Operations
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 Illinois: private pay and Medicaid
Last verified October 17, 2026 · All Illinois resources
Non-medical in-home care in Illinois cost a median of $36 an hour in 2025, according to the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, against $35 nationally.
What do families pay for home care in Illinois?
| Measure | Illinois | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Median hourly cost, non-medical in-home care | $36 | $35 |
| Caregiver wage, mean hourly (BLS) | $18.37 | — |
CareScout's 2025 survey reports homemaker and home health aide services together as non-medical in-home care. In Illinois the median price is 2.0 times the average caregiver wage.
What does Illinois Medicaid pay for personal care?
Illinois Department on Aging Community Care Program in-home services rate, raised from $29.63 to $30.80 per hour as of 2026-01-01 (IDoA FY26 Enacted Budget, Public Act 104-0003). Hourly rate, not a HCPCS fee schedule. Open the official rate source . Managed care plans may pay different rates.
What do caregivers earn in Illinois?
Home health and personal care aides in Illinois earned a median of $18.30 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $16.44 and the highest-paid tenth over $20.43. See pay in Illinois's largest metro areas.
What is the minimum wage for caregivers in Illinois?
Illinois's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour.
Illinois also sets a higher wage floor for some home care workers:
- $18.75 an hour since January 1, 2026: Direct service workers (homecare aides) of Illinois Department on Aging Community Care Program in-home service providers (20 ILCS 105/4.02); condition of CCP Medicaid-waiver payment (providers must certify compliance). Source
Overtime rules are on the Illinois overtime and minimum wage page.
How much should a home care agency charge per hour in Illinois?
Enough to cover fully loaded caregiver labor, overhead and a margin. Starting from the Illinois median aide wage of $18.30, 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 $38.48 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 Illinois 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 Illinois
Home care rates by state: other states
Related guides
Operations
How Much to Charge for Home Care Per Hour (With the Math)
Build your private-pay hourly rate from caregiver wage, payroll burden, unpaid-but-paid time, overhead and margin. Worked example and national benchmarks.
Operations
How to Calculate Your Home Care Bill Rate from Caregiver Wages
Bill rate = loaded wage plus overhead, divided by one minus your margin. The formula, a quick table by wage, the payroll taxes behind it, and where shortcuts mislead.
Operations
Raising Your Home Care Rates: How to Tell Clients (Letter Template)
Raise private-pay rates when costs rise, give at least 30 days' written notice (60 in Connecticut), explain the reason in one sentence. Sample letter included.
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.