Personal Care Aides

Low pay & lowrisk
Low Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
5.8/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

21% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 3 more strengths

Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Psychology knowledge

Quite important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
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What users think

Based on 42 votes

39% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 21% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Personal Care Aides will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Home Health and Personal Care Aides was $34,900 ($17 per hour).

The median annual wage for Home Health and Personal Care Aides was 29.5% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Home Health and Personal Care Aides' job openings is expected to rise 17.0% by 2034

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 3,988,140 people employed as 'Home Health and Personal Care Aides' within the United States.

This represents around 2.6% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 38 people are employed as 'Home Health and Personal Care Aides'.

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What people are saying (7)

Leave a comment
Mez
31 May 2025 15:19
I'd MUCH prefer a robot help me with toileting and bathing when I'm old. Dignity kept and no risk of abuse. I worked in a hospital and there aren't enough nurses/PSW's to help patients get to the toilet so they sit there pressing the call button for 20 minutes in agony and often just 'go' in their adult diaper, it's heartbreaking. If hospitals had a fleet of toileting robots it would solve this issue and patients would be so happy, believe me.
L. (Low)
21 Mar 2025 22:02
In a profession like this direct communication and interaction is a crucial element that is hard to replicate through automation. Though not impossible there is still too much of a distance between robotics and ai to be able to send a drone or bot to a client's home or facility to aid in their physical care. Although I don't doubt it in a time way further down the road, I think it would be closer to decades down the line. But I believe this highlights the issue of PCAs being underpaid and not wanting a job that includes interaction that may not be worth the pay, especially compared to the national average pay compared to the us
Kelz (No chance)
18 Sep 2024 04:52
This profession requires human empathy
dan (No chance)
24 May 2024 22:00
How does this have a high automation risk?! How will an elderly do its business in the toilet, get dressed and be cared for without the imortant human touch. As if they want to be served by a robot.
Nico Cione (Highly likely)
20 Apr 2024 22:53
Because in the future, I want a robo-guardian.
Joshua Aitken (Low)
22 Jun 2023 21:09
People need and want the human touch and the care and compassion of caregivers over a robot.
SD (Low)
13 Feb 2023 13:17
Because in my line of work we provide ABA treatment based on individual needs and in addition to this provide care to individuals who are unable to do so themselves.
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Job description

Provide personalized assistance to individuals with disabilities or illness who require help with personal care and activities of daily living support (e.g., feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, and ambulation). May also provide help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry. Work is performed in various settings depending on the needs of the care recipient and may include locations such as their home, place of work, out in the community, or at a daytime nonresidential facility.

O*NET-SOC code: 31-1122.00