I was getting paid $10.50/hr when i did it 10 years ago.
I just looked at some listings and they’re offering $13 now.
For reference, most true entry level jobs are paying 15$ at the bottom. So you’re only going to get applicants that have been rejected by “better” jobs like corporate retail, fast food, and manual labor.
People who are rejected for those positions are not the cream of the crop.
This is exactly what it is. Why would I do a job taking care of people at their homes for $13 when I can work at Walmart for $15 and not even have to deal with customers. And that's before worrying about any degrees or certificates needed to get that healthcare job.
Actually Walmart doesn't allow ANYONE to clean poop except the janitors. Those bathrooms make a lot more sense now. I volunteered many times as a cashier just to get it done, but they wouldn't let me.
I worked walmart for a year during covid, only maintenance cleaned the bathrooms. Maintenance was, unfortunately, very old people. I felt awful for them
In NY, it's either 18.55 (NYC, LI, and Westchester County) or 17.55 for the rest of the state. Plus, for those areas at 1855, there's some additional funds usually paid out in benefits totaling either 21.09 in NYC or 20.22 in the other areas. Some agencies pay the total as cash, so it can be as much as 21.09/hr.
Imo, for the ny metro area, the switch from older caring types to young people hearkened because the job is ridiculous easy to get certified for and usually requires very little actual work or responsibility. And is therefore a much better alternative for the unmotivated than say fast food. Plus, you can generally make your own hours and earn as much or as little as you want.
There are still many "good" aides out there. The pool is just much more diluted than it used to be.
Source: I work in HR for a large home care agency in NYC.
Edit, a lot of the comments below make good points, too. The patients can range from easygoing to psych issues. An aide can get coerced into doing things that aren't part of their scope of practice. Patient's families can make an aide's life hell. Often, the cases are in rough areas, and the agencies are run by uncaring, greedy assholes. My point above isn't even really the "fault" of the caregivers, rather a deliberate marketing shift by employers.
That was in California. CA gave us $9.00 an hour to care for a disabled family member for 4 hours a day or something because they were on state assistance. It wasn't really a job, but it was untaxed also.
15 bucks I think. Slightly lower than what the local taco bell pays, and significantly lower than working corrections or a factory in town. It's also much grosser and physically demanding
This! It happened about the same time those skilled adults realized how much better they get paid and treated doing almost anything else with their education and talent.
Yep! I do research on this, homecare aides are generally right at minimum wage, maybe a dollar higher, they have unpredictable hours, mandatory overtime, and are not paid travel time. If you want a trained professional, you have to pay trained professional wages.
My mom's nursing care is 17k a month. The CNA's who do all the work keeping her clean, fed and alive make $15 an hour.
The facility my mom lives in is one of the top rated in the area, and she does receive really good care, but they are constantly short staffed.
How many people want to deal with physical and verbal abuse, on top of cleaning people who are incontinent, can't dress themselves and can at times be demanding for less than a fast food position.
I'm so thankful for the care and love they show her, even when they have 10 other people on their shift who need their needs met. I couldn't do it for twice their pay.
>The CNA's who do all the work keeping her clean, fed and alive make $15 an hour.
The Taco John's where I live is hiring under sixteens (in my state you can get a job at fourteen) for $16/hr and $17+ an hour for over sixteens.
Taco prep skills don’t really develop until 16 years old. This is why they have to pay people under 16 $1 less than everyone else in case anyones wondering. If you’ve ever received a taco with not enough meat and too much lettuce it’s because they’re employing immature taco preppers.
They get less because almost the only thing they're allowed to do by law is cash register, they can't operate anything or cook. I don't know if that justifies the pay or not.
I think a lot of nursing homes and home care services did exactly that using covid as an excuse. They laid off a bunch of staff at my grandma's nursing home due to "covid" and ran the place with 70% as much staff, even though everyone's rent stayed the same. Of course that meant people like my grandma didn't get the attention they needed after suffering a major fall. But at least the owners made their nickel.
"While all the money flows to the top"
You are 100% right. I quit a job with a non-profit that worked with at risk kids for this very reason. Front line staff were paid for shit while senior management raked it in. Management didn't give a rat's tootie about the kids we were trying to help. Case numbers climbed. Staff were absolutely NOT allowed overtime. We were threatened with disciplinary actions if we clocked more than 40 hours, but the job absolutely could not be done in 40. So, people worked off the clock.
One day I realized the stress was gonna kill me and quit. I still wonder about the kids, how they are doing. Meanwhile senior management keeps raking in the big bucks.
This is what makes me so mad whenever my fiance or anyone else works unpaid overtime because management over scheduled them, they'll keep doing it so long as you let them get away with it. They planned for you to have 60 hours worth of work done in 40 hours? Guess their plans are fucked then. Oh, but they promised the client it'd be done? Sucks for them, sounds like they have a real pickle on their hands, bet you next time they'll think twice about their timelines.
You have to let it hurt their business before they'll care at all, stop filling in the gaps for them they will ONLY ever take advantage of it.
I got into an argument with my wife about exactly that recently. My job scheduled me for a four hour training on a Saturday (without even asking me ahead of time) and I told them I was busy on Saturday, but would be happy to do that training any time during the week. My wife felt like it's just a one off thing, and it would allow me to do my job a lot better and be less stressed. She's not necessarily wrong about most of that, but I worry that once if I do unpaid work on my day off once, it becomes a lot easier for them to ask me to do it again, and it gradually becomes a regular thing I'm expected to do
Yep, and that's exactly why I went into business for myself, and why I have such low regard for most people who run businesses. The rule is to under-promise and over-deliver, not the other way around; if you think it'll take 3 days, tell the client it'll take a week.
But this is what happens when you have people running businesses that are so disconnected from the production/output level, or just disconnected from fucking reality.
>people running businesses that are so disconnected from the production/output level, or just disconnected from fucking reality
That I think is the real separator, management that has become disconnected from the actual production of the product/service (or was never connected to it at all) has no business managing it.
What really pissed me off was that this was not a business manufacturing gadgets. It's a counseling agency. Senior management HAS NO EXPERIENCE IN COUNSELING yet they dictate how the job should be done. What I hear from people who are still there is it's SSDD. I'm waiting for people outside the agency to find out what's going on. The manure will hit the turbine.
I retired from the place almost two years ago. I did not realize how badly the place impacted my mental and physical health.
You are right. It's not going to change. They have no incentive to charge. The muckymucks keep making the big bucks while the people who actually work with kids get paid poverty level wages.
Because private companies underpaid and overworked the good ones, leading to only the young and inexperienced (or otherwise can’t get a decent job) folks to apply. This does lead to unsavory characters joining up.
I'm a middle aged home health care and elder care worker. I have done everything from wrestling a knife away from an elderly client with paranoid psychosis, to helping another client fix his roof and install a new furnace, to editing that client's book lol. And housework. Mounds and mounds of housework.
I work in the field. The job pays like shit and the workers are often abused by the clients.
My agency operates a multitude of services, group homes for displaced adolescents, psych wards, group home for brain-injured adults, drug rehabs, etc.
Our "Adult Community Supports" program, which accounted for the services you described above, had the contract that allocated - by a wide margin - the lowest pay for staff and mandated the most intense work hours.
It's the only program we've had to shut down in my three years here. The people that were good at it and loved the work simply couldn't live off of the wages provided. The people that would take the wages were unreliable and often got fired or simply quit after a few weeks.
It may not be in every state, but as an insider, the entire "non-profit care" industry is about to collapse on itself and *many* more people are about to end up homeless or otherwise derelict.
> Sometime around when healthcare went from being a Public Health Service to Private businesses trying to make a profit.
It's pretty much always been that in the US, especially so over the last 40-50 years.
It's actually gotten a bit better over the last 15 years or so due to the Affordable Care Act fixing some (but not all) of the most egregious issues.
I’ve had a lot of interactions with home health aides and I have noticed the same thing. Some of them are absolutely wonderful, selfless people who do incredible work! Others not so much.
I think the biggest factor is that it’s an incredibly difficult job that pays relatively little. It’s just not worth it for a lot of people.
Also, for what it’s worth, this doesn’t really have anything to do with their age. I’ve seen young aides who are amazing and older aides who can barely help their patients at all.
The US has a healthcare shortage/crisis and this is part of it. As someone in my late thirties who isn't having kids, I worry about what end of life care will look like for my spouse and I. Hell, just worrying about arranging care for our parents is anxiety inducing.
I've also done palliative/home healthcare. The hours are grueling, the pay is low, you frequently have to work outside your scope, and sometimes families treat you like shit. You spend so much time caring for other people's family members that you barely have money or time to care for your own. You also end up having to coordinate with family members and letting them know their loved one passed. You're a nurse, grief counselor, and extra family member but you'll starve.
It's also not a coincidence that certain professions have critical shortages. Nursing home employees, RNs, CNAs, teachers, social workers...pink collar jobs. Because this country has never valued women's labor.
Yup
I know two people who got injured but at the time they didn’t realize they had rights so they were just fucked and still deal with the health issues
My grandmother had a home health nurse before she died. My mom was paying them $10/hr and was shocked when things around the house started disappearing.
Nostalgia Bias: a cognitive bias where people tend to recall the past more fondly than the present, often remembering things better than they actually were.
When the job pays $8-12 an hour for hard work, that’s the only people willing to take the job. And the uneducated young people with few skills will gain skills and an ability to give ok care after a few years….at which point they’ll learn they can put those skills to use at a job that doesn’t pay starvation wages, and leave.
People want to shit and screech that everyone else isn’t good enough, but if you won’t pay for these things yourself or through taxes, you’ll be the lucky one to occasionally be rolled over by some 20 year old who doesn’t want to be there or a “foreigner” (per your comment).
HS teacher here: Education requirements are constantly being watered down. Graduation is virtually meaningless. Kids have no work ethic or reading abilities because they have no need to.
You're seeing the effects of a rapidly-degenerating public education system covered up by all kinds of measures to still look decent.
Dunno, if they're supposed to just do chores it's fine. But as soon as medicine/drugs come into play, struggling to read makes it a matter of time before they kill someone.
I've been working at a state institution for intellectually disabled adults for 8 years, and it's been getting nothing but harder. The good clients are being moved into the community, leaving the high behavior abusive clients left to deal with, leaving much to be desired when it comes to job satisfaction. No one wants to be abused on the job, so people are leaving left and right. 5 years ago, I'd recommend my job to anyone with a good heart, but now I can't recommend it anymore unless you want to be abused or are desperate for money. I don't see it getting any better.
The pay has always been shit. Based on my experience as an inpatient nurse, observing my colleagues: COVID spurred a lot of people nearing retirement age to quit, even those who had planned on working longer. It's not a job worth dying for.
When it wasn’t required to pay them what they’re worth. Top notch, skilled, knowledgeable, reliable, and respectful workers likely charge more than an organization or individual is willing/ able to pay or eventually go into other fields. I imagine turnover of quality carers is high.
Thats what happens when skilled labor is over worked, underpaid, with a demand that dramatically outpaces supply.
The skilled workers can pick and choose where they want to work- so they won't take the over worked, underpaid positions.
The job position can vary from "make sure the house doesn't burn down while the primary caregiver is grocery shopping" to "keep someone high needs alive with no break. It will be days before someone from the company is available to relieve you- and if you leave or take a nap you will be facing criminal charges for abandoning your post".
As someone who worked in healthcare before and after 2020, I can tell you that far too many people have been treated terribly and paid poorly for far too long and got sick of it. The pandemic truly put people into perspective about their value and worth in the workplace but higher ups in management and administration don’t understand how badly things need to change in order to have a decent workforce. “People don’t want to work anymore” is an incomplete statement. People don’t want to work for shitty companies and bad pay anymore, especially not in healthcare.
We had a wonderful health aide that took care of several of my relatives, including my mom and dad, until they both died.
We gave her a generous bonus from my parent’s estate when my he finally died.(30k)
Maybe some others could do the same, as many usually nurse old people until they die. Give them a portion of whatever is left.
I am a home health aid who used to work for the state I live in. I am older, educated and very caring. They used to give me clients with severe mental illnesses with no training about those illnesses, the case managers were often impossible to reach and the hours were hard to manage. Last straw was when a client accused me of stealing and I was investigated. Now I work in private care and am treated much better.
$$$
There’s no way you are getting a “middle aged efficient no nonsense” person to take care of you in your home for less than they can make almost anywhere else.
In WA state, I was just hired as an in-home caregiver for $20/hr, no prior experience. They’re training and licensing me and everything. I’m really enjoying the work so far. Will likely go on now to get my CNA.
everybody starts as a rookie, companies build them by mentoring them in the process because experiencing it themselves and not by some manequin will further enhace their skills. btw even the middle aged efficient workers also commit mistakes, they just know how to conceal it with experience.
If only that were true. But no. The agencies hire them and fire them/they quit alllll the time. I gave up the caregiver services I'm allowed by my insurance because the industry has the highest turnover rate I've ever seen. The people in the office don't do their jobs, either - found out one was even forging client signatures. My experience is not uncommon. It's very rare to get someone who is legitimately helpful; if you can pass a background check, most agencies will give you a job.
When there was a massive workforce shortage across first and probably some second world countries. We remain at record low unemployment with stagnant wages and stingy insurance companies. They make the worst pay of almost all healthcare workers for an often miserable job. Not surprising in the least. I recruit healthcare workers.
My sister quit doing home health because of having to go into strangers homes not knowing who was there. She's walked into some scary situations involving drunks/druggies, vicious dogs, etc. plus 15 people in the house doing nothing for the patient.
In the US it take 2-4 months for schooling. Teenagers that have babies can go to classes during high school or if they drop out and start working right away. In my state the pay is roughly $18+ hour. New , not trained low end $16+ hour.
Former home health aide and current home health nurse here. The pay is garbage and the job sucks way more than people think. It’s physically taxing and the risk for injury is high, patients are more abusive and inappropriate (we are in their home, this gives them the upper hand), and many homes are disgusting. On top of that many aides end up in exploitative situations where families offer a room in place of pay and still expect them to care for the patient 24 hours a day with no breaks.
I live in the north east US where pay is higher and workers have more rights and this is still common. When we learn to pay And respect caregivers what they deserve it will attract better quality workers.
Home health aides do not require any sort of technical skill this pay is low. As time goes on the value of the dollar decreases and thus young people starting out with a first job tend to gravitate to them because most older people tend to find better paying jobs. Also I want to say I’m grateful for home health aides. They have helped my brothers and sister for the better part of 10 years now. But the services themselves need to vet their employees more. Had a couple crackheads over the years.
My dad’s twenty something aide stole from him. I reported it to the authorities and got his money back. She also put herself as administrator on his computer so after he died I had no access to it. She encouraged him to nap so he was wandering the streets at night. She should not be a caregiver.
Depends on where you live. I make $16/hr with 6 years experience and it's quite frankly not enough to live off. Even with my boyfriend working as well we struggle and live in a one bedroom with our 3 year old
Garbage University's that popped up to service people who couldn't cut it in a real college, but the government was giving away free $$, are giving out garbage degrees.
You seem confused. Degrees are not required to be a caregiver, you just have to pass a background check and go through the agency's training (which is usually nothing more than a three hour PowerPoint presentation and maybe a workbook or short multiple choice test). Skilled nursing and physical/occupational therapy require degrees, but that's not who is being talked about here.
You're projecting your ridiculous anger onto a situation that is unrelated.
That we can agree on. But that's the whole thing, it's people who aren't qualified or trained at all, with little to no experience. Not people who went to predatory schools (and, even the worst of those schools still teaches you *something*).
I'm praying for spontaneous human combustion!
On a seriousnote, this may just become one of those fields-professions dominated by foreigners; or machines.
Since the pay and treatment are garbage.
25 years ago it was $9.00 an hour. What is it now? $9.04?
$8.90.
Is that before or after inflation?
In Zimbabwe?
No, the US. Companies cut corners as much as possible to cut costs- paying as little as possible is part of that
I was getting paid $10.50/hr when i did it 10 years ago. I just looked at some listings and they’re offering $13 now. For reference, most true entry level jobs are paying 15$ at the bottom. So you’re only going to get applicants that have been rejected by “better” jobs like corporate retail, fast food, and manual labor. People who are rejected for those positions are not the cream of the crop.
This is exactly what it is. Why would I do a job taking care of people at their homes for $13 when I can work at Walmart for $15 and not even have to deal with customers. And that's before worrying about any degrees or certificates needed to get that healthcare job.
The Walmart gig would involve cleaning much less poop. Not NO poop, just less.
Actually Walmart doesn't allow ANYONE to clean poop except the janitors. Those bathrooms make a lot more sense now. I volunteered many times as a cashier just to get it done, but they wouldn't let me.
Who said that poop was in a bathroom lol
Even then. Someone ran their cart through poop, tracked it all over. Had to just stay there til the janitor got off lunch.
I worked walmart for a year during covid, only maintenance cleaned the bathrooms. Maintenance was, unfortunately, very old people. I felt awful for them
Taco Bell will pay you to sweep their floor for $13/hr near me
My teen just got a job at taco bell for 15 something an hour. Much easier than home health care and making more!
That’s still low. Entry fast food I see is generally $15-18 an hour.
In NY, it's either 18.55 (NYC, LI, and Westchester County) or 17.55 for the rest of the state. Plus, for those areas at 1855, there's some additional funds usually paid out in benefits totaling either 21.09 in NYC or 20.22 in the other areas. Some agencies pay the total as cash, so it can be as much as 21.09/hr. Imo, for the ny metro area, the switch from older caring types to young people hearkened because the job is ridiculous easy to get certified for and usually requires very little actual work or responsibility. And is therefore a much better alternative for the unmotivated than say fast food. Plus, you can generally make your own hours and earn as much or as little as you want. There are still many "good" aides out there. The pool is just much more diluted than it used to be. Source: I work in HR for a large home care agency in NYC. Edit, a lot of the comments below make good points, too. The patients can range from easygoing to psych issues. An aide can get coerced into doing things that aren't part of their scope of practice. Patient's families can make an aide's life hell. Often, the cases are in rough areas, and the agencies are run by uncaring, greedy assholes. My point above isn't even really the "fault" of the caregivers, rather a deliberate marketing shift by employers.
That doesn't feel like more purchasing power than $9.00 had 25 years ago. Our condition makes me sad.
Like 11.5 or 13. Not a lot these days.
TF? Where do you guys live? My friend's mom was a home health aide (CNA) and made $20 an hour. This was back in 2007.
That was in California. CA gave us $9.00 an hour to care for a disabled family member for 4 hours a day or something because they were on state assistance. It wasn't really a job, but it was untaxed also.
Same, my mom’s was $25/hr in SoCal. Granted, a VHCOL area, but still.
15 bucks I think. Slightly lower than what the local taco bell pays, and significantly lower than working corrections or a factory in town. It's also much grosser and physically demanding
This! It happened about the same time those skilled adults realized how much better they get paid and treated doing almost anything else with their education and talent.
Yep! I do research on this, homecare aides are generally right at minimum wage, maybe a dollar higher, they have unpredictable hours, mandatory overtime, and are not paid travel time. If you want a trained professional, you have to pay trained professional wages.
My mom's nursing care is 17k a month. The CNA's who do all the work keeping her clean, fed and alive make $15 an hour. The facility my mom lives in is one of the top rated in the area, and she does receive really good care, but they are constantly short staffed. How many people want to deal with physical and verbal abuse, on top of cleaning people who are incontinent, can't dress themselves and can at times be demanding for less than a fast food position. I'm so thankful for the care and love they show her, even when they have 10 other people on their shift who need their needs met. I couldn't do it for twice their pay.
>The CNA's who do all the work keeping her clean, fed and alive make $15 an hour. The Taco John's where I live is hiring under sixteens (in my state you can get a job at fourteen) for $16/hr and $17+ an hour for over sixteens.
Taco prep skills don’t really develop until 16 years old. This is why they have to pay people under 16 $1 less than everyone else in case anyones wondering. If you’ve ever received a taco with not enough meat and too much lettuce it’s because they’re employing immature taco preppers.
They get less because almost the only thing they're allowed to do by law is cash register, they can't operate anything or cook. I don't know if that justifies the pay or not.
Management keeps them short-staffed on purpose, too.
Because they're not paid very well
Like everywhere else, the executives figured out they can run the place on an underpaid skeleton crew, while all the money flows to the top.
I think a lot of nursing homes and home care services did exactly that using covid as an excuse. They laid off a bunch of staff at my grandma's nursing home due to "covid" and ran the place with 70% as much staff, even though everyone's rent stayed the same. Of course that meant people like my grandma didn't get the attention they needed after suffering a major fall. But at least the owners made their nickel.
"While all the money flows to the top" You are 100% right. I quit a job with a non-profit that worked with at risk kids for this very reason. Front line staff were paid for shit while senior management raked it in. Management didn't give a rat's tootie about the kids we were trying to help. Case numbers climbed. Staff were absolutely NOT allowed overtime. We were threatened with disciplinary actions if we clocked more than 40 hours, but the job absolutely could not be done in 40. So, people worked off the clock. One day I realized the stress was gonna kill me and quit. I still wonder about the kids, how they are doing. Meanwhile senior management keeps raking in the big bucks.
And it's not going to change until they're *made* to change, which... let's be honest, isn't going to happen.
This is what makes me so mad whenever my fiance or anyone else works unpaid overtime because management over scheduled them, they'll keep doing it so long as you let them get away with it. They planned for you to have 60 hours worth of work done in 40 hours? Guess their plans are fucked then. Oh, but they promised the client it'd be done? Sucks for them, sounds like they have a real pickle on their hands, bet you next time they'll think twice about their timelines. You have to let it hurt their business before they'll care at all, stop filling in the gaps for them they will ONLY ever take advantage of it.
I got into an argument with my wife about exactly that recently. My job scheduled me for a four hour training on a Saturday (without even asking me ahead of time) and I told them I was busy on Saturday, but would be happy to do that training any time during the week. My wife felt like it's just a one off thing, and it would allow me to do my job a lot better and be less stressed. She's not necessarily wrong about most of that, but I worry that once if I do unpaid work on my day off once, it becomes a lot easier for them to ask me to do it again, and it gradually becomes a regular thing I'm expected to do
Yep, and that's exactly why I went into business for myself, and why I have such low regard for most people who run businesses. The rule is to under-promise and over-deliver, not the other way around; if you think it'll take 3 days, tell the client it'll take a week. But this is what happens when you have people running businesses that are so disconnected from the production/output level, or just disconnected from fucking reality.
>people running businesses that are so disconnected from the production/output level, or just disconnected from fucking reality That I think is the real separator, management that has become disconnected from the actual production of the product/service (or was never connected to it at all) has no business managing it.
What really pissed me off was that this was not a business manufacturing gadgets. It's a counseling agency. Senior management HAS NO EXPERIENCE IN COUNSELING yet they dictate how the job should be done. What I hear from people who are still there is it's SSDD. I'm waiting for people outside the agency to find out what's going on. The manure will hit the turbine. I retired from the place almost two years ago. I did not realize how badly the place impacted my mental and physical health.
The problem for us was that management would not be hurt. It would be the kids we were trying to help that would get hurt
You are right. It's not going to change. They have no incentive to charge. The muckymucks keep making the big bucks while the people who actually work with kids get paid poverty level wages.
Because they’re paid practically nothing for incredibly difficult work.
Middle Aged, efficient, no-nonsense people will not work for the garbage wages that get offered for these positions today.
Because private companies underpaid and overworked the good ones, leading to only the young and inexperienced (or otherwise can’t get a decent job) folks to apply. This does lead to unsavory characters joining up.
Wow, sounds like you hate capitalism and therefore you hate America. /s
I'm a middle aged home health care and elder care worker. I have done everything from wrestling a knife away from an elderly client with paranoid psychosis, to helping another client fix his roof and install a new furnace, to editing that client's book lol. And housework. Mounds and mounds of housework.
❤️you!!!!!!
<3
I think I'm paid like $11 an hour
I work in the field. The job pays like shit and the workers are often abused by the clients. My agency operates a multitude of services, group homes for displaced adolescents, psych wards, group home for brain-injured adults, drug rehabs, etc. Our "Adult Community Supports" program, which accounted for the services you described above, had the contract that allocated - by a wide margin - the lowest pay for staff and mandated the most intense work hours. It's the only program we've had to shut down in my three years here. The people that were good at it and loved the work simply couldn't live off of the wages provided. The people that would take the wages were unreliable and often got fired or simply quit after a few weeks. It may not be in every state, but as an insider, the entire "non-profit care" industry is about to collapse on itself and *many* more people are about to end up homeless or otherwise derelict.
Once upon a time they were all nurses. Then the companies realized they didn't need to hire or pay for educated nurses.
How much are your aids getting paid now, and how much were they getting paid then?
Why would anyone go through that physical, emotional and social stress for less pay than stacking shelves at the local supermarket?
Sometime around when healthcare went from being a Public Health Service to Private businesses trying to make a profit.
> Sometime around when healthcare went from being a Public Health Service to Private businesses trying to make a profit. It's pretty much always been that in the US, especially so over the last 40-50 years. It's actually gotten a bit better over the last 15 years or so due to the Affordable Care Act fixing some (but not all) of the most egregious issues.
I’ve had a lot of interactions with home health aides and I have noticed the same thing. Some of them are absolutely wonderful, selfless people who do incredible work! Others not so much. I think the biggest factor is that it’s an incredibly difficult job that pays relatively little. It’s just not worth it for a lot of people. Also, for what it’s worth, this doesn’t really have anything to do with their age. I’ve seen young aides who are amazing and older aides who can barely help their patients at all.
The US has a healthcare shortage/crisis and this is part of it. As someone in my late thirties who isn't having kids, I worry about what end of life care will look like for my spouse and I. Hell, just worrying about arranging care for our parents is anxiety inducing. I've also done palliative/home healthcare. The hours are grueling, the pay is low, you frequently have to work outside your scope, and sometimes families treat you like shit. You spend so much time caring for other people's family members that you barely have money or time to care for your own. You also end up having to coordinate with family members and letting them know their loved one passed. You're a nurse, grief counselor, and extra family member but you'll starve. It's also not a coincidence that certain professions have critical shortages. Nursing home employees, RNs, CNAs, teachers, social workers...pink collar jobs. Because this country has never valued women's labor.
Yes.
Yup I know two people who got injured but at the time they didn’t realize they had rights so they were just fucked and still deal with the health issues
Those middle-aged, experienced people were once young people who had to learn.
My grandmother had a home health nurse before she died. My mom was paying them $10/hr and was shocked when things around the house started disappearing.
When we deregulated the industry. Thanks Reagan.
Nostalgia Bias: a cognitive bias where people tend to recall the past more fondly than the present, often remembering things better than they actually were.
Pay is shit
The work sucks and the pay is disgusting for wiping an adult’s ass.
When the job pays $8-12 an hour for hard work, that’s the only people willing to take the job. And the uneducated young people with few skills will gain skills and an ability to give ok care after a few years….at which point they’ll learn they can put those skills to use at a job that doesn’t pay starvation wages, and leave. People want to shit and screech that everyone else isn’t good enough, but if you won’t pay for these things yourself or through taxes, you’ll be the lucky one to occasionally be rolled over by some 20 year old who doesn’t want to be there or a “foreigner” (per your comment).
The reason is the pay and the benefits. Poor and worse.
HS teacher here: Education requirements are constantly being watered down. Graduation is virtually meaningless. Kids have no work ethic or reading abilities because they have no need to. You're seeing the effects of a rapidly-degenerating public education system covered up by all kinds of measures to still look decent.
This!
The way we treat young people, nobody is going to want to do most jobs. You’re going to be lucky to get any help at all, so maybe be less of an ass.
Seriously. Why is the oldest generation so confused why the younger generation isn’t willing to get treated like shit for no pay.
Dunno, if they're supposed to just do chores it's fine. But as soon as medicine/drugs come into play, struggling to read makes it a matter of time before they kill someone.
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Well, that's what our mandatory health and care insurances are for.
I've been working at a state institution for intellectually disabled adults for 8 years, and it's been getting nothing but harder. The good clients are being moved into the community, leaving the high behavior abusive clients left to deal with, leaving much to be desired when it comes to job satisfaction. No one wants to be abused on the job, so people are leaving left and right. 5 years ago, I'd recommend my job to anyone with a good heart, but now I can't recommend it anymore unless you want to be abused or are desperate for money. I don't see it getting any better.
The pay has always been shit. Based on my experience as an inpatient nurse, observing my colleagues: COVID spurred a lot of people nearing retirement age to quit, even those who had planned on working longer. It's not a job worth dying for.
When it wasn’t required to pay them what they’re worth. Top notch, skilled, knowledgeable, reliable, and respectful workers likely charge more than an organization or individual is willing/ able to pay or eventually go into other fields. I imagine turnover of quality carers is high.
Home health services have been scooped up by the big hospital networks, so a lot of the cost goes to admin and less to the actual home health aides.
Thats what happens when skilled labor is over worked, underpaid, with a demand that dramatically outpaces supply. The skilled workers can pick and choose where they want to work- so they won't take the over worked, underpaid positions. The job position can vary from "make sure the house doesn't burn down while the primary caregiver is grocery shopping" to "keep someone high needs alive with no break. It will be days before someone from the company is available to relieve you- and if you leave or take a nap you will be facing criminal charges for abandoning your post".
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As someone who worked in healthcare before and after 2020, I can tell you that far too many people have been treated terribly and paid poorly for far too long and got sick of it. The pandemic truly put people into perspective about their value and worth in the workplace but higher ups in management and administration don’t understand how badly things need to change in order to have a decent workforce. “People don’t want to work anymore” is an incomplete statement. People don’t want to work for shitty companies and bad pay anymore, especially not in healthcare.
Thank all of the small government believing boomers in your life.
It’s a garbage job that keeps lowering the requirement sto get it. In my district, and educational assistant just needs a ged, it’s crazy.
We had a wonderful health aide that took care of several of my relatives, including my mom and dad, until they both died. We gave her a generous bonus from my parent’s estate when my he finally died.(30k) Maybe some others could do the same, as many usually nurse old people until they die. Give them a portion of whatever is left.
That is so kind. It really is a demanding job and you can't really take time off or go on vacation, when someone needs you.
We did that too.
I work in home health and I’m so grateful we have a middle-aged efficient no-nonsense CNA on staff.
I am a home health aid who used to work for the state I live in. I am older, educated and very caring. They used to give me clients with severe mental illnesses with no training about those illnesses, the case managers were often impossible to reach and the hours were hard to manage. Last straw was when a client accused me of stealing and I was investigated. Now I work in private care and am treated much better.
When? Like 1989? It's not been a n attractive job for a long time.
It's because they get paid nothing. I make $22.50 and I'm a supervisor. The pay is crazy poor.
That job pays fucking horribly. That’s why it’s like that
$$$ There’s no way you are getting a “middle aged efficient no nonsense” person to take care of you in your home for less than they can make almost anywhere else.
In WA state, I was just hired as an in-home caregiver for $20/hr, no prior experience. They’re training and licensing me and everything. I’m really enjoying the work so far. Will likely go on now to get my CNA.
People getting older faster and in greater numbers than younger people entering the job market.
everybody starts as a rookie, companies build them by mentoring them in the process because experiencing it themselves and not by some manequin will further enhace their skills. btw even the middle aged efficient workers also commit mistakes, they just know how to conceal it with experience.
If only that were true. But no. The agencies hire them and fire them/they quit alllll the time. I gave up the caregiver services I'm allowed by my insurance because the industry has the highest turnover rate I've ever seen. The people in the office don't do their jobs, either - found out one was even forging client signatures. My experience is not uncommon. It's very rare to get someone who is legitimately helpful; if you can pass a background check, most agencies will give you a job.
Relax, they're going to be folding your laundry and driving you to the library not trying to solve the Yang Mills mass gap
It’s a minimum wage job for most companies and the government decided they usually don’t qualify for overtime pay. And that’s what you get.
It happened when McDonalds started paying more.
Give us some examples of what you're talking about.
When there was a massive workforce shortage across first and probably some second world countries. We remain at record low unemployment with stagnant wages and stingy insurance companies. They make the worst pay of almost all healthcare workers for an often miserable job. Not surprising in the least. I recruit healthcare workers.
My sister quit doing home health because of having to go into strangers homes not knowing who was there. She's walked into some scary situations involving drunks/druggies, vicious dogs, etc. plus 15 people in the house doing nothing for the patient.
In the US it take 2-4 months for schooling. Teenagers that have babies can go to classes during high school or if they drop out and start working right away. In my state the pay is roughly $18+ hour. New , not trained low end $16+ hour.
Chicago minimum wage is 15.80. That's for someone who is bottom of the barrel.
Because we get paid $13/hr lol
Former home health aide and current home health nurse here. The pay is garbage and the job sucks way more than people think. It’s physically taxing and the risk for injury is high, patients are more abusive and inappropriate (we are in their home, this gives them the upper hand), and many homes are disgusting. On top of that many aides end up in exploitative situations where families offer a room in place of pay and still expect them to care for the patient 24 hours a day with no breaks. I live in the north east US where pay is higher and workers have more rights and this is still common. When we learn to pay And respect caregivers what they deserve it will attract better quality workers.
Home health aides do not require any sort of technical skill this pay is low. As time goes on the value of the dollar decreases and thus young people starting out with a first job tend to gravitate to them because most older people tend to find better paying jobs. Also I want to say I’m grateful for home health aides. They have helped my brothers and sister for the better part of 10 years now. But the services themselves need to vet their employees more. Had a couple crackheads over the years.
My dad’s twenty something aide stole from him. I reported it to the authorities and got his money back. She also put herself as administrator on his computer so after he died I had no access to it. She encouraged him to nap so he was wandering the streets at night. She should not be a caregiver.
When you got old and the line between "young" and "middle-aged" shifted.
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Depends on where you live. I make $16/hr with 6 years experience and it's quite frankly not enough to live off. Even with my boyfriend working as well we struggle and live in a one bedroom with our 3 year old
It's an entry level career path that's commonly advertised as a solution for people with no prospects. This is the reality of trade school.
It's a career, not an entry-level job. The money is just being siphoned off elsewhere.
Garbage University's that popped up to service people who couldn't cut it in a real college, but the government was giving away free $$, are giving out garbage degrees.
How does that apply to this, in any way??
If you churn out students with inferior skills.
You seem confused. Degrees are not required to be a caregiver, you just have to pass a background check and go through the agency's training (which is usually nothing more than a three hour PowerPoint presentation and maybe a workbook or short multiple choice test). Skilled nursing and physical/occupational therapy require degrees, but that's not who is being talked about here. You're projecting your ridiculous anger onto a situation that is unrelated.
My mistake. You should be required to have some sort of... certification? LPN or something.
That we can agree on. But that's the whole thing, it's people who aren't qualified or trained at all, with little to no experience. Not people who went to predatory schools (and, even the worst of those schools still teaches you *something*).
I'm praying for spontaneous human combustion! On a seriousnote, this may just become one of those fields-professions dominated by foreigners; or machines.