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The differences between direct care workers and home health aids can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a direct care worker has an average salary of $29,343, which is higher than the $27,249 average annual salary of a home health aid.
The top three skills for a direct care worker include direct care, patients and CPR. The most important skills for a home health aid are home health, patients, and companionship.
| Direct Care Worker | Home Health Aid | |
| Yearly salary | $29,343 | $27,249 |
| Hourly rate | $14.11 | $13.10 |
| Growth rate | 36% | 36% |
| Number of jobs | 140,788 | 248,490 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.29 |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 32% | High School Diploma, 32% |
| Average age | 48 | 50 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A Direct Care Worker's responsibility revolves around overseeing clients' welfare and health care from different ages and conditions. Most of the duties will involve assistance in basic hygienic tasks such as bathing or going to the toilet, performing light chores such as preparing healthy meals and cleaning a bedroom, and ensuring the patient's medication intake aligns with the schedule. Furthermore, it is also the duty of a Direct Care Worker to empathize and build rapport with clients to make them feel more at ease.
Home health aides provide care and assistance to patients who have chronic illnesses, injuries, disabilities, or age-related challenges inside the patient's home. They monitor the patient's condition and help them in any activity they may need assistance in. They provide support to both the patient and the family to manage the patient's condition. Home health aides care for the patient by providing personal services like bathing and basic grooming, designing nutritional plans, cooking and preparing meals, running errands, maintaining the cleanliness of the home, managing medication intake, and ensuring the home is safe and secure for the patient.
Direct care workers and home health aids have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Direct Care Worker | Home Health Aid | |
| Average salary | $29,343 | $27,249 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $36,000 | Between $20,000 And $36,000 |
| Highest paying City | Portland, ME | Reading, MA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Arizona Training & Evaluation Center | St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a direct care worker and a home health aid in terms of educational background:
| Direct Care Worker | Home Health Aid | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 32% | High School Diploma, 32% |
| Most common major | Psychology | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between direct care workers' and home health aids' demographics:
| Direct Care Worker | Home Health Aid | |
| Average age | 48 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 23.4% Female, 76.6% | Male, 13.6% Female, 86.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 12.6% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 13.7% Asian, 7.6% White, 61.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% | Black or African American, 24.0% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 23.4% Asian, 10.5% White, 35.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 5% |