Health and Disability

Across the industry, home health agencies are struggling with high turnover rates among caregivers and dealing with rising labor costs. While boosting caregiver wages can aid in caregiver retention, it isn’t the only mechanism to deal with turnover, according to Caitlin Connolly, home care fair pay campaign coordinator at the National Employment Law Project.

“It is not helpful if only the agencies raise wages,” she said. “Agencies need to take a close look at turnover and how they are working with caregivers in a way that would want them to stay.”

“Depending on which state someone is working in, even if agencies are saying they are paying above minimum wage, it could still be a poverty wage,” she said. “In addition to paying workers above a poverty wage, it’s also about looking at making investments in our home care system.”

One way agencies may be able to give more value to caregiver pay is by providing more than just higher hourly wages, such as categorizing caregivers as full-time workers with W-2 status, rather than on a 1099 contract basis. Full-time workers may be eligible for other optional benefits and have more stability.

“It’s very hard to stay in this field as a caregiver because of the wages, but turnover plagues the entire industry,” she said. “It not only hurts the consumers but also is extremely expensive for agencies. We know that it costs at least $2,500 per person who quits at an agency, and that’s old data. We need to look at benefits like giving caregivers access to consistent schedules, flexibility, and continuing education, as well as consistent pay.”