Personal Care Aide Salary & Pay Data
BLS OEWS May 2025 · Broader BLS occupation: SOC 31-1120 Home Health and Personal Care Aides
BLS publishes no separate wage for personal care aides.
Home health and personal care aides combined (SOC 31-1120 Home Health and Personal Care Aides), the broader occupation they are counted in, earned a median $35,800 a year ($17.21 an hour) in May 2025.
The middle half of that group earned between $31,920 and $39,470.
BLS publishes personal care aides and home health aides as one combined occupation (31-1120); this is that combined group, not personal care aides alone.
Annual figures are BLS hourly wages × 2,080 hours. OEWS covers wage-and-salary workers only, so it leaves out the self-employed, workers employed directly by private households (such as caregivers hired by families), overtime pay and most bonuses.
How pay spreads across Home Health and Personal Care Aides
| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $27,040 | $13.00 |
| 25th | $31,920 | $15.35 |
| 50th (median) | $35,800 | $17.21 |
| 75th | $39,470 | $18.98 |
| 90th | $45,040 | $21.65 |
| Mean (average) | $36,120 | $17.36 |
SOC 31-1120 Home Health and Personal Care Aides, the broader occupation (not a personal care aide series): 4,305,810 wage-and-salary jobs, BLS OEWS May 2025.
Pay by employer type
National median for home health and personal care aides combined (SOC 31-1120) by the industry of the employer, BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates.
BLS publishes no setting split for personal care aides alone; these rows are for the whole occupation.
Most non-medical home care agencies are classified in services for the elderly and persons with disabilities; Medicare-certified home health agencies are in home health care services.
| Employer industry | Median | Hourly | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home health care services | $36,230 | $17.42 | 1,079,060 |
| Services for the elderly and persons with disabilities | $34,810 | $16.73 | 2,274,140 |
| Assisted living and continuing care retirement communities | $37,060 | $17.82 | 265,100 |
| Nursing care facilities (skilled nursing) | $36,850 | $17.72 | 55,500 |
| Hospitals | $40,320 | $19.38 | 28,830 |
Selected senior care and health care industries only; the national figure above covers every industry.
Job outlook for Home Health and Personal Care Aides
BLS projects employment of home health and personal care aides combined to grow from about 4,677,100 in 2025 to 5,524,400 in 2035 (BLS Employment Projections 2025–35).
BLS projects no separate figure for personal care aides.
The projection counts include the self-employed and come from a different BLS program, so they are not directly comparable with the OEWS payroll job count above.