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Hi everyone, i live in ohio and im 24 years old and ive been a caregiver for 2 years now for the same family. I have 2 women in the home. Marylou is 90 years old, incontinent, can barely walk, and has dementia and Alzheimer's. Linda is 68 and she also was diagnosed with vascular dementia and cant do alot for herself. The twist here is that dan (son of marylou, husband of linda) moved into the home about a year ago. He is my boss. He makes constant messes that we are responsible to clean up after. Im not exagerating. Everything from his laundry, bathrooms, and dishes to putting his chips away and picking up empty beer bottles all over the house. Everyday. Hes more work than the 2 ladies combined. He will mess up a room 10 mins after you clean it so i spend most of my day cleaning the same things multiple times. Its very much expected, not appreciated.
Back to the women.. I LOVE them both so much. We have developed personal trusting relationships after all of this time. Combined they are alot of work but i love doing it. We have absolutly no down time and work 10 hour shifts.
My current compimsation is $15 per hour. I started in at $10 and have had raises when the level of care increases.. Although we have not had a raise in a year now and the job description has significantly increased since then. With both women and especially with dan.
Dan will not change. We have tried. He suffers from dyslexia which does in fact affect alot more than how you view numbers and letters. He has no emotions and is constanly confused and losing things. Constant mess. Narcissistic, very poor communication skills. The list goes on. So with all of that being said, im willing to continue doing all of this for the correct compensation. I was thinking of asing for $20 per hour. Any thpughts? Too high or low? I should also mention that i am paid under the table in cash.
Thanksfor reading and any advice/support/opinions are much appreciated!
Are you working for YOURSELF, or thru an agency? Most agencies have guidelines on what you should be doing!
If you are doing this independently, you need to talk to "Dan" and tell him that if he wants your housekeeping skill for HIS personal things, then you will need to charge him as if he is a "patient", too! Or, perhaps give him the number of a housekeeping service....
I pay 3430.00 every 2 weeks for minimal care for my Uncle, but it is 24 hours a day....cooking, light housekeeping, laundry, appointments, grocery shopping, etc. he has dementia, but is capable of taking care of his own bodily needs at this point.
Thanks so much for your reply. Ive been searching google for answers and cant find anything like mine so decided to start my own! Patti is my only coworker, we are independent and cover 70 hours per week. (9am-7pm) so we do everything except watch them sleep. Thanksfor sharing your own pay as well. He pays us 2,000 every 2 weeks. We are working on the sit down and asking for a raise. Hopefully he sees where we are coming from with the work load although he has a very hard time seeing anyone elses side but his own.
I hope you are protecting your future. Under the table means more money for you but what will happen when you get old and can't collect a retirement or Social Security? Best of luck. It's a hard job!
Very true! He makes comments all the time about how lucky we are but in reality.. We have no 401k, health insurance, we cant call off and have a replacement. Not to mention its against the law and HUGE fines if we were caught. And i wont stay under the table forever. I know it has more cons than pros
Although it varies from place to place, in my area, the absolute minimum (unless it is really, really, substandard crappy care) is $15 to $20 private pay for one person who need minimal help. If you are caring for two people it would be $20 to $25 an hour (minimum pay for minimal needs). Now, pay while the people are asleep usually is less.
In my area, paying an agency to care for one person, like Marylou or Linda, would be $30 to $40 an hour. I have no idea, if they have reduced rates if you are caring for two people at a time, but I rather doubt it.
Of course, your area may be different.
In many ways my husband needs minimal care (only supervision), but there is an agency that comes to provide respite care for him/me (I do not pay for this, I get a few free hours per week from the county/state). The caregiver keeps my husband company, watches TV with him or they both read in the same room, and they may go grocery shopping together or do the laundry together. The agency charges the county/state $25 an hour for that minimal care and of that the caregiver gets, I believe, $12 an hour (I think he started at $10 an hour). This caregiver also has several clients that are completely bedridden, or need a lot of care. He still gets $12 an hour but the agency charges $35 to $40 an hour for their care. Perhaps, you should check with some agencies, in your area, to see what they charge so you will be more knowledgeable when talking with Dan.
IMHO, either they start paying you more because you are now expected to care for three people, or else you should refuse to clean up the beer bottles and other messes that Dan makes. And you certainly should NOT be expected to do his laundry & dishes. Sheesh! But, if you refuse to do work I would emphasize safety. It is not safe for to have beer bottles or messes around that someone could trip over and break a hip or get injured in another way.
Frankly, you should have renegotiated your salary the first week that Dan expected you to do his laundry & dishes & clean up his messes.
Good luck.
Last edited by germaine2626; 02-19-2017 at 01:39 PM..
You could report your income to the IRS which would qualify you for Social Security, Disability, Medicare, and Medicaid. If your income is low enough, you might qualify for the Earned Income Credit.
Frankly, you should charge the overtime pay. The first 8 hours are charged at your regular rate of $15. Anything over 8 hours, on the weekend, or in the evening should be billed at double the rate. If you work 10 hours, your average hourly rate would rise to $18. Since the income is being reported, he may be able to write it off his taxes. On the other hand, he may be quite poor and the deduction isn't of significant value to him.
House cleaning services are generally $25 an hour through an agency here, but they are only working a couple of hours once or twice a month for each household. The rate would be much lower if the service is full-time.
Wow that was very helpful! You are absolutly right, we should have discussed this a year ago. Because now we are both becoming resentful. This is a job that i used to LOVE coming to. I really believe it has so much to do with respect and feeling appreciated. We no longer have either. And its really starting to show through which isnt fair to my clients. Im a very hard worker, especially when i feel im being compinsated correctly for my time and energy. I will have to keep everyone posted about the raise. We are asking in a week or 2.
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