Skip to content

Friday, Nov. 7, 2025

Are care workers among the lowest-paid workers in the country?

Gabriel Vinocur, Econofact, The Colorado Sun
yes

Care workers earn significantly less than the median U.S. income and consistently rank near the bottom of occupational pay lists.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the median pay for a home health and personal care aid in 2024 was $34,900. The median annual wage for a U.S. worker was $49,500. A BLS study found that “the care worker wage is about 20% lower than other jobs requiring little or no preparation.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that care workers work unstable hours, are subject to pressure from patients’ family members in the work environment and sustain emotional distress from working with those who are sick or dying. 

BLS finds that 27.2% of personal care aides were foreign-born, compared to 18.6% in all occupations. Black workers make up 25.3% of the care workforce compared to 12.8% in the general economy.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

See all fact briefs

The Colorado Sun is a journalist-founded, award-winning and nonprofit news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself. In this way, we believe we can contribute to a more vibrant, informed and whole Colorado. We are committed to fact-based, in-depth and nonpartisan journalism. We cover everything from politics and culture to the outdoor industry and education. Our goal is to produce the best possible journalism. We do that with the help of you, our readers, and community backers. We launched on Sept. 10, 2018.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.