How to become a caregiver or home health aide: your state's rules, starting with no experience, pay and schedules

How to become a caregiver or home health aide in 2026: whether you need training or a certificate in your state, how to start with no experience, what caregiver jobs pay and how often, live-in work, and what to ask before you take a job.

Caregiving is one of the few healthcare jobs you can start without a degree, and in many states without a certificate. This guide takes the steps in order, and every figure in it opens the live list or page it comes from on CareJobs.Now, where 36,205 caregiver and home health aide jobs are open today, each read from the employer's own job board.

Contents

1. Caregiver or home health aide: which job you are applying for
2. What your state requires
3. Starting with no experience
4. What caregiver jobs pay, and how often
5. Live-in, part-time and other schedules
6. Where caregivers work
7. Moving up: CNA and beyond
8. What to ask before you take a job
9. A checklist

1. Caregiver or home health aide: which job you are applying for

The two titles are often used for the same work, helping someone at home or in assisted living with bathing, dressing, meals, medication reminders and getting around, but the rules behind them differ. A home health aide usually works for an agency that Medicare certifies, which brings federal training rules. A caregiver, personal care aide or companion usually works for a home care agency, an assisted living community or a family, under the state's rules for home care, which in many states ask for less.

Postings use both titles loosely, so read what the job asks for, not only its name.

2. What your state requires

Each state sets its own rules. Our home health aide certification by state gives every state's rule side by side, read from its own official pages, with the training hours each states. An aide at an agency Medicare certifies must have completed at least 75 hours of training, 16 of them supervised practical training, under the federal rule (42 CFR 484.80), and some states ask for more.

Caregivers who are not home health aides need a state credential in only some states; elsewhere the employer sets the training. Each caregiver page for a state says what that state asks for, where we have read its rules.

3. Starting with no experience

Many home care employers hire people with no experience and train them, often paying for the orientation. Our caregiver jobs that need no experience list the open caregiver jobs whose own posting says so, and the caregiver job statistics show how many of today's postings hire with no experience, pay weekly or are live-in.

What helps when you have no paid experience: caring for a family member or neighbor counts, so say so; a CPR and first aid card is quick to get and often asked for; and a driver's license and a car open the many jobs that need you to travel between clients.

Expect the checks every care employer runs before your first client: a criminal background check, often a drug screen and a tuberculosis test, and for home care, proof of a valid driver's license and car insurance. Each posting lists what it asks for, so read the requirements before you apply and have your documents ready.

4. What caregiver jobs pay, and how often

Our caregiver pay page shows what open caregiver jobs post, by state and by employer, and the home health aide pay page the same for aides. Nationally, BLS measured a median of $17.21 an hour for home health and personal care aides in May 2025.

Pay often comes weekly: many caregiver postings say so ( caregiver jobs that pay weekly; the caregiver job statistics give today's share), and some offer daily pay. Ask whether travel time between clients and mileage are paid, since they make a real difference to what you take home.

5. Live-in, part-time and other schedules

Caregiving comes in many shapes: hourly visits, full shifts, overnight, and live-in, where you stay in the client's home for days at a time ( live-in caregiver jobs). Part-time and weekend work is common, which suits students and people with a second job ( part-time caregiver jobs). For a live-in job, ask how many hours a day you are paid for, when you sleep, and who covers your breaks.

6. Where caregivers work

Most caregiver jobs are with home care agencies, which send you to clients' homes, and with assisted living and memory care communities, where you care for residents on shifts. Others are in group homes for people with disabilities, often titled direct support professional, and in hospice. Our lists show where today's caregiver jobs are: home health and hospice, nursing homes and senior living and behavioral health.

Home care gives you one client at a time and a schedule built around their needs; a community gives you a team, a fixed shift and other staff to call on. Many caregivers try both before settling.

7. Moving up: CNA and beyond

Caregiving is often the first step. A certified nursing assistant (CNA) certificate, from a state-approved course and exam, opens hospital and nursing home jobs that usually pay more, and many employers pay for the course ( CNA jobs and each state's rules, hospitals hiring CNAs). From there, many go on to become licensed practical nurses or registered nurses, some with tuition help from their employer.

8. What to ask before you take a job

• Is the training paid, and how long is it before your first client?
• What is the hourly rate, and are travel time and mileage paid?
• How many hours a week can you count on, and how are clients assigned?
• Who do you call when something goes wrong at a client's home?
• How often are you paid, and is there a sign-on bonus with a commitment attached?

9. A checklist

1. Check your state's rule on the requirements by state page.
2. Get a CPR and first aid card if you do not have one.
3. List any caregiving you have done, paid or not.
4. Apply to the jobs that train you: no experience needed.
5. Compare pay, travel time and mileage, and how often you are paid, before you accept.