2024 Direct Care Worker of the Year Awards winners. Raquel Torres, who works for St. Luke's in the Lehigh Valley, is on the right. Photo from Pennsylvania Homecare Association HARRISBURG, Pa.

Nationwide, direct care workers – those who provide home care services, including certified nursing assistants, home health aides, personal care aides (and) caregivers – are in demand, with ...

Along with orderlies and psychiatric aides, direct care workers earn the fifth-lowest average hourly wage among U.S. occupational groups. (see Table 1) In May 2022, this group made an average of ...

In May 2022, direct care workers earned an average of $32,440 per year, below the national average living wage for an adult with no children ($36,311).

The US needs nearly eight million DCWs in the next decade to meet demand for home care and nursing services, but projections indicate a shortfall of more than 150,000 DCWs by 2030 and 355,000 by ...