She has her own room, couch and tv area. I feed her 3 meals plus snacks every day. Her dog lives here as well therefore I care for her too. She can dress herself and she gets around pretty well. I help her with showering, pills twice a day and all the little things in between. My aunt is in charge of her financials and pays me regularly every 2 weeks. My aunt also relieves me a few days a month and does not deduct from my pay. My grandmothers care has slightly become more over the last year and a half and I just feel like it’s time for my compensation to be evaluated.
I wanted to see first off what what some of you think the approximate appropriate pay would be for someone in my case. Should her room and her portion of utilities be separate from the care that I give her? I plan on having a sit down with my aunt when she comes back from vacation so we can talk over some things. There’s more to the story but I just wanted to start here. Thanks
1) do you intend to care for your gramma until she passes? Do you understand what this involves, regardless of the pay rate?
2) does your aunt have full understanding of your gramma's financial means so that she has calculated whether gramma can afford for her living expenses and care until she passes?
Since people do change their minds about providing care when they experience the increasing intensity of it year after year, you and your aunt need to speak with an elder law attorney to make sure that the way your wages get recorded will satisfy the law, incase your gramma needs to go into a NH on Medicaid (and there's a 5-yr "look back" period and any pay that is not clearly and legally recorded as a wage might be considered "gifting" my the govt.
FYI my family uses Visiting Angels (in FL)and they charge $22 p/hr for "unskilled" care (which means, no medical qualifications, patient not a fall risk, just light housekeeping, driving on errands, bathroom/bathing aid, and companionship.) So, the caregiver probably gets $15 p/hr from V.A.
Hope this info helps!
I’ve briefly looked at Visiting Angels. I’ll check it out some more. I’m a little worried that if I ask to be paid more she’ll move her in with someone else to save money and she would risk her not being able to have her dog and be with her family and her health would decline. There’s definitely more to the situation but this is a good start. Thanks again