Home health aides are one of the least happy careers in the United States.

At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, home health aides rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 17% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy home health aides are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:

Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers

Career Satisfaction Avg Salary
Ophthalmic medical technician
2.9
$21k
Psychiatric aide
2.9
$29k
Audiologist
2.9
$92k
Orthotist
2.9
$71k
Personal care aide
2.8
$25k
Home health aide
2.8
$25k
Psychiatric technician
2.8
$23k
Licensed practical nurse
2.8
$41k
Pharmacy technician
2.8
$18k
Medical administrative assistant
2.8
$19k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are home health aides happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do home health aides find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as home health aides?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are home health aide’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are home health aides making the best use of their abilities?

Are home health aides happy with their salary?

Home health aides rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.5/5. Most home health aides do not feel that their salaries adequately reflect their work, and are actively unhappy with their income.

We asked home health aides how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

2.5 out of 5 stars

964 home health aides

5 Star
7%

7% of home health aides rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
15%

15% of home health aides rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of home health aides rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
27%

27% of home health aides rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
26%

26% of home health aides rated their compensation 1 stars

Do home health aides find their jobs meaningful?

On average, home health aides rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.2/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.

We asked home health aides how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

965 home health aides

5 Star
20%

20% of home health aides rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
28%

28% of home health aides rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
23%

23% of home health aides rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
14%

14% of home health aides rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
15%

15% of home health aides rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as home health aides?

Home health aides rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of home health aides find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked home health aides how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.8 out of 5 stars

1018 home health aides

5 Star
33%

33% of home health aides rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
33%

33% of home health aides rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
19%

19% of home health aides rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
8%

8% of home health aides rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
7%

7% of home health aides rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a home health aide’s work environment?

As a whole, home health aides rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked home health aides how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

1020 home health aides

5 Star
18%

18% of home health aides rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
27%

27% of home health aides rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
26%

26% of home health aides rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
18%

18% of home health aides rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of home health aides rated their work environment 1 stars

Are home health aides making the best use of their abilities?

Former home health aides on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.8/5. Home health aides tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked home health aides how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

2.8 out of 5 stars

1019 home health aides

5 Star
14%

14% of home health aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
18%

18% of home health aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
23%

23% of home health aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
23%

23% of home health aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
21%

21% of home health aides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars