Home Care Runway Calculator

Home care hourly costs

Home care is usually billed by the hour rather than as a flat monthly fee, which makes it flexible but also means the monthly bill moves directly with how many hours are scheduled. According to the CareScout (Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, the national median hourly rate for non-medical caregiver services was $35 per hour in 2025. That figure is a national median — actual quotes from local agencies can run meaningfully higher or lower depending on where the care is being provided.

Worker wages vs. family-facing rates

The hourly rate a family is billed is not the same as what the caregiver providing the care actually earns. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual wage for home health and personal care aides was $34,900 in May 2024 — a figure well below what a $35-per-hour billed rate would suggest if it all went to the worker. The gap covers agency overhead: payroll taxes, workers' compensation and liability insurance, scheduling and supervision, training, and the agency's margin. This is worth understanding because it explains why hiring a caregiver privately, outside an agency, is sometimes cheaper for the family but shifts all of the employer responsibilities — payroll, insurance, liability, backup coverage — onto the family directly.

How hourly care becomes a monthly cost

This calculator converts an hourly rate and a care schedule into a monthly figure in three steps: hours per day multiplied by days per week gives weekly hours; weekly hours multiplied by 52 and divided by 12 converts that into an average monthly hours figure; and monthly hours multiplied by the hourly rate gives the monthly cost. The middle step is the one people most often skip when estimating by hand — multiplying weekly hours by 4 is a common shortcut, but a year has slightly more than 4.33 average weeks per month (52 weeks ÷ 12 months), so a shortcut of ×4 understates the real monthly cost by roughly 8%.

Why hours matter

Because cost scales directly with hours, the difference between a few hours a day and around-the-clock care isn't incremental — it's an order-of-magnitude difference in monthly cost. Moving from 4 hours a day to 12 hours a day roughly triples the monthly bill for the same hourly rate; moving to 24-hour coverage (which in practice usually means multiple caregivers in shifts, not one person working continuously) multiplies it further still.

Why more hours reduce runway

Runway is savings divided by the monthly gap, so anything that increases the monthly gap shortens runway, and increasing care hours is one of the most direct ways to do that. A schedule that comfortably fits a family's income and savings at 4 hours a day may consume savings far faster at 8 or 12 hours a day, even though the hourly rate hasn't changed at all — it's worth running the scenario comparison below before assuming a higher level of care is affordable long-term.

Why care needs matter

How many hours a day are actually needed is a care and safety question, not a financial one, and it depends on factors like mobility, cognitive status, fall risk, and whether someone needs supervision overnight. This calculator only answers how long savings would last at a given schedule — it does not determine whether that schedule is enough or too much for the person's actual needs. That assessment should come from a geriatric care manager, physician, or other qualified professional, not from a financial estimate.

State variation

Home care hourly rates vary by state and region for the same reasons other care costs do: local labor markets, cost of living, and licensing requirements. The national median cited above is a starting point, not a substitute for a quote from an agency actually serving the area where care is needed.

Overnight care

Overnight coverage is often billed differently than daytime hours — either as a flat "live-in" rate covering a set block of overnight hours, or at a different hourly rate if awake, active care is required overnight versus a caregiver who is present but sleeping. This calculator treats all hours at a single hourly rate for simplicity; a real overnight care quote may not scale linearly with the daytime rate entered here.

Family-provided care

Many families cover some hours themselves rather than paying for every hour of coverage, which is part of why the "uncovered hours" figure in this calculator isn't necessarily a problem to solve with more paid care — it may simply represent hours a family member is present. The financial side of unpaid family caregiving, including its cost to the caregiver's own income, is a real consideration but a different calculation than this one.

Caregiver burden

Even where family members can and do provide uncovered hours, doing so consistently carries a real physical, emotional, and financial toll on the caregiver, particularly for higher-hour or overnight gaps. This calculator does not measure that burden, and a schedule that "works" on paper financially is not automatically sustainable for the family member providing the uncovered hours.

Why financial runway isn't the same as care suitability

A longer runway number does not mean fewer hours of care are the right choice, and a shorter runway number does not mean more hours are unaffordable in every sense. This calculator answers a narrow financial question under a fixed set of assumptions; it is not a recommendation about how much care someone should receive, which depends on medical and safety factors this tool does not evaluate.