregiver jobs in Ione and cna jobs in Sutter Creek.
• Families: home care in Amador County, in home caregivers in Jackson, senior care in Ione and in home care in Sutter Creek.

Where the recipient's case sits in a different county, that office and its pay rate govern. See our guides to El Dorado County IHSS, Sacramento County IHSS, Calaveras County IHSS, San Joaquin County IHSS and Tuolumne County IHSS.

Amador County IHSS phone list and abuse reporting

Amador County APS assists elders and dependent adults who are functionally impaired, unable to meet their own needs, and harmed by abuse, neglect or exploitation, whatever their income. Investigations cover private homes, hotels, acute care hospitals, health clinics and adult or social day care centers. Staff may provide or arrange counseling, referrals for conservatorship and advocacy. Reports about a nursing home, board and care home, residential facility for the elderly or similar long-term care setting belong with the Ombudsman office, which the California Department of Aging administers. Local law enforcement also takes abuse reports.

Paying privately for care beyond IHSS

Any time beyond the IHSS authorization, such as overnight cover, a weekend break for the family or extra care after a hospital stay, is a private arrangement, priced by agreement between family and caregiver.

Families in Amador County can list those jobs on CaregiverConnect free of charge. Caregivers send applications, while the family runs the interviews, makes the hire and acts as employer. We charge caregivers no commission on their earnings. CaregiverConnect does not perform background checks, but caregivers can upload evidence of one, and certain tools sit within optional paid plans. For a budget, the California in-home care costs guide is a starting point, and providers can start a free caregiver profile. Amador County job pages change as families publish new postings.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Amador County, In-Home Supportive Services (eligibility, services, 10877 Conductor Blvd address, (209) 223-6550, toll free, hours)
2. Amador County, Amador County Public Authority (registry recruitment, benefits, services, (209) 223-6781, wage notice)
3. Amador County Public Authority, Provider Enrollment (online steps, SEIU presentation, Live Scan cost, registry requirements)
4. Amador County Public Authority, IHSS Provider Training (Homebridge partnership)
5. Amador County, Adult Protective Services (scope, contacts, after-hours line, Ombudsman referral)
6. CDSS, IHSS wages by county (workbook sheet "IP Effective 10-1-2026"; Amador $19.40 from August 1, 2026)
7. CDSS, In-Home Supportive Services (eligibility, SOC 295, SOC 873, reassessment, recipient as employer, payments, APS and fraud lines)
8. CDSS, IHSS provider orientation process (SOC 426, SOC 846, DOJ check)
9. CDSS, IHSS program requirements (66-hour workweek maximum)
10. CDSS, IHSS provider paid sick leave (FY 2026/27)
11. CDSS, IHSS timesheet information and Electronic Services Portal
12. California Attorney General, Live Scan locations in Amador County
13. California EDD, Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), 12-month average August 2025 to August 2026
14. UC Berkeley Labor Center, inventory of US city and county minimum wage ordinances (modified September 30, 2026)
15. California DIR, minimum wage FAQ ($16.90 from January 1, 2026)