Home Care Aide Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A home care aide keeps a client safe and independent at home through a non-medical agency: companion visits, homemaking, meals, errands and, where the service plan allows, help with personal care. This page has a home care aide job description template you can copy, the duties laid out by service line, what the role pays, and how it differs from a caregiver, personal care aide and home health aide.
Home care aide duties
A home care aide works for a non-medical home care agency and delivers the services on a client’s service plan, in the client’s own home, usually alone. The title is an agency title rather than a federal occupation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts these workers inside home health and personal care aides (SOC 31-1120), and O*NET lists “Home Care Aide” as a reported job title for personal care aides (31-1122.00). Every wage and outlook figure on this page describes that combined BLS occupation, not home care aides alone.
What makes the job distinct is the structure most private-duty agencies sell: a small number of service lines, each with its own tasks. Writing the duties by service line tells a candidate exactly which visits they will be sent on.
Companion visits
- Conversation, reading aloud, games, walks and outings that keep the client connected to friends, church and community
- Standby presence for safety: checking on a client who is unsteady, and noticing when something is wrong
- Respite for a family caregiver who needs a few hours out of the house
Homemaking visits
- Kitchen work, laundry, changing linens and keeping walkways clear of trip hazards
- Grocery lists and shopping, errands, and picking up prescriptions
- Meal planning and cooking to the diet on the service plan
- Driving the client to appointments in the aide’s own car or an agency vehicle
Personal care visits
- Hands-on help with activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, toileting, getting in and out of bed) as the service plan allows
- Medication reminders, where your state permits them, not administration
On every visit
- Clocking in and out through the agency’s electronic visit verification (EVV) app at the client’s home
- Recording what was done and anything observed in the visit note before leaving
- Calling the care manager the same day about falls, confusion, missed meals, skin changes or an empty fridge
- Following the agency’s rules on what an aide may not do: no clinical tasks, no handling the client’s finances beyond receipts for shopping
The Occupational Outlook Handbook describes the same ground in six lines: assisting with personal tasks such as bathing or dressing, housekeeping, organizing a client’s schedule and appointments, arranging transportation, shopping and preparing meals to a client’s dietary specifications, and keeping clients engaged in their social networks and communities.
How it differs from caregiver, personal care aide and home health aide
Four titles, one BLS occupation, and a lot of confused postings. We keep a separate job description for each, and the differences are what you should put in the first line of the ad.
| Title | Where the work is | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|
| Home care aide (this page) | Client homes, through a non-medical agency | Companion, homemaking and personal care visits on an agency service plan; mostly private pay, long-term care insurance or Medicaid waiver |
| Caregiver | Homes, assisted living and memory care | The umbrella title candidates search for; covers facility shifts as well as home visits |
| Personal care aide | Mostly client homes; some residential settings | The BLS occupation name; hands-on help with daily living is the core, often under a state Medicaid personal care program |
| Home health aide | Patient homes, through a Medicare-certified home health agency | Works under a plan of care and must meet the federal training and competency rules in 42 CFR 484.80 |
If your agency also bills Medicare, you are hiring home health aides for that line and home care aides for private duty. Post them separately. A candidate who reads “certification required” on a companion job will not apply, and one who reads “no experience needed” on a skilled job will apply for the wrong thing.
| Working conditions (personal care aides) | Share reporting it |
|---|---|
| Very close physical proximity to others (near touching) | 88% |
| Making decisions | 73% every day |
| Exposed to disease or infections | 71% every day |
| Consequence of an error rated extremely serious | 60% |
| Walking or on the move continually or almost continually | 51% |
Read the second row twice. Almost three in four personal care aides report making decisions every day, and a home care aide makes them alone in a house, with no supervisor in the room. That is the part of the job worth describing in the posting: judgment and reporting, not only tasks.
Home care aide job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete the service lines you do not offer. It is written for a private-duty, non-medical agency; the customization section covers Medicaid waiver work, live-in and dementia care.
Job title
Home Care Aide [/ Companion / In-Home Caregiver] — [Days / Evenings / Weekends], [Agency name], [County or towns served]
Summary
[Agency name] is hiring home care aides to help clients stay safe and independent in their own homes across [service area]. You will be matched with [one to four] regular clients near you, with visits of [2 to 8] hours. Pay is [$00.00–$00.00] an hour, [weekly], with [mileage at $0.00 a mile / paid drive time] between clients. [No certification required. We train you, paid.]
What you will do
• Companion visits: conversation, outings, activities and respite for family caregivers
• Homemaking: laundry, linens, kitchen work, grocery shopping and errands
• Meals: plan and cook to the client’s diet [and help with eating where needed]
• [Personal care: help with bathing, dressing, toileting and transfers as the service plan allows]
• [Medication reminders as permitted in [state]]
• Drive clients to appointments and activities [in your own insured vehicle]
• Clock in and out with our [EVV app] and complete a short visit note every visit
• Call your care manager the same day about any change in a client’s health, mood, eating or safety
What you need
• Age [18] or older
• Able to pass [state] background and registry checks [and a TB screening]
• [Valid driver’s license, reliable car and auto insurance]
• A smartphone for scheduling and visit verification
• Available [at least 00 hours a week / two weekend days a month]
• Able to [assist a client to stand / lift up to 00 lbs with a gait belt]
• [Completion of [state] home care aide training within [00] days of hire, paid by us]
Nice to have
• Experience caring for a family member, or paid caregiving experience
• [Dementia care, hospice support or mobility experience]
• [CNA, HHA or PCA certificate]
• [Second language spoken in our area]
What we offer
• [Pay range], [weekend and holiday differential]
• [Consistent clients and a schedule built around your availability]
• [Paid training, paid orientation, paid drive time]
• [Benefits and when they start]
• [Path to CNA or HHA, and who pays for it]
How to apply
[One short form or a phone call. We call back within [one business day].]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Certification | A non-medical agency usually does not need CNA or HHA certification, but some states license home care agencies and set aide training. Check your state rule, then say plainly whether you require a certificate or provide the training. |
| Experience | BLS lists no work experience and short-term on-the-job training for the occupation. Family caregiving is relevant experience; ask about it rather than requiring paid history. |
| Education | BLS gives a high school diploma or equivalent as typical entry-level education. For companion and homemaking visits it rarely matters; drop it unless a payer or state rule requires it. |
| Driving | The most common deal-breaker. Say whether the job needs a car, whether you pay mileage or drive time, and how far apart clients are. |
| Background checks | Expected in this work and often required by state rules. Name the checks in the posting so no one drops out at orientation. |
| Availability | Say the minimum hours and whether weekends are required. That filters better than any screening question. |
| Physical demand | Name the real task (“assist a client from bed to chair with a gait belt”) instead of a bare weight limit. |
Customizing it by setting
Private-pay companion and homemaker agency
Lead with consistency: the same clients, near home, on a schedule the aide helped set. Private-pay clients often want short visits, so say the typical visit length and whether you guarantee a minimum.
Medicaid waiver and state personal care programs
Say what the program requires of the aide, and mention EVV. Section 12006 of the 21st Century Cures Act required states to implement electronic visit verification for Medicaid personal care services by 1 January 2020 and home health services by 1 January 2023, so clocking in by phone at the client’s home is part of the job. Candidates cope better when they know that up front.
Live-in and 24-hour care
Say how sleep time, meal breaks and days off work, and what the day rate or hourly rate is. Because agencies cannot currently use the live-in exemption, how hours are counted is a pay question, not a scheduling detail.
Dementia and memory care at home
Describe the client accurately, name the training you provide, and say whether there is a second aide or family member in the home. A caregiver deciding whether to take a dementia client will want to know that.
What home care aides earn
Home health and personal care aides had a median wage of $35,800 a year, or $17.21 an hour, in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $27,040 and the highest 10 percent more than $45,040. BLS does not publish home care aides separately, so these figures cover the whole combined occupation.
| Industry | Median annual wage (May 2025) | Share of aides |
|---|---|---|
| Residential intellectual and developmental disability facilities | $37,340 | 6% |
| Continuing care retirement communities and assisted living | $37,060 | 6% |
| Home healthcare services | $36,230 | 23% |
| Individual and family services | $34,900 | 51% |
There were 4,677,100 home health and personal care aides in 2025. BLS projects employment to grow 18 percent to 5,524,400 by 2035, an increase of 847,300, with about 760,500 openings a year over the decade. Most of those openings come from people leaving the occupation, which is why home care hiring never stops.
What it costs to reach a home care aide
The closest role family in our benchmark is caregiver / home care. Across our managed Meta campaigns it has a median cost per applicant of $3.76, with the middle half of campaigns between $2.99 and $5.83, a blended figure of $3.87 and a 31 percent apply rate, the highest of any role family we report. The all-role median is $13.88.
The band is narrow, which means the market has priced this role. Gains come from speed and volume: calling back the same day, and keeping the form short enough to finish on a phone between visits. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Hiring across your care team? See the caregiver, personal care aide, home health aide, CNA and hospice aide job descriptions, and home care agency recruiting for the hiring side.
The job description is not the job ad
The template is the document: it sets expectations and backs up a conversation later. The ad has one job, which is to get a person scrolling Facebook to stop and apply from their phone.
- First line: pay, area and schedule. “Home care aides, $17–$19/hr, clients near you, weekends available” beats any mission statement.
- Say “no certification needed, we train you” if it is true. It is the line that most widens the pool.
- Say how travel between clients is paid. Aides compare agencies on it.
- Keep the form to a few questions and call back fast. Aides apply to several agencies at once.
More on the ad itself is in job ad copywriting, and caregiver interview questions covers the screening conversation.
Frequently asked questions
What does a home care aide do?
A home care aide helps clients live safely at home through a non-medical agency: companion visits, homemaking such as laundry, cooking and errands, driving to appointments and, where the service plan allows, hands-on help with bathing and dressing. Every visit also includes clocking in through the agency’s visit verification app, a short visit note and reporting changes to a care manager.
What are home care aide duties on a typical visit?
Most visits combine a few tasks from the client’s service plan: preparing a meal to the client’s diet, light housekeeping and laundry, a trip to the store or an appointment, conversation and activities, and help with personal care where the plan includes it. The aide documents the visit and calls the office the same day about anything that has changed.
What is the difference between a home care aide and a home health aide?
A home health aide works for a Medicare-certified home health agency under a plan of care and must meet the federal training and competency rules in 42 CFR 484.80. A home care aide works for a non-medical agency, mostly on companion, homemaking and personal care visits paid privately or through Medicaid programs. BLS counts both in one occupation.
Is a home care aide the same as a caregiver or personal care aide?
The titles overlap. Caregiver is the umbrella term job seekers search for and covers facility work too. Personal care aide is the BLS and O*NET occupation name, and O*NET lists home care aide as one of its reported job titles. Home care aide is the title non-medical agencies usually use for in-home visits.
Do home care aides need certification?
Not federally, unless they work for a Medicare-certified agency as a home health aide. Some states license home care agencies and set training hours or competency tests for aides, so check your state’s rule. If you train new hires yourself, say so in the posting, because “no certification required” is one of the strongest lines you can use.
How much do home care aides make?
Home health and personal care aides, the BLS occupation that includes home care aides, had a median wage of $17.21 an hour, or $35,800 a year, in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $27,040 and the highest 10 percent more than $45,040. Home healthcare services paid a $36,230 median and individual and family services $34,900.
Do home care agencies have to pay overtime to aides?
Currently, yes. Under 29 CFR 552.109(a), third-party employers such as agencies may not claim the companionship or live-in exemptions from minimum wage and overtime. The Department of Labor proposed restoring those exemptions for agencies in July 2025, but as of 22 September 2026 the regulation still bars agencies from using them. Check the DOL’s current guidance.
What is EVV and does it affect home care aides?
Electronic visit verification is the phone or app check-in that records when and where a visit happened. The 21st Century Cures Act required states to use it for Medicaid personal care services from 1 January 2020 and home health services from 1 January 2023. If you serve Medicaid clients, mention it in the posting so aides expect it.
How do I write a home care aide job posting that gets applicants?
Put pay, area and schedule in the first line, say whether you need a car and how drive time is paid, and state whether you provide the training. Describe the service lines you actually send aides on. Keep the application short enough to finish on a phone, and call applicants back the same day.
How much does it cost to recruit home care aides on social media?
In our 2026 benchmark, caregiver and home care campaigns on Meta had a median cost per applicant of $3.76, with the middle half between $2.99 and $5.83 and a 31 percent apply rate. That is the highest apply rate of any role family we report, against a $13.88 median cost per applicant across all roles. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Related job descriptions
Hiring home care aides?
The description is the document. Getting it in front of caregivers who live near your clients, and calling them back fast, is the part we do.
Wage, employment, projection and duty data for home health and personal care aides (SOC 31-1120): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, last modified 27 August 2026; wage figures are May 2025 OEWS. Tasks and work context: O*NET OnLine 31-1122.00, personal care aides. Pay rule: 29 CFR 552.109 (eCFR, current as of 22 September 2026). Read at source 24 September 2026. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.