Until the 1950s, you weren't considered eligible for social security benefits working as a personal care assistant. But don't worry because in today's day and age, you are eligible for such benefits. Which is nice, especially since you might be doing some dirty work as a personal care assistant.
The majority of your work will depend on your clients. You may have to help get them dressed or cook for them. You may only need to play card games or read to other clients. Depending on the services you're providing and who you're employed by, you may not be protected by minimum wage and overtime laws. If you're hired by a family directly and only help with playing card games, you're not covered by these laws.
With this in mind, you might want to consider working for an agency. Or at least pick up clients that need help being fed and taking medications. These rules went into effect in 2015, so before then you were out of luck as a personal care assistant. Luckily, the future is bright for personal care assistants now.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Personal Care Assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.25 an hour? That's $27,552 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 36% and produce 1,185,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Personal Care Assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Detail oriented, Integrity and Interpersonal skills.
If you're interested in becoming a Personal Care Assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 24.0% of Personal Care Assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.4% of Personal Care Assistants have master's degrees. Even though some Personal Care Assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Personal Care Assistant. When we researched the most common majors for a Personal Care Assistant, we found that they most commonly earn High School Diploma degrees or Bachelor's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Personal Care Assistant resumes include Associate Degree degrees or Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Personal Care Assistant. In fact, many Personal Care Assistant jobs require experience in a role such as Cashier. Meanwhile, many Personal Care Assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as Certified Nursing Assistant or Customer Service Representative.