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Caregiver Scheduling

Home care rates in Tennessee: private pay and Medicaid

Last verified October 17, 2026 · All Tennessee resources

Non-medical in-home care in Tennessee cost a median of $31 an hour in 2025, according to the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, against $35 nationally.

What do families pay for home care in Tennessee?

MeasureTennesseeUnited States
Median hourly cost, non-medical in-home care$31$35
Caregiver wage, mean hourly (BLS) $15.90 —

CareScout's 2025 survey reports homemaker and home health aide services together as non-medical in-home care. In Tennessee the median price is 1.9 times the average caregiver wage.

What does Tennessee Medicaid pay for personal care?

CHOICES personal care visits, $6.59 per 15 minutes, rate effective 2025-07-01 (TennCare LTSS provider memo of 2025-06-09). Reflects an average DSP wage of $15.68 per hour. Open the official rate source . Managed care plans may pay different rates.

What do caregivers earn in Tennessee?

Home health and personal care aides in Tennessee earned a median of $15.45 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $13.50 and the highest-paid tenth over $18.34. See pay in Tennessee's largest metro areas.

What is the minimum wage for caregivers in Tennessee?

Tennessee's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. No state minimum wage law; the federal $7.25 applies.

Overtime rules are on the Tennessee overtime and minimum wage page.

How much should a home care agency charge per hour in Tennessee?

Enough to cover fully loaded caregiver labor, overhead and a margin. Starting from the Tennessee median aide wage of $15.45, 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 $32.48 an hour. Change any number to match your agency.

Starts at the median aide wage in Tennessee (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.

Starts at the median private-pay rate in Tennessee (CareScout). Enter your own or a Medicaid rate.

Bill rate for a 10% margin

$32.48/hr

Break-even rate

$28.15/hr

Covers labor and overhead, with no profit.

Labor cost per billed hour

$21.12/hr

$15.45 pay + $1.72 unbilled time + $0.43 overtime + $3.52 payroll burden

Margin at $31.00/hr

6.89%

$2.14 profit per hour after overhead. Gross margin 31.89% before overhead.

Each extra point of overtime adds $0.10 and each point of unbilled travel $0.24 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 Tennessee 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 Tennessee

Home care rates by state: other states

Related guides

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