Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Rhode Island
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$36,059
after federal, FICA and Rhode Island tax
Tax takes
$7,621
17.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$35,557
Rhode Island costs more than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Rhode Island — 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
$43,680
Kept after tax
$36,059
Worth in national money
$35,557
State rank
3
of 51 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for home health and personal care aides is strong here. Rhode Island's middle earner gets $43,680, putting the state 3 of 51 — about 22.01% ahead of the national figure.
- Measured against other jobs in Rhode Island, this one sits low: 379 of 452 occupations with published pay, in the bottom quarter.
- Cost of living is unremarkable here. From $43,680, tax leaves $36,059, and adjusting for local prices barely moves it — about $35,557 in comparable terms. Here the average runs under the middle, at $42,330.
- For home health and personal care aides, Rhode Island sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $43,680, ranking 3 of 51 and running about 22.01% 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 379 of 452 in Rhode Island'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.
- Because Rhode Island sits close to the national price level, the real-terms figure for home health and personal care aides — median $43,680 — tracks the post-tax figure closely: $36,059 retained, $35,557 adjusted. ⚠️ Neither is a wage; the second describes what the first buys. Mean pay of $42,330 sits under the median, so the lower tail is the longer one.
Compare this career across states
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Pay band: Home Health and Personal Care Aides
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,860 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $43,680 |
| Top tenth earn over | $46,700 |
| This salary | $43,680 |
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 Rhode Island | $36,059 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $37,277 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | +$2,804 |
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 | $42,164 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$3,391 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 101 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Rhode Island earn less than $43,680. The published range is $31,860 up to $46,700, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- That $36,059 take-home in Rhode Island comes from $43,680. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 379 of 452.
- One number stands for prices across all of Rhode Island, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $35,557, the adjusted value of that $43,680 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 379 of 452 in the state.
- Reported values are medians; for home health and personal care aides in Rhode Island the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,860 to $46,700. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Retained pay of $36,059, from $43,680, assumes a single Rhode Island filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 379 of 452 locally, and the state ranks 3 of 51 for it.
- Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Rhode Island, so $35,557 — the adjusted value of that $43,680 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 379 of 452 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $42,330, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
How much does pay for this job actually vary?
Less than you might expect. The bottom tenth earn $31,860 and the top tenth $46,700, so most people doing this work in Rhode Island sit within a fairly tight band.
Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?
The number and the value are different things. Rhode Island costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $35,557 rather than its face figure.
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 Rhode Island adds its own income tax on top — which is why $36,059 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 Rhode Island is $42,330. 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 ($31,860 to $46,700) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Rhode Island rather than a national figure.
How does the state price level affect real compensation?
Rhode Island's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $35,557 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $36,059 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Rhode Island 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.