Why do we pay caregivers low pay but pet sitters more? Visit a dog for 1 hour and get $60, walk the dog for $1.00 a minute.

Plenty of people would like a caregiver to check in in on their parents while their working. Yes agencies charge 35 a hour and give the aid 12.00. Live in Ct area by the way. Dog walkers/sitters get 60 a hour. Home health aid 13.00.

Caregivers rarely get full time hours (so no benefits) plus they put their physical and mental health at risk, have to communicate with often non-communicative people, and need the people skills to deal with families. They cook, they clean, they hand feed and dress people. There is no excuse for their wages to be this low.

People can't afford care because our economy has changed while life expectancy has increased dramatically since Medicare and Medicaid were founded. We need to evolve as a country and start spending our money better.

The debates are on soon. Listen for whether they address this issue at all. Elizabeth Warren mentioned fair wages for childcare providers re: her 2 cents tax. Andrew Yang mentioned that his Freedom Dividend would help family caregivers bear the financial burden of staying home to care for family. I'm curious to hear candidates discuss this topic (though judging by the past two weeks' news it may get overwhelmed by other issues.) But this primary season is the first time in ages I've heard caregiving mentioned on the national debate stage. It's interesting to hear candidates address this as well as how they address labor in general.

We subsidize all sorts of nonsense in this country. There are literally billions of dollars in subsidies being paid just to cover the unintended consequences of you-know-who's tariffs. I would much rather know my tax dollars are being spent to subsidize caregiving.

Charge more for the services you offer and make sure that you get it in writing if hired. Offer to walk the dog and tell them you want $60 for that service.

Krissifre: Some caregivers get zero "pay."

Who pays $60/hr to walk their dog? I need to reconsider my career- so do you.

What Jacobsonbob below is referring to is the law of supply and demand. This is what determines the cost of most things, if not everything. Diamonds aren't truly rare but DeBeers controls the supply. Savvy marketing helps to increase consumer demand because of the perceived value of the diamond. The only athletes who get paid a lot are the ones in the sports where viewership and broadcast rights and merchandise can be monitized. For example, in my son's High School, football, basketball and hockey players all can find scholarships to colleges. My son was the captain of the sailing team. Few or no scholarships. Because there is no real audience for sailing compared to the other sports. Why do some pro boxers make ungodly sums of money for a single fight? Not because it's dangerous or even because of their skills necessarily...but because of the ticket sales and broadcast rights. Extremely lucrative and it covers the cost of paying the boxers many times over.

Again, going back to the value of caregivers and teachers: in almost any business the cost of personnel (wages) is the biggest expense. If you raise the hourly rates few consumers will be able to afford to hire them no matter how good or dedicated they are. Also, in-home care businesses have to pay Worker's Comp insurance, liability insurance, payroll expenses, training, some benefits, etc. so they are in no way "clearing" $22 p/hr while the caregiver gets $15. I am aware that experienced private caregivers (who are also RNs) can command a high hourly rate, but they get no other benefits. When I was in Hungary I knew a pediatrician who earned practically the same amount as any other moderately skilled worker. In this case their government dictates the wages. But, she probably had a free med school education and the job stress is less than in U.S. because their docs are not competing for patients -- but bribery for priority service and medications was rampant due to extremely long waits for attention and unmotivated doctors. Supply and demand in this case as well.

I'd like to offer a couple thoughts here. (I'm curious as to why some threads allow one to respond to an individual comment while others--such as this one--don't.) For some fields, such as teaching, many are required to handle the number of pupils; for example, one teacher may devote an entire year to "only" 30 pupils, so a relatively small number of families are essentially supporting this teacher (of course, families who don't have children are also paying taxes), so the relatively small pool of "client families" would have to be taxed at a high rate to afford to pay a teacher dedicated to this group of students very well. In contrast, doctors and other professionals see their patients only a few hours a year and probably have several times the number of patients than a teacher has pupils.

Regarding the athlete and celebrities, some fields pay based upon how many people will pay how many dollars to see this person perform. For example, if I can juggle four balls and 10,000 people are willing to pay $100 each to watch me do it, I can gross $1,000,000--it becomes almost strictly a function of arithmetic and has little to do with the social or other "worthy" value of what I do. Someone would be willing to pay me much more than what a teacher or even a surgeon is paid if I can bring in such amounts of money from paying spectators.

Sorry this doesn't directly relate to caregivers, what I believe illustrating these principles is important.

Krissifre, many agencies pay for the flu shot for their employees ( at least in my area) I may be wrong, but I get the feeling you are a caregiver? Have you asked your agency about this? Maybe they can help you? And a lot of places in our area have low cost flu clinics..

Some families opt for 2 hours of care a day. Meaning a safe shower/bath. Followed by a meal and company. I doubt that dog walkers have more skills than your home health aids.

Why do we take care of Medicaid clients through agency getting 13.00 a hour with no insurance. Flu shot would take us 2 hours of work. Probably why I never got a flu shot! Never mind the shingle shot which is over 300.00.

The pay athletes get isn't totally because they "can do it" and we can't. If people stopped buying tickets to games, watching games, etc on premium sports channels and buying swag, watch how quickly those humongous salaries would drop!

Comparably, those who were athletes back in the day didn't make nearly as much, even when factoring in inflation (look it up: For the NFL, Forbes says "The $23,000 average player salary in 1970 (worth some $115,000 in today's dollars), was one-twelfth the current $1.4 million average.")

Sports IS a HUGE business and they milk whoever they can (think about how much those in charge make if they can still afford to pay the large salaries athletes get!) The sad thing is those who are good enough to "make it" but are not the "superstars" don't make nearly as much, yet many, especially in football, pay the price later, between many medical issues and CTE. The lesser paid, at the least, should be putting away a large amount of money to ensure their own well-being later, not p*ssing it all away on fancy stuff and bling now! Some get injured badly enough early on that their careers are cut short too.

You couldn't pay me enough to put myself through what they go through, even baseball and basketball players - hockey can be as bad as football. Sure, it might be great, for a while... Just playing backyard volleyball years ago, I had a dope try to spike a ball by going over my head - didn't see him come from behind, no verbal warning from him or anyone else. I went through a LOT of pain, 2 surgeries and am STILL paying for that hit (so far 3 cervical discs removed and fused.) Before the second one, lost wages when I couldn't work and couldn't get on disability at work, then after the surgery, getting forced back to work too soon resulted in a torn esophagus, more surgeries, a massive infection, and being out on long term for about 10 months! Even then it took some time before I could get back to full time (partly because I couldn't get managers/nurse/ergonomics to understand I could not do the physical aspect of the current position any longer.) Once my direct supervisor understood (had to demo it for them), he managed to get me moved to another position.

Not sure where they get $60/hour to walk a dog, sounds like a great gig! My son did this for a while and it was more like $20/hr (don't recall if that was the total charge or what he got - he worked for someone else.) Anyone who has enough disposable income to pay that much for someone else to walk their dog has a stupendous job and is damn lucky (and/or lazy)!

"...if you want quality caregiving, you have to be willing to pay appropriately and a lot of people don’t want to because they don’t value it. "

However, I personally disagree somewhat with the statement above made by worriedinCali. Perhaps there are some who don't value it, but then again most people don't work out the full picture. I feel so bad for those who provide the hands-on at mom's facility and tell them so. If there was enough to pay them more, I would. They certainly don't get enough to do what they do.

It isn't because we don't care or because we don't value the people who provide the child or elder care (at least the good ones, which are few and far between), but rather the whole financial aspect of it all. A dog walk only requires one hour a day (or less - still expensive over the course of a year!) The comment about doggie day care - it will be less expensive because like AL or MC or child daycare, you need fewer "care-givers." Dog walking is one on one.

Caring for a child or elder can be 8 hours or more. If you work an 8hr shift plus lunch hour, you'd be looking at 9 or more hours, the total depends on your commute! If care-givers (sometimes they have LESS training than dog walkers!) were to get $60/hr, it would be $10k for ONE WEEK of 5 day 8hr only!! I certainly never made that kind of money. Even at $20/hr, who can afford 24/7? Just an 8hr day, 5 days/wk would cost over $40k for the year. That is more than some people earn (average in the US is around $46k) - take away taxes, etc, there would be nothing left for the person to cover their own expenses, be it the elder or their children (parents for those with kids in day care.)

It was a huge trade-off just to afford day care so that I could work (I was not one who WANTED to work outside the home, but expenses REQUIRED it. When daycare exceeds how much one can take home, one is in deep doo doo.)

This is the kind of information I provide when people question the cost of AL and MC (never mind NH!) Yes, they are expensive, and no your parent doesn't get THAT much in actual care - there are costs behind the AL/MC (building, heat, AC, maintenance, possible mtg, taxes, employees of all kinds, not just care-givers, food, cooking, electricity, water, insurance, etc.) Plus, if you take the AL/MC cost for the year, divide by 365 days and 24 hours, it actually totals less than $11/hr for our mother's MC (currently $7915/m.) No, she doesn't get 24 hour care, but there are people there just in case she does, 24 hours/day. Consider again the estimates for in home care-givers above - that does not include the person's other expenses, such as utilities, food and housing. It is WAY more expensive, and thus cost-prohibitive, to pay even the measly $20/hr. 24/7 care 365 days/year at $20/hr = over $175k! At $60/hr, that would be closing in on $526k/year!!!!

Do I have an answer for this conundrum? No. Do I agree that it sucks?
Absolutely!

i personally wouldnt pay someone to walk my dog, wouldnt have one without a yard, and to answer your question, a sitter/ caregiver usually last alot longer than an hour, like all night or several days in a row like a job, personally i am caring for both of my elderly parents an cant afford a sitter period. if you dont like the job maybe its time to move on to a different occupation, i believe its a calling, anyway, not just anyone can handle or be good at caregiving. the perks are the people you help.

We pay close to $6,000.00 a month at memory care. The caregivers make $12.00 an hour. Very high turnover with caregivers, the facility makes all the money. Money is far more important to them then having good care givers. We begged them to give their best caregiver a raise, because she was leaving for a higher wage. They would not and she is gone. Instead they hire kids with no experience.
We are moving our mom this week. I pray the next facility has better care. Most facilities where we live in Calif. our understaffed, so the facility can make higher profits. Its so sad, something needs to be done.

Dog walkers serve only an hour or two at a time, I think (I don't have a dog but I volunteer to take care of a friend's dog while they are away and that's the amount of time I spend daily). However, caregivers for the elderly are often needed for many hours at a time. You say in your post, 'visit' but I think you may mean 'care'. Multiply that $14 an hour by up to 12 hours a day, 24 hours a week or more and see what that does to your family budget. Then, try this: If you are going through an accredited agency, that hourly cost is double, due to the agency's carrying cost for finding qualified workers, paying their SS, workers comp and other expenses. I went thru an accredited agency when my disabled husband came home from SNF some years ago, and the cost of two 12 hour shifts per week cost half of my monthly take-home pay (and I had a great job, too). I ended up having to give up my job (luckily, on good terms with my last employer) because I couldn't afford to be at the office for the hours they required.

Well, I can tell RayLin why we pay athletes more than teachers. A famous economist once asked an audience how many of them could teach addition and subtraction to elementary age kids. Virtually everyone raised their hands. Then he asked how many could hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, and nobody raised hands.

That is why athletes are paid more than teachers.

Yes, values are screwed up in our country. I suspect it is the cost over the long run. Nobody, except the very rich, can afford long term care on an hourly rate.

I don't know what part of the country you live, but our caregivers are paid -
private / individuals - $22 - $30 + per hour
agencies - $25 - $35+ per hour depending on the care required

Sometimes, one forgets it's not a 40 hour a week x the hourly rate - total cost for caregiving - it can be for many more hours per week.

It has become almost cost prohibitive to keep a loved one in a home / private residence.

One has to remember we are looking for 8 - 12 - 18 - 24 hours a day x the hourly rate. Not just for one hour (which they have to consider their drive time too).

Why do we pay athletes more than teachers?

People who can afford pet sitters are wealthy so they can throw cash away and even light their cigars with dollar bills, whereas caregivers struggle financially due to low or no-pay.

Sitters can indeed charge $60, or even $100, even more, an hour, but good lucking getting work, since the caregiver would have to be a multimillionaire to afford those prices.

With $60 an hour they can hire a live-in Registered Nurse or even two of them.

Pampering our pets allows us to feel good about ourselves.

Paying a stranger to care for a loved one can lead to feelings of shame, guilt, and everything else that makes us feel bad about ourselves. No one likes feeling like they’re not doing enough.. caring enough.. good enough.

It seems to me, we as a society don’t value caregivers. And I’m talking about child care and elder care. We seem to have extremely high expectations for them yet we don’t actually value them enough to pay them a living wage! We balk at the cost of child care and elder care and it’s like.....ok we are trusting these people with our children and our parents, the people we love and we’ve got these high expectations and standards but we don’t want to pay them! I don’t know I’m making sense right now because this is hard to articulate. I think if you want quality caregiving, you have to be willing to pay appropriately and a lot of people don’t want to because they don’t value it. Yes some simply can’t afford it but some don’t recognize the value in it.

I have to agree that it is probably because you only need the dog sitter for a short time. Like if you need home care for your parent for only a few hour a day.. it is seemingly cheaper. My dog does not try to cook, open the door to strangers, drive somewhere, mess up the remote or buy stuff over the phone! she can be left home alone for a few hours.. so the sitter needs to cover her costs of driving to the home, her time there.. I know we paid our home care part time gal 40 an hour through the agency.. still only about $1. an hour really.. But she was here 6 to 8 hours a day...

Alva, for some it’s unconditional love. Depends on the animal though, my mini schnauzer had a few screws loose! Hahaha. She was the kind of dog that only a momma could love. It’s a good thing I loved her because I think with anyone else she would have become a pound puppy!

She was a little ‘Houdini’. She was so curious and was such an escape artist! She never came when I called her. I was always afraid of her getting hit by a car.

I tried training her shortly after getting her. The dog trainer was patient but she didn’t get along with the other dogs. She disrupted the class. She barely completed the course.

I paid a fortune for private dog training. He didn’t make much progress with her. My neighbor who is so good with dogs asked me to let him have her for 2 weeks and he would bring her back trained to me! Hahaha. He’s a ‘macho’ type and saw her as a challenge. I didn’t let him take her because they had two dogs. She didn’t get along with other dogs.

I had her groomed every six weeks and she tried to terrorize the other animals. I felt like I was picking up a bad kid from daycare! Like I said I was the only one to love this dog in spite of her foolishness.

She tried to go after joggers shoestrings as they were running. I thought if I ran with her she would get her energy out. Geeeeez, it was a nightmare jogging with her.

All my other animals were fine. This is the first time I am animal free and it feels so strange to me. Putting my greyhound down really took a toll on me. He was my heart. I adored that dog. He was the fawn color and he resembled a small deer. He was beautiful inside and out.

Oh, he had a few battle wounds from his life at the track but he was so beautiful to me. I am so glad more tracks are being banned. The rescue workers are working so hard to find them homes. My grey was almost five years old when I adopted him. He was a champion. They keep the champions longer.

You know, periodically this comes up in our society, and I have most often had it said that we treat our animals better than our kids.
I have not a lot to say about this EXCEPT that some of the most innocent and loving "love" we get seems to be from our pets. While they may have visions of sugar plum mice or dog bones running through their heads, to us it reads like "love". There are recent studies about some eyebrow manipulation that dogs apparently learned to do to make people responsive to them over time. They once worked for us whether as ratting terriers, hunters beside us on the hunt, or even war dogs in war. But now they are our trusted and loving companions. There is not anything quite so comforting as the non-judgemental furriness of a dependent creature cuddling up. Everything else seems to have "an agenda". Our animals do as well. We just don't recognize it as such.
I do understand what you are saying; I do get it. But. Just sayin..............

I do not know where you live, but it costs me $25/day for doggy daycare for one dog and $40 for two. That is up to a 12 hour day, overnight boarding is about the same cost for 24 hours.

In BC I believe anyone working with, caring for or other wise coming in contact with medically vulnerable people can get a flu shot for free.

Yes, something has to give. I struggle to understand this as well. Same with daycare workers and teachers, important jobs that pay very low wages. It’s sad really. People stop being teachers because they can’t support their families. Same with caregivers. Look at the very high turnover in caregiving jobs. That tells you something right there.

Because many people require more than 1 hour care at a time, for days, or week after week, month after month. Raise wages and no one would be able to afford care. It's already beyond many peoples' budgets. Same reason as why daycare workers are paid what they are paid. No one would be able to afford it. Also, although they provide an important service, caregiving doesn't require a huge amount of special education or training. But experienced caregivers are worth their weight in gold.