Competing With Home Care Franchises Without Raising Caregiver Pay
$17.21 an hour is the federal median for a home health or personal care aide, and nearly every agency in your county is posting within a dollar of it. You will not out-pay the franchise down the road. So stop bidding. The line you can win on is the one almost every posting leaves blank.
Open your county's job board tonight. You will find your own listing, three or four others, at least one national franchise brand among them, and hourly ranges that sit on top of each other inside a dollar. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median for the occupation at $17.21 an hour, the lowest tenth under $27,040 a year and the highest tenth over $45,040, and projects about 760,500 openings a year through 2035.
What stands out is how little any of them say. Rate, shift types, sometimes mileage. No line about health coverage, not even from the franchise, because a franchisee runs on the same margin you do.
That is nobody's fault. Group health for a part-time roster costs more than the business makes, so everyone leaves the field blank.
Why the brand name wins her anyway
Among firms with 10 or more workers, 61 percent offered health benefits to at least some workers in 2025, and the split by size is steep: 51 percent of firms with 10 to 24 workers, against 97 percent of firms with 200 or more.
A caregiver has read that pattern her whole working life. Big logo, benefits. Small local office, nothing. She is usually right, and when she is wrong about the franchise down the road she finds out in week three.
You already priced this and it did not work
You costed a raise. Two dollars an hour on a caregiver working 30 hours is $3,120, plus 7.65 percent in employer FICA, which comes to $3,359 a year for one person. Across 40 caregivers that is $134,360. You know what your net was last year.
Then you costed group health, saw the premium, and closed the spreadsheet. Both need new money. A Section 125 wellness plan does not, because it redirects employer payroll tax you already remit into benefits the caregiver receives, which is what puts it near zero net employer cost. CBIZ wrote the CPA opinion and HitesmanLaw the legal assurance, both on the compliance page, and the legitimacy question has a page of its own.
Most of my caregivers are part-time
Forty-six percent of home care workers nationally work part-time, which PHI defines as fewer than 35 hours a week. The 30-hour threshold that rules those caregivers out of group health is a carrier's underwriting rule. It is not tax law. A Section 125 election is open to W-2 employees regardless of hours, so the roster that disqualifies you from a group plan does not disqualify you here, and the other part-time options are worth pricing next to it.
What the three options cost you
Per caregiver, per year, at 30 hours a week.
| Option | What it costs the agency | Who qualifies |
|---|---|---|
| $2 an hour raise | About $3,359, employer FICA included | Everyone on payroll |
| Group health plan | A monthly premium out of new money | Usually 30-hour staff only |
| Section 125 wellness plan | Close to zero net, funded from employer payroll tax, less a monthly administration fee | Any W-2 employee who elects |
Only the third row changes your job posting without changing your payroll budget. It is also why the benefits question stops being awkward.
Where this does not help
This does not make you the best-paying agency in your county, and it will not hold a caregiver who moves for fifty cents an hour somewhere else. Some will. It does nothing about a schedule that changes on her twice a week, which is the other half of why she picks someone else's shift. The benefits line gets you into the comparison and no further.
What would this look like at your agency?
Two numbers answer it. How many caregivers you run, and roughly what they earn. That is the whole ask, and it stays small on purpose, because an owner who is still deciding whether any of this is real should not be handed homework.
The estimator takes those two numbers and shows what your agency currently pays in employer payroll tax, what turnover at the industry median costs you, and what could be redirected into caregiver benefits instead. Thirty seconds, no signup.
Across Home Care Benefits' own proposals the employer figure has landed between $300 and $900 per participating employee per year, after the administration fee. That is a range and not a quote. Which of your caregivers qualify, and what lands on their check, only your numbers can answer. Have your CPA read the plan documents first.
Open the estimator
Put in your caregiver count and their average wage. See what your own payroll tax could fund.
Open the estimatorFree, no signup, and nothing to send us.
Home Care Benefits is not a law firm, an accounting firm, or an insurance company, and a Section 125 wellness plan is not health insurance. Figures on this page are estimates, not guarantees. Tax and legal questions go to your own CPA and counsel.
