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The differences between health care assistants and home health aids can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a health care assistant has an average salary of $34,892, which is higher than the $27,249 average annual salary of a home health aid.
The top three skills for a health care assistant include patients, customer service and healthcare. The most important skills for a home health aid are home health, patients, and companionship.
| Health Care Assistant | Home Health Aid | |
| Yearly salary | $34,892 | $27,249 |
| Hourly rate | $16.77 | $13.10 |
| Growth rate | 36% | 36% |
| Number of jobs | 242,669 | 248,490 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.29 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 37% | High School Diploma, 32% |
| Average age | 50 | 50 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A health care assistant primarily performs support tasks to help nurses in providing care and assistance to patients. Their duties usually include assisting patients with their daily hygienic tasks such as bathing, going to the toilet, dressing, and brushing their teeth. They may also prepare meals according to protocols and guidelines, feed patients, assist them when walking, and run other errands as necessary. Most importantly, a health care assistant monitors the patients' condition and their treatment progress, coordinating with the nurses and physicians regularly.
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.
Health care assistants and home health aids have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Health Care Assistant | Home Health Aid | |
| Average salary | $34,892 | $27,249 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $47,000 | Between $20,000 And $36,000 |
| Highest paying City | Antioch, CA | Reading, MA |
| Highest paying state | Alaska | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Medical University of South Carolina | St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
| Best paying industry | Education | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a health care assistant and a home health aid in terms of educational background:
| Health Care Assistant | Home Health Aid | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 37% | High School Diploma, 32% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between health care assistants' and home health aids' demographics:
| Health Care Assistant | Home Health Aid | |
| Average age | 50 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 18.8% Female, 81.2% | Male, 13.6% Female, 86.4% |
| Race ratio | 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% | 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 | 5% | 5% |