Home Health and Personal Care Aides in North Dakota
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$33,870
after federal, FICA and North Dakota tax
Tax takes
$5,570
14.1% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$38,240
North Dakota costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in North Dakota — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$39,440
Kept after tax
$33,870
Worth in national money
$38,240
State rank
9
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for home health and personal care aides is strong here. North Dakota's middle earner gets $39,440, putting the state 9 of 51 — about 10.17% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in North Dakota, this one sits low: 397 of 460 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cheaper living works in this state's favor. From $39,440 you keep $33,870 after tax, and local prices stretch that to the equivalent of $38,240 at national prices. Averages run higher here, $41,490, since top earners drag the number up.
- For home health and personal care aides, North Dakota sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $39,440, ranking 9 of 51 and running about 10.17% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Home health and personal care aides occupies position 397 of 460 in North Dakota's occupational wage distribution, in the bottom quartile. National ranking and local ranking answer different questions and frequently disagree; this is the one a resident experiences.
- Retained pay in North Dakota is $33,870 after the full tax stack, from $39,440. Because the state's price level runs below the national average, the price-adjusted equivalent is $38,240 — a real-terms figure describing purchasing power rather than compensation, and not a number that appears on any pay stub. Mean pay of $41,490 exceeds the median, so the upper tail is doing the work.
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Pay band: Home Health and Personal Care Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $36,220 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $39,440 |
| Top tenth earn over | $49,190 |
| This salary | $39,440 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in North Dakota | $33,870 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $33,870 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,385 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $39,440 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,094 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of home health and personal care aides in North Dakota earn under $39,440 and half over. The published range runs $36,220 at the tenth percentile to $49,190 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
- In North Dakota the take-home figure of $33,870, from $39,440, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 397 of 460 occupations here.
- The wage data and the price data come from different years. That is how each is published. The price adjustment behind $38,240 uses one figure for the whole of North Dakota. A city and a rural county there can differ by more than two states do. Out of 460 occupations the state publishes, this one sits at 397.
- Figures are distribution medians for home health and personal care aides in North Dakota, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $36,220 to $49,190; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
- Take-home for North Dakota is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $33,870 from $39,440. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 397 of 460 locally.
- Wage and price series carry different reference periods, each published on its own schedule. The real-terms figure of $38,240, worked from $39,440, deflates by a statewide parity that conceals substantial intra-state variation, concentrated in housing — so it supports comparison between states rather than the pricing of a move to a particular North Dakota address, on work sitting at 397 of 460 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
Half earn more than this and half earn less. The average sits at $41,490 because a long tail of high pay lifts it, so the two answer different questions.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $36,220 and the top tenth $49,190, so most people doing this work in North Dakota sit within a fairly tight band.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
More than the figure suggests. Prices in North Dakota sit below the national level, so take-home here stretches like $38,240 would elsewhere. The wage is the same; the ground it covers is larger.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Into four separate taxes, not one. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare apply everywhere, and North Dakota adds its own income tax on top — which is why $33,870 of this wage survives to your account.
Can I compare this job across every state?
This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in North Dakota is $41,490. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?
The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($36,220 to $49,190) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to North Dakota rather than a national figure.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
North Dakota's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $38,240 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $33,870 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and North Dakota income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Is this occupation's state coverage complete?
State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.