Skip to content
Caregiver Scheduling

Home care rates in District of Columbia: private pay and Medicaid

Last verified October 17, 2026 · All District of Columbia resources

The CareScout Cost of Care Survey does not publish a median for District of Columbia. Medicaid personal care rates are below.

What do families pay for home care in District of Columbia?

MeasureDistrict of ColumbiaUnited States
Median hourly cost, non-medical in-home care—$35
Caregiver wage, mean hourly (BLS) $20.45 —

CareScout's 2025 survey reports homemaker and home health aide services together as non-medical in-home care.

What does District of Columbia Medicaid pay for personal care?

Personal Care Aide services, $7.69 per 15 minutes ($30.76 per hour), State Plan and EPD Waiver variants. DHCF Transmittal 26-17: rates unchanged effective 2026-07-01. Open the official rate source . Managed care plans may pay different rates.

What do caregivers earn in District of Columbia?

Home health and personal care aides in District of Columbia earned a median of $20.53 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $18.41 and the highest-paid tenth over $22.04. See pay in District of Columbia's largest metro areas.

What is the minimum wage for caregivers in District of Columbia?

District of Columbia's minimum wage is $18.40 an hour. Rose from $17.95 to $18.40 on 2026-07-01 for all employers regardless of size; adjusted each July 1 by CPI.

Overtime rules are on the District of Columbia overtime and minimum wage page.

How much should a home care agency charge per hour in District of Columbia?

Enough to cover fully loaded caregiver labor, overhead and a margin. Starting from the District of Columbia median aide wage of $20.53, 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 $43.17 an hour. Change any number to match your agency.

Starts at the median aide wage in District of Columbia (BLS). Use your own.

Payroll taxes, workers' comp and unemployment insurance. Often 18–22%.

Paid hours you can't bill, as a share of paid hours.

Drive time between clients, as a share of paid hours.

Share of paid hours paid at 1.5×.

Profit left after labor and overhead.

Office staff, rent, insurance, software, marketing.

Enter your private-pay rate or a Medicaid rate.

Bill rate for a 10% margin

$43.17/hr

Break-even rate

$37.41/hr

Covers labor and overhead, with no profit.

Labor cost per billed hour

$28.06/hr

$20.53 pay + $2.28 unbilled time + $0.57 overtime + $4.68 payroll burden

Each extra point of overtime adds $0.14 and each point of unbilled travel $0.32 to labor per billed hour.

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 District of Columbia 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 District of Columbia

Home care rates by state: other states

Related guides

These free tools are made by the team behind Caregiver Scheduling, caregiver scheduling software for home care agencies.

Simple pricing

From $199 /month

Up to 10 caregivers on Starter, 50 on Growth.

More than 50 caregivers? We'll put together a custom Scale plan for your agency.