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Home Care Rates by State: Private Pay and Medicaid
Non-medical home care cost a median $35 an hour in 2025. What drives state differences, what Medicaid pays for personal care in four states, and how to price your agency.
Home care rates in Colorado: private pay and Medicaid
Last verified October 17, 2026 · All Colorado resources
Non-medical in-home care in Colorado cost a median of $42 an hour in 2025, according to the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, against $35 nationally.
What do families pay for home care in Colorado?
| Measure | Colorado | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Median hourly cost, non-medical in-home care | $42 | $35 |
| Caregiver wage, mean hourly (BLS) | $19.34 | — |
CareScout's 2025 survey reports homemaker and home health aide services together as non-medical in-home care. In Colorado the median price is 2.2 times the average caregiver wage.
What does Colorado Medicaid pay for personal care?
Personal care, all counties except Denver County, per 15-minute unit; Community First Choice fee schedule, rate effective 2025-10-01 (was 7.07 from 2025-07-01). Denver County and homemaker (S5130) lines have separate rates. Open the official rate source . Managed care plans may pay different rates.
What do caregivers earn in Colorado?
Home health and personal care aides in Colorado earned a median of $18.53 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $17.03 and the highest-paid tenth over $22.42. See pay in Colorado's largest metro areas.
What is the minimum wage for caregivers in Colorado?
Colorado's minimum wage is $15.16 an hour.
It is scheduled to rise to $15.71 on January 1, 2027 .
Colorado also sets a higher wage floor for some home care workers:
- $17.00 an hour since January 1, 2026: HCBS direct care workers (personal care, homemaker, IHSS, CDASS, respite and other qualifying HCBS services; 10 CCR 2505-10 §8.7418); condition of Medicaid payment (HCPF attestation, audits, payment holds, recoupment). Source
- $19.29 an hour in Denver since January 1, 2026: HCBS direct care workers in Denver (base wage follows the higher local minimum wage); condition of Medicaid payment. Source
- $18.17 an hour in Edgewater since January 1, 2026: HCBS direct care workers in Edgewater (base wage follows the higher local minimum wage); condition of Medicaid payment. Source
Overtime rules are on the Colorado overtime and minimum wage page.
How much should a home care agency charge per hour in Colorado?
Enough to cover fully loaded caregiver labor, overhead and a margin. Starting from the Colorado median aide wage of $18.53, with a 20% payroll burden, 5% paid time off and training, 5% unbilled travel, 5% overtime, 25% overhead and a 10% margin, the calculator below gives about $38.96 an hour. Change any number to match your agency.
How does the calculator work?
Labor cost per billed hour is the pay rate, plus half the overtime share for time-and-a-half, plus payroll burden, divided by the share of paid hours you can bill. The bill rate is labor divided by one minus overhead and margin when overhead is a share of revenue, or labor plus overhead divided by one minus margin when it is dollars per hour. The bill rate to test starts at the Colorado median price, so you can see the margin a typical rate leaves.
If you budget overhead as an annual figure, the bill rate calculator spreads it over your billable hours instead. Both are estimates for planning, not pricing or wage-and-hour advice.
Sources
More for Colorado
Home care rates by state: other states
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