What do caregivers earn per hour?
The 2026 national median billed for non-medical in-home care is roughly $35 an hour, and published state figures run from about $23 to $42 depending on where you work. Skilled clinical work is a separate market: private duty nursing is closer to $90 an hour.
Read those as the rate a family pays, not automatically what a caregiver takes home. Which matters, because of the next question.
Why does working directly with families usually pay more?
Because nothing is taken out of the middle. Agency pricing runs 20–30% above the rate a family pays an independent caregiver, and that gap covers the agency's recruitment, supervision, insurance and administration. When a family hires you directly, that margin does not exist — the family often pays less than an agency would charge them and you are paid more than an agency would pay you.
What you give up is what the agency was doing: finding you the work, guaranteeing your hours, carrying the insurance and employing you. Direct work pays better and carries more of its own weight.
How do you set your rate?
- Start from your local median, not from what you were last paid. An old agency wage is a poor anchor.
- Add for what is genuinely scarce. Dementia experience, safe transfers and hoisting, driving, overnight availability, a second language, and a clean licence all move you up.
- Price the awkward hours properly. Early mornings, nights, weekends, holidays and short-notice cover are worth more, because far fewer people will do them.
- Set a visit minimum. A one-hour visit across town can cost you more in travel than it pays. Two hours is a common floor.
- Say what is included. Whether cooking, laundry and errands are inside the rate is the most common source of friction there is. Settle it in the first conversation.
Should you negotiate, or post a fixed rate?
Post a rate. A stated figure filters out families whose budget was never going to work and saves you both the interview, and it signals that you know your worth. Leave room for a considered exception — a long regular booking close to home is worth more to you than a scattered one further away, and can fairly be priced accordingly.
What should you get in writing?
- The rate, the pay day, and the method
- The hours, and the notice either side needs to change them
- What the visit includes — and what it does not
- Mileage and expenses
- What happens if a shift is cancelled at short notice
Keep a record of every shift you work. If a payment is ever disputed, a timed clock-in and clock-out history settles it in seconds, and an argument from memory does not.
How do you get found by families?
Register on The Care Royal. You set the services you offer, the hours you work and what you charge, families near you find you and contact you directly, and we never take a cut of what you are paid. Registering is free and staying listed is free.
Figures are 2026 national and state medians published by home-care industry sources. Rates in your area will differ.