“Compensation” includes both wages and benefits paid to care professionals. Care professional compensation varies and depends on:
- The “service rate” (or “reimbursement rate”) the service provider (i.e., the employer) receives for services from county, state or federal governments. Rates vary based on service type, support needs and service location.
- Employers might also receive private pay, but those rates are not included in this overview.
- “Wages,” which is how much of the service rate a service provider pays its care professionals (i.e. employees or staff).
- “Benefits” that may be part of employee compensation, such as health insurance or paid time off.
- Other costs to the service provider, as described below.
Compensation will vary between employers
The examples below show how care professional experiences vary from one employer to the next:
Example 1: Two service providers, who provide similar benefits to their employees, get $40/hour for a service rate. One pays care professionals $21/hour and the other pays $16/hour in wages.
Example 2: Two service providers both pay care professionals $19/hour and offer similar benefits. However, one gets $25/hour for a service rate while the other gets $45/hour for a service rate.
Example 3: Two service providers pay care professionals $21/hour and receive a service rate of $35/hour. One service provider offers care professionals low-cost comprehensive health insurance, whereas the other does not offer health insurance but gives care professionals twice as many paid vacation days and 20 days of paid family leave.
Employer expenses besides employee compensation
The part of the service rate that does not go toward compensation includes other costs, such as:
- Licensing and enrollment fees
- Supervisor and executive staff salaries
- Administrative staff salaries
- Room and board for the person receiving support
- Office and utility expenses for the organization
- Advertising, recruitment and training expenses
- Business insurance and emergency savings expenses
- Technology costs
- Worker’s compensation
- Vehicle and transportation expenses.
Other factors
Compensation can also be influenced by such things as:
- How much time it takes employees to do non-billable activities, such as traveling to a person’s home, completing paperwork or taking trainings.
- State and federal regulations, which vary by service type, such as requiring a minimum portion of a service rate to be directed toward compensation.
- Whether the employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
- Competition between employers to attract and retain good employees.
- Service recipient absentee time (times service providers cannot bill for a service but must still pay care professionals).
- Company profit goals.
- Regional costs of living.
