A caregiver is someone who helps an older adult or a person with a disability manage daily life: companionship, meals, housekeeping, errands, transportation and hands-on help with bathing and dressing.
This guide covers the job in its paid form.
The work is generally non-medical, BLS lists no prior work experience as required to enter, and the occupation group caregivers are counted in is projected to grow much faster than average through 2035.
Here is what caregivers do, what the job requires, what it pays and where it leads.
What is a professional caregiver?
BLS describes personal care aides — the occupation it says is sometimes called caregivers or personal attendants — as generally limited to nonmedical services: companionship, cleaning, cooking and driving.
The work travels under several labels: in-home caregiver, senior caregiver, elderly caregiver, home caregiver.
PHI, which researches the direct care workforce, notes that titles vary by state and setting.
A professional caregiver is the paid version of the job: employed and compensated, whether by a home care agency, directly by the client's household, or through a public program that can put family members on payroll.
BLS has no standalone caregiver occupation.
It counts caregivers inside home health and personal care aides (SOC 31-1120), a group with a median wage of $35,800 a year in May 2025.
The certified side of the workforce sits next door.
Nursing assistants — called certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in some states; titles vary — typically complete a state-approved education program and pass their state's competency exam, and working in a nursing home requires being listed on the state registry.
That exam-and-registry path is one clear difference between the two jobs; the training, the tasks and the pay all separate further from there.
What does an in-home senior caregiver do on a shift?
BLS lists the typical duties: helping clients bathe and dress, housekeeping such as laundry, dishes and vacuuming, organizing schedules and appointments, arranging transportation, shopping and preparing meals to dietary specifications, and keeping clients engaged socially.
On an in-home shift those tasks follow the client's day.
A morning might mean getting someone out of bed, washed and dressed, then breakfast and a tidy-up.
An afternoon might be groceries, a ride to an appointment and company over lunch — the driving, cooking and companionship BLS puts in the job's nonmedical core.
The work is physical.
BLS calls it physically and emotionally demanding and says aides must use proper lifting techniques because they often move clients into and out of bed or help them stand or walk.
Some clients live with cognitive impairments or mental health issues and may display difficult or violent behaviors, and the job carries exposure to infections and communicable diseases that following proper procedures reduces.
Schedules follow the client's needs.
Most aides work full time, though BLS notes part-time schedules are common, and evening and weekend hours are part of the picture.
Where do caregivers work?
Many aides work in clients' homes.
Others work in group homes or care communities, some stay with one client long term or support a specific purpose such as hospice care, and aides may work in shifts so a client always has someone on hand.
PHI groups the settings into three bands: home care workers in private homes, residential care aides in group homes, assisted living and other residential care, and nursing assistants in nursing homes.
By BLS's count, the largest employers of home health and personal care aides in 2025 were individual and family services (51%), home healthcare services (23%), residential intellectual and developmental disability facilities (6%), and continuing care retirement communities and assisted living facilities (6%).
PHI estimates the direct care workforce at 5.8 million workers — nearly 3.5 million home care workers, 714,000 in residential care homes, more than 534,000 nursing assistants in nursing homes, and over 1 million in other settings such as hospitals.
For the caregiver title specifically, that means the employer in front of you could be a home care agency, an assisted living community, a residential care home operator, or the household itself.
What do you need to become a caregiver?
Formally, the bar is low.
BLS lists the typical entry-level education as a high school diploma or equivalent — and notes some positions do not require it — with short-term on-the-job training and no prior work experience required.
Per PHI's summary of the federal rules, personal care aides have no federal training or competency requirement.
The federal 75-hour floors — at least 75 hours of training with 16 hours of supervised practical training and a competency exam — apply to nursing assistants and to home health aides at Medicare-certified home health agencies instead.
Personal care aide rules vary by state, and employers may add their own requirements on top of the state's.
Medicare-certified home health and hospice agencies must follow federal aide-employment regulations, while private agencies that do not receive federal funds may have other requirements that vary by state.
Some jobs also ask for first aid and CPR certification, which BLS notes aides may be required to obtain.
The qualities BLS flags as important are being detail oriented, emotional skills such as compassion, integrity — dependable and trustworthy — interpersonal skills, and physical stamina.
The stamina point is concrete: aides may be on their feet for many hours or do strenuous tasks such as lifting or turning clients.
Rules are set state by state
How much do caregivers make?
BLS has no caregiver line in its pay tables.
The figure to use is its combined home health and personal care aides group (SOC 31-1120), which counts non-medical caregivers inside it.
That group's median was $35,800 a year, or $17.21 an hour, in May 2025.
The spread is wide.
In May 2025 the lowest-paid 10 percent of the group earned less than $27,040 a year and the highest-paid 10 percent earned more than $45,040, while the middle half earned between $15.35 and $18.98 an hour.
Setting moves the median.
BLS's May 2025 industry medians ran from $34,900 in individual and family services to $37,340 in residential intellectual and developmental disability facilities, with home healthcare services at $36,230 and continuing care retirement communities and assisted living at $37,060.
One wage-hour rule shapes agency paychecks.
Under the DOL's Home Care Rule, third-party employers such as home care agencies cannot claim the federal companionship exemption.
They must pay at least the federal minimum wage for all hours and overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate over 40 hours in a workweek.
The live-in exemption is closed to agencies the same way: since January 1, 2015, third-party employers may not claim it and must pay minimum wage and overtime after 40 hours, even when the household employs the worker jointly.
For the full national and state tables, see the caregiver pay page, built from the same BLS OEWS May 2025 release.
What kinds of caregivers are there (companion, PCA, live-in, private, memory care, respite, paid family)?
Caregiving is one trade with several arrangements, and each label carries its own schedule, employer mix and task set.
These are the ones a caregiver posting might use, and what each means.
- Companion caregivers center the visit on fellowship rather than hands-on care. Federal wage-hour rules define companionship services as fellowship and protection for an older person or a person with an illness, injury or disability: engaging them in social, physical and mental activities and being present to monitor their safety and well-being.
- Personal care aides do the hands-on help — bathing, dressing and mobility support — and states set their own training rules for the title. BLS counts them in the same 31-1120 group as home health aides.
- Home health aides at Medicare-certified home health agencies carry the federal floor PHI summarizes: at least 75 hours of training, including 16 hours of supervised practical training, and a competency exam.
- Live-in caregivers reside where the client lives. Under the DOL's fact sheets, a live-in domestic worker resides on the employer's premises permanently or for extended periods, such as 5 days a week or 120 hours or more.
- Private caregivers are hired directly by individuals or households using private funds, outside consumer-directed programs and not through an agency. PHI calls this arrangement the gray market and says its size is very difficult to measure.
- Memory care caregivers work with clients who have cognitive impairments — clients BLS notes may display difficult or violent behaviors — alongside the standard personal-care duties.
- Respite caregivers cover short stretches so a client's usual caregiver can step away. The federal Lifespan Respite Care Program funds state respite systems — ACL has awarded grants in 39 states and DC since 2009 — and grantees' work includes training paid respite providers.
- Paid family caregivers are relatives a public program puts on payroll. Family or household members can be paid employees under Medicaid-funded and other publicly funded home care programs, with hours and services set in a program-approved plan of care; Medicare does not pay for ongoing non-medical caregiving on its own.
Is caregiving a good career and where does it lead?
The demand case is strong.
BLS projects employment of home health and personal care aides to grow 18 percent from 2025 to 2035 — much faster than the average for all occupations — with about 760,500 openings a year on average.
Scale matters when you read that.
The occupation group held about 4.7 million jobs in 2025 by BLS's Employment Projections count, which includes self-employed workers.
PHI's own projection expects the direct care workforce to add over 886,000 new jobs between 2025 and 2035, with 9.6 million total direct care jobs to fill over the same period.
The honest counters are real too.
PHI reports the median direct care wage — across personal care aides, home health aides and nursing assistants — was $17.99 an hour in 2025.
It also reports that 34 percent of the workforce lives in or near poverty, and that home care turnover ran at nearly 75 percent in 2024.
The traditional ladder steps up through credentials.
CNAs — nursing assistants, an exact BLS occupation — earned a median of $42,260 in May 2025, after a state-approved program and a state competency exam, with the state registry required to work in a nursing home.
Growth for that occupation is slower: BLS projects nursing assistants and orderlies to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as average.
The licensed rungs sit above: LPNs earned a median of $30.96 an hour ($64,400 a year) and registered nurses $46.90 an hour ($97,550) in May 2025.
Weigh both columns when you decide — fast growth and steady openings on one side, modest pay and demanding work on the other.
The role's day-to-day reality is the part a projection cannot tell you.
How do you find caregiver jobs?
Home care agencies, assisted living communities, residential care homes, and individual households all employ caregivers; in BLS's 2025 employer counts, individual and family services (51%) and home healthcare services (23%) lead.
Entry is straightforward on paper: a high school diploma or equivalent is typical, some positions skip it, and the preparation is short-term on-the-job training with no prior work experience required.
Training and screening still apply: states set their own rules for personal care aides, and each employer runs its own hiring steps.
When you are ready to look, the board's caregiver jobs listings gather openings from senior and home care employers in one place.
Career information, not medical, legal or tax advice. Pay figures are BLS OEWS May 2025; training and wage-hour rules are as published by the DOL and the states on the dates cited. Confirm current requirements with your state's agency, the DOL or a licensed adviser before you act on them.