Do I need a qualification to work as a home caregiver?
For non-medical care — companionship, personal care, meal preparation, help around the home — most states require no licence at all to work for a family directly. What a family is buying is reliability and judgement, and neither comes with a certificate.
That changes the moment an employer is involved. Federal rules for Medicare-certified home health agencies set a 75-hour minimum training standard for home health aides (42 CFR 484.80), and many states set their own floor above it. So the honest answer is: to work for yourself, usually nothing; to work for an agency, whatever your state and that agency require. Your state health department is the authority, not us — look it up before you rely on it.
What should I do first?
Get a criminal record check on yourself, before anyone asks. Most states sell an official record check direct to the individual for roughly $10 to $25, and having one already in hand is the single thing that most changes how a family reads you.
Then write down what you will and will not do. Caregivers who say plainly “I do personal care and cooking, I do not do heavy lifting or night shifts” get better matches than those who say yes to everything and burn out in a month.
How do I get my first client?
Three routes work, in this order of effort: people who already know you, a listing families can find, and agencies. Word of mouth converts best and arrives slowly. A listing works while you sleep. Agency work pays less per hour but the client comes to you.
You do not have to choose one. Most caregivers who work steadily do agency shifts for a base and take private clients alongside them.
How much should I charge?
Enough that you can do the job properly for years. The 2026 national median billed for non-medical in-home care is roughly $35 an hour, with published state figures running from about $23 to $42. Working directly with a family usually pays a caregiver more per hour than agency work, because there is no agency margin in between — and it also means you handle your own taxes, your own gaps between clients, and your own cover when you are ill.
The longer version is in what should you charge, and the live numbers are on our rate benchmarks page.
Where do I list myself?
Register with The Care Royal. It is free to list and free to apply for work, and families contact you directly — we are not in the middle of the arrangement and we take no cut of what you are paid. Listings are reviewed before they go live, and a caregiver who has submitted a criminal record check is the one families call first.