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Every company I've called says $38/hour. Who can afford this? A recent NY Times article said the going rate in the US is $16/hour. Why is it more than double in Washington DC?

DC is also a high tax region for businesses to operate in.

In DC a law passed that you can get 12 weeks of paid leave for various situations. https://www.dcpaidfamilyleave.org/

On the plus side you can get 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a family member.

The negative is that business pay for this leave through additional employer taxes.

DC is in general an expensive area for businesses to operate.
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Reply to brandee
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DC is a location with a high minimum wage law. As of July 2025 minimum wage in DC for any job is now $17.95.

As you see the legal rate in DC is high. The high minimum wage laws drive up the wages of all jobs.

We were paying $30 an hour in a poor Maryland county in 2024 so the $38 per hour in DC sounds about right.
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Reply to brandee
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Three years ago we were paying $35/hour to an agency for home health aides, in Maine where wages are generally a lot less than in urban areas such as NYC and DC. My husband had LTC insurance and at the time he only needed 4 hours/day for 3 days a week; he passed away before needing more hours. So $38/hour in DC from an agency sounds totally within reason (not reasonable in terms of affordability without insurance!).
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Reply to newbiewife
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My parents were in NYC. We posted on Next Door and hired on our own, not through an agency. That way we were assured of consistency. We did not want someone new from the agency showing up each week.

This was three years ago when we paid $25/hr. It worked out ok until their health issues got too bad to keep them
home any longer.

Most people who do this work
do not want to work with an agency because they do not make as much money. But you will have to check references and do your due diligence.

We were grateful for the wonderful caregivers we had. The arrangement worked for us.
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Reply to Hothouseflower
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A lot of States have a $7.25 hr minimum wage. This drives down wages paid for all jobs but especially for jobs like caregiving which tends to be considered low skill / not needing higher Ed.
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Reply to igloo572
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First your talking about Washington DC. Like any city everything is going to be higher. Then your talking about an agency vs private pay. An agency has to make a profit and the aide is getting maybe half? of that $38. $16 is more like private pay and really a good aide is worth more than that. Sometimes you have to weigh the cost of homecare and placing the person into Assisted Living which may be cheaper in the long run.
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Reply to JoAnn29
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Check out Care.com where you may be able to get a better rate. The NYT is seriously full of it (as usual) if they're quoting $16/hr for elder care!!!! Especially from an AGENCY! It's laughable, really.

As you can see from this chart, D.C. is the 4th most expensive cost of living state in the country, 41.9% higher than the national average.

Hawaii
186.9
Massachusetts
145.9
California
144.8
District of Columbia
141.9
Alaska
123.8
New York
123.3
Maryland
115.3
New Jersey
114.6
Vermont
114.4
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