A companion caregiver is a non-medical worker hired to keep an older adult company and safe: conversation, activities, meals, errands, housekeeping and rides, rather than hands-on personal care as the core of the job.
BLS counts companions among home health and personal care aides, a group it projects to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035.
This guide explains what companions do, how the role differs from personal care, who hires, what you need to start, and what the work pays.
What is a companion caregiver?
A companion caregiver is a non-medical worker hired to spend time with an older adult and help them stay safe, engaged and independent at home.
In the federal regulation that defines companionship for pay purposes, the term means "the provision of fellowship and protection for an elderly person or person with an illness, injury, or disability who requires assistance in caring for himself or herself."
That definition sits in the Labor Department's rule at 29 CFR 552.6(a).
The DOL reads companionship as fellowship and protection: engaging the person in social, physical and mental activities and being present to monitor their safety and well-being.
BLS does not give the job its own line.
BLS has no separate "caregiver" occupation, and it counts companions inside home health and personal care aides (SOC 31-1120) — the label on every pay figure below.
BLS describes personal care aides, "sometimes called caregivers or personal attendants," as generally limited to nonmedical services such as companionship, cleaning, cooking and driving.
Titles shift across the field — PHI notes that direct-care titles vary by state and setting — so read the duties, not the title.
What does a companion do (and not do)?
The center of the job is company.
Companionship time is built on fellowship and protection: engaging the client in social, physical and mental activities and being present to monitor their safety and well-being.
Around that center sit the nonmedical services BLS lists for personal care aides: companionship, cleaning, cooking and driving.
A companion visit might include tidying the kitchen, preparing lunch, picking up groceries or driving the client to an appointment.
Hands-on medical care is outside companionship services: the DOL's Wage and Hour Division lists catheter care, turning and repositioning, ostomy care, tube feeding, treating bruising or bedsores and physical therapy as medically related tasks that are not companionship services.
That list draws a pay-law line, not a scope of practice: it decides when the FLSA companionship exemption applies, not what a state permits a companion to do.
What one employer asks of a companion is set by that employer's job description and by state rules.
Companion care vs personal care
The difference is how much hands-on care the job includes.
Federal rule 42 CFR 441.505 defines ADLs as basic personal everyday activities such as eating, toileting, grooming, dressing, bathing and transferring.
It defines IADLs as activities for living independently, such as meal planning and preparation, managing finances, shopping, household chores and getting around the community.
Companion work sits on the IADL side: the nonmedical services BLS lists — companionship, cleaning, cooking and driving — are the meal-prep, chore and getting-around activities the same rule counts as IADLs.
Under the FLSA, help with ADLs and IADLs counts as companionship only when it is attendant to fellowship and protection and does not exceed 20% of the total hours worked per person per workweek (29 CFR 552.6(b)).
Training rules split the same way.
PHI reports that home health aides and nursing assistants are federally required to complete at least 75 hours of training (16 supervised practical) and pass a competency exam, while personal care aides have no federal training or competency requirements and PCA rules vary by state.
Employers draw the line in their job descriptions.
Certified home health or hospice agencies paid by federal programs such as Medicare must follow federal aide-employment regulations, while private care agencies that do not receive federal funds may have other employment requirements that vary by state.
Where a job lands between the two depends on the client and the employer.
Who hires companions?
Agencies and households hire for this work.
Non-medical home care agencies are third-party employers of direct care workers — the DOL's own fact sheets name home care staffing agencies as third-party employers of direct care workers.
Households also hire companions directly.
The Wage and Hour Division counts companions among the domestic service workers covered by the FLSA when they work in or about a private home, which is the frame for a family employing a caregiver on its own.
The wider aide group's employer mix shows where the work sits.
By BLS 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%).
Settings follow the client.
BLS notes many aides work in clients' homes while others work in group homes or care communities, some stay with one client long term, and aides may work in shifts so a client always has an aide.
Scheduling bends the same way.
BLS notes part-time work is common in this group, and that aides may work evenings and weekends depending on clients' needs.
To see what is open right now, browse companion caregiver jobs.
What do you need to start?
The entry bar is low on paper.
BLS lists the typical entry-level education for home health and personal care aides as a high school diploma or equivalent, adds that some positions do not require it, and notes short-term on-the-job training with no prior work experience required.
There is no federal training or competency requirement for personal care aides — PHI states it directly, alongside the federal floors that do bind home health aides and nursing assistants.
What a state asks of non-medical caregivers is set state by state.
Two more items may come up in hiring.
BLS notes aides may be required to obtain first aid and CPR certification, and private agencies that do not receive federal funds may have requirements of their own that vary by state.
Employers also screen for fit.
BLS lists the important qualities for home health and personal care aides as being detail oriented, compassion, integrity — dependable and trustworthy — interpersonal skills, and physical stamina.
Requirements vary — check before you apply
How much do companions make?
Start with the label: BLS publishes no companion-specific wage statistic.
BLS has no separate "caregiver" occupation, so companion pay is read from its combined home health and personal care aides group (SOC 31-1120), published as one figure for HHAs and PCAs together.
In May 2025 that group's median wage was $17.21 an hour, or $35,800 a year.
BLS OEWS put the 10th percentile at $13.00, the 25th at $15.35, the 75th at $18.98 and the 90th at $21.65, with a mean of $17.36.
On the annual scale, the lowest-paid 10% earned less than $27,040 and the highest-paid 10% earned more than $45,040 in May 2025.
OEWS counted 4,305,810 payroll jobs in the group, a figure that excludes self-employed workers.
The federal wage floor reaches this work.
Third-party employers such as home care agencies cannot claim the FLSA companionship exemption.
That means an agency-employed companion must be paid at least the federal minimum wage — $7.25 an hour, and more where state or local minimums are higher — for all hours worked.
Overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate is due past 40 hours in a workweek.
Demand is the other half of the picture.
BLS projects employment of home health and personal care aides to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average, with 760,500 openings a year on average.
For medians by state, the caregiver pay page carries the BLS tables for this group.
Can companion work lead to other caregiving roles?
Yes, with added training.
Companion work is personal-care-aide work; home health aide, certified nursing assistant and licensed nurse roles each come with training rules of their own.
The home health aide route adds federal training.
Medicare-certified agencies must follow 42 CFR 484.80(b), which requires at least 75 hours of aide training, with at least 16 hours of classroom training preceding at least 16 hours of supervised practical training.
The same federal rules require 12 hours of in-service training in each 12-month period.
The CNA route adds the state credential.
Nursing assistants typically must complete a state-approved education program and pass their state's competency exam, titles vary by state, and aides must be on the state registry to work in a nursing home.
Pay differs by role.
The median for nursing assistants was $42,260 in May 2025, against $35,800 for home health and personal care aides — one combined figure for home health aides and companions alike, so the data gives no separate home health aide median.
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses had a 2025 median of $64,400 and registered nurses $97,550 — occupation-wide figures across all settings, not home-care-specific rates.
Growth differs too.
BLS projects nursing assistants and orderlies to grow 3% from 2025 to 2035, about as fast as average, while home health and personal care aides grow 18%.
The aide group has the faster projection, while the higher medians sit with nursing assistants and licensed nurses.
Companion work is one place to start while you decide on — and train for — those routes.
This page is career information, not medical, licensing, legal or tax advice. Confirm current training, certification and pay rules with your state's agencies, the U.S. Department of Labor and each employer before you act on them.