For families

How Much Does an Overnight Caregiver Cost?

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

An overnight caregiver costs whatever the paid hours of the night add up to, and the rules on which night hours count as work matter as much as the hourly rate. This guide sets out the public reference rates, explains when sleep time can and cannot be left unpaid, and works through budgets for a few nights a week up to every night. Every number below was re-read at its source on October 31, 2026.

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Overnight caregiver cost at a glance

No public survey publishes a national "overnight rate". What does exist are three different kinds of figure, and it helps to keep them apart:

Kind of figure	Amount	Source and what it measures
Legal pay floor for a caregiver you employ directly	$7.25 an hour federally; higher in many states, for example $16.90 in California in 2026	USA.gov (federal minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act); California Department of Industrial Relations
What employed aides are paid	$17.21 an hour, national median	Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey, May 2025, for home health and personal care aides, as published by O*NET OnLine. This is the wage of the worker, not the price a family pays an agency.
What a home care provider charges a family	$35 an hour, national median for a non-medical caregiver	CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025, which contacted long-term care providers from July to November 2025. It is a daytime-style hourly median; CareScout does not report a separate night rate.

Government programs that pay caregivers (Medicaid home care, California's IHSS) set their own wages; see Medicaid programs for family caregivers. The cost pages at caregiver rates by state and city show local floors.

What overnight in-home care covers

Night care usually falls into one of two arrangements, and they are priced differently:

Awake overnight care. The caregiver stays up through the night: helping your relative to the bathroom, turning or repositioning, answering a call, keeping watch for someone who gets up and walks. Every hour is working time.
Asleep (or "sleeping") overnight care. The caregiver is in the home in case they are needed, with a bed to sleep in. Whether those sleeping hours are paid depends on the length of the shift and the law, covered below; in many arrangements they are paid in full.

Duties at night are normally non-medical: toileting, continence care, settling someone who is anxious, giving a drink, calling family or emergency services. Wound care, injections and similar tasks belong to licensed staff; in the CareScout figures, home nursing by licensed staff is its own line, at $90 an hour nationally.

Sleep time and paid hours: the federal rules

Caregivers who work in a private home are "domestic service" employees under federal law, a category whose examples in 29 CFR 552.3 name companions as well as aides who provide home health and personal care. The Fair Labor Standards Act gives them at least the federal minimum wage plus time-and-a-half once they pass 40 hours with one employer in a workweek, with an overtime (not minimum wage) exception for workers who reside in your household (29 CFR 552.100). The sleep rules depend on the length of the duty period:

Shifts shorter than 24 hours. A worker on duty for less than 24 hours is working even when allowed to sleep, and it makes no difference that a bed is provided (29 CFR 785.21). A typical 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. night shift is therefore paid for all ten hours.
Duty of 24 hours or more. By agreement, the two of you may leave out genuine meal breaks and one scheduled sleep period capped at 8 hours, but only if you provide adequate sleeping facilities and the caregiver can usually get an uninterrupted night's sleep. Any call to duty during the sleep period is paid. Fewer than 5 hours of actual sleep turns the whole sleep period back into paid work. Without an agreement, the 8 hours of sleep are hours worked (29 CFR 785.22).
A caregiver who lives in. Separate rules apply; see live-in caregiver costs.

State law can be stricter. California is one example. Wage Order 15 treats any period in which the worker is under your control as hours worked, and the state's Domestic Worker Bill of Rights pays personal attendants time-and-a-half beyond nine hours in one day or beyond 45 hours in one week (Department of Industrial Relations). So in California a 10-hour night carries one overtime hour for a personal attendant. The 45-hour weekly figure is the state's attendant rule only: a night caregiver who goes home in the morning and spends most of the shift on hands-on help falls outside the companion exemption, so federal overtime still starts once the week passes 40 hours (29 CFR 552.100; 552.6). Look up the rules in your own state before fixing a night schedule.

Hourly vs. flat overnight rates: sample budgets

These are worked examples, not quotes. The two inputs are CareScout's $35 national provider figure and the $17.21 BLS aide median (OEWS, May 2025), the latter standing in for a private rate (a private caregiver sets their own rate, which may be higher or lower). The night shift is 10 hours, shorter than 24, so every hour is paid. Federal overtime on $17.21 is $25.815 an hour. Monthly figures are weekly × 52 ÷ 12.

Night pattern	Paid hours weekly	You employ, $17.21/hour	Provider, $35/hour
Three nights a week	30	30 × $17.21 = $516.30 weekly, roughly $2,237 monthly	30 × $35 = $1,050 weekly, roughly $4,550 monthly
Every night, one caregiver	70	40 × $17.21 + 30 × $25.815 = $1,462.85 weekly, roughly $6,339 monthly	70 × $35 = $2,450 weekly, roughly $10,617 monthly
Every night, split between two caregivers (four nights and three nights)	70	Neither passes 40 hours: 70 × $17.21 = $1,204.70 weekly, roughly $5,220 monthly	As above

Checking a flat nightly rate. Some families agree a fixed amount per night. Divide it by the hours actually on duty: the result cannot fall below the minimum wage. For a 10-hour night that means at least 10 × $7.25 = $72.50 under federal law alone; in California it means at least 9 × $16.90 + 1 × $25.35 = $177.45 for a personal attendant, because the tenth hour is daily overtime. A flat rate does not replace the overtime rules.

A 24-hour shift with a sleep agreement. Under the federal rule, if the caregiver usually sleeps undisturbed, up to 8 hours may be left out by agreement: 16 paid hours × $17.21 = $275.36 for the day. If your relative wakes them so often that they sleep less than 5 hours, all 24 hours count: 24 × $17.21 = $413.04. Budget for the second figure if nights are unsettled.

What makes a night of care cost more or less

Awake versus asleep. On a shift under 24 hours the federal rule pays sleep time anyway, so "asleep" care saves money only on 24-hour duty with a written sleep agreement and nights that are genuinely quiet.
Number of nights and number of people. One caregiver working every night passes 40 hours and triggers overtime; two caregivers sharing the week do not.
How often your relative wakes. Each call to duty during an agreed sleep period is paid, and too many calls make the whole period paid.
State and local minimum wages. They set the floor; the city and state pages at caregiver rates list the ones that apply.
Who employs the caregiver. A provider's price includes its overhead; hiring directly costs less per hour but makes you the employer.
Employer taxes. When 2026 cash pay to a single household worker reaches $3,000, the IRS generally expects you to hold back the worker's 7.65% Social Security and Medicare share and add the same again as employer; federal unemployment tax starts once household wages top $1,000 in any quarter (IRS Topic 756). The three-nights budget above, at $516.30 a week, crosses $3,000 within six weeks.
Insurance. Round-the-clock home care is outside Medicare, and so is custodial help with bathing, dressing or the bathroom if that help is all a person needs (Medicare.gov). For enrolled veterans, the VA's Home Respite Care program may fund a paid helper in the house while the usual family caregiver rests (VA).

Questions to settle before agreeing on overnight pay

Will the caregiver be awake all night, or may they sleep? Is the shift under 24 hours (all hours paid) or 24 hours or more?
If sleep may be excluded, is there a bed in a private space, and how will interruptions be logged and paid?
How many nights a week, and will one person or two cover them?
What is the hourly rate, and what is the overtime rate under your state's rules?
If a flat nightly amount is proposed, what hourly rate does it work out to over the hours on duty?
What exactly happens at night: toileting, repositioning, medication reminders? Is anything on the list a licensed task?
Who is called if your relative falls or becomes unwell, and in what order?
What notice is needed to cancel a night, and is a cancelled night paid?

Write the answers into a short agreement and keep a record of hours; the hiring guide covers the paperwork.

Finding an overnight caregiver through CaregiverConnect

CaregiverConnect is a marketplace, not an agency. You describe the nights you need covered at no charge, and caregivers who are interested reply with the hourly rate on their profile. Whoever you choose works for you, so you are the household employer; CaregiverConnect takes nothing from the pay. Screening is yours to do: the site performs no background checks, although a caregiver is free to attach a report from a check they arranged themselves; see safety. Optional premium plans are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an overnight caregiver cost per night?

Multiply the paid hours by the hourly rate. For a 10-hour night at the national provider median of $35 an hour (CareScout 2025), that is $350. At $17.21, the national median wage of employed aides (BLS OEWS, May 2025), it is $172.10 before any overtime or payroll taxes. These are illustrative calculations on cited inputs.

Do you have to pay a caregiver who sleeps overnight?

Under federal law, yes for any shift shorter than 24 hours: the time counts as work even if the caregiver may sleep (29 CFR 785.21). On duty of 24 hours or more, up to 8 hours of sleep may be excluded by agreement if a proper bed is provided and the night is usually uninterrupted; interruptions are paid, and under 5 hours of sleep makes the whole period paid (29 CFR 785.22). Some states, such as California, are stricter.

Is a flat overnight rate legal?

A flat amount is a way of expressing pay, not an exemption. Divided by the hours on duty, it must meet the applicable minimum wage, and overtime still applies under federal and state rules. For a 10-hour California night worked by a personal attendant, the floor is $177.45.

Does Medicare pay for overnight home care?

No. Medicare.gov puts all-day-and-night home care, and custodial personal care for someone needing nothing else, on its list of exclusions. It covers part-time or intermittent home health services for people who are homebound.

Is it cheaper to have one caregiver do every night?

Usually not. One person working seven 10-hour nights passes 40 hours, and federal overtime applies to hours over 40 for a caregiver who does not live in. In the illustrative budget, splitting the week between two caregivers saved about $258 a week at the same hourly rate.

What questions should I ask about overnight pay?

Whether the caregiver will be awake or may sleep, the shift length, how interruptions are recorded, the hourly and overtime rates, what a flat rate works out to per hour, which duties are expected at night, and the cancellation terms.

Sources

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