What Home Health and Personal Care Aides earn in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
According to the latest federal wage data for the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area, the median pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA is $23,040 a year, or $11.08 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $20,232 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for West Baton Rouge Parish, LA.
The mean wage is $24,690, which is 7.2% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 7,840 people working in this occupation across the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. West Baton Rouge Parish, LA has roughly 27,974 residents, according to the population figures used by the rent data.
The salary range, from entry level to top earners
Pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $20,140 a year ($9.68 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $29,970 or more ($14.41 an hour). That is a gap of $9,830 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $21,820 at the 25th percentile and $27,380 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.5 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Employers quote this occupation by the hour or by the year, so here are both: $11.08 an hour or $23,040 a year at the median for West Baton Rouge Parish, LA. Before any deductions, that is $1,920 a month, $886 every two weeks and $443 each week. After taxes the same job pays $9.73 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
About this occupation: Home Health and Personal Care Aides
The U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database describes the work of Home Health Aides this way: "Monitor the health status of an individual with disabilities or illness, and address their health-related needs, such as changing bandages, dressing wounds, or administering medication. Work is performed under the direction of offsite or intermittent onsite licensed nursing staff. Provide assistance with routine healthcare tasks or activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, toileting, or ambulation. May also help with tasks such as preparing meals, doing light housekeeping, and doing laundry depending on the patient's abilities."
Core tasks recorded by O*NET include: "Maintain records of patient care, condition, progress, or problems to report and discuss observations with supervisor or case manager"; "Provide patients with help moving in and out of beds, baths, wheelchairs, or automobiles and with dressing and grooming"; "Provide patients and families with emotional support and instruction in areas such as caring for infants, preparing healthy meals, living independently, or adapting to disability or illness"; "Entertain, converse with, or read aloud to patients to keep them mentally healthy and alert".
This BLS pay category covers several related O*NET occupations, among them Home Health Aides, Personal Care Aides, so the wage figures describe the group as a whole.
Job outlook for Home Health and Personal Care Aides
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects national employment in this occupation to grow from 4,677,100 jobs in 2025 to 5,524,400 in 2035, a change of +18.1%, faster than the 3.5% projected for all occupations. The projection counts 760,500 openings a year on average, including positions created by growth and positions left by workers who retire or move to another occupation; that equals 16.3% of current employment each year.
Typical entry-level education: high school diploma or equivalent. Typical on-the-job training to reach competency: short-term on-the-job training. BLS lists a national median annual wage of $35,800 for this occupation; the West Baton Rouge Parish, LA median of $23,040 is 35.6% below it.
How pay in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA compares
Compared with the Louisiana average
A worker in this occupation in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA earns $585 more than the Louisiana average of $22,455, a premium of 2.6%. Over a year that premium is worth $585 before tax and roughly $514 after tax. Within Louisiana, West Baton Rouge Parish, LA already has the highest median we track for this job.
Compared with the national average
The national employment-weighted average for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $34,899 across the contiguous United States. At $23,040, West Baton Rouge Parish, LA pays $11,859 less, which is 34.0% below that benchmark. Keep in mind that a higher salary only helps if living costs do not rise faster, which is why the cost sections below matter as much as the headline number.
Where this job ranks in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
Among the 425 occupations with published wages in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA, Home Health and Personal Care Aides ranks number 418 by median pay, ahead of about 2% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $107,140 a year, which is $84,100 more than the median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides.
From gross pay to take-home pay
Three separate tax bills sit between the gross salary and the bank account: federal income tax, FICA, and state income tax. For Home Health and Personal Care Aides earning the West Baton Rouge Parish, LA median of $23,040, they add up to $2,808. The result is $20,232 of take-home pay a year ($1,686 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $12 goes to taxes and $88 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 12.2%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $7,290. Federal brackets are marginal, so only the slice of income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate; the last dollars of this salary fall in the 10% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $729, an effective 3.2% of gross pay, well below the 10% marginal rate because the lower brackets are cheaper.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA)
Payroll taxes are a flat percentage of wages. Social Security takes 6.2% up to a wage base of $176,100, which costs $1,428 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $334. FICA totals $1,763, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Louisiana
Louisiana income tax on this salary is $316 a year, or 1.4% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 43% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $26 a month. Local taxes such as county or city income taxes are not included, so a few jurisdictions may withhold slightly more.
A cross-check with IRS data for West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
IRS Statistics of Income data for West Baton Rouge Parish, LA show an average adjusted gross income of $74,339 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 11.4% across all filers. Filers in the $10,000 to under $25,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 3.0%, compared with the 3.2% estimated here for a single filer taking the standard deduction. Gaps between the two reflect filing status, dependents, credits and other income, none of which a single-person wage estimate includes.
Cost of living in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $20,232 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For West Baton Rouge Parish, LA, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,014 a month ($12,168 a year), and at $1,149 for two bedrooms. For Home Health and Personal Care Aides, a one-bedroom absorbs 60.1% of take-home pay and 52.8% of gross pay.
Food
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan (August 2026) puts the cost of a nutritious home-cooked diet for an adult at about $3,436 a year, which is $286 a month or $66.07 a week. That equals 14.9% of gross pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Louisiana residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,239 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $654, for $1,893 in total. Gasoline in Louisiana averages $2.91 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,345.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $18,842 a year in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA. Subtract that from $20,232 of take-home pay and $1,390 remains, which is $116 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 6.0% of gross pay, a thin cushion that one unexpected expense could erase.
Local housing and commute data for West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA: property taxes, housing prices and the daily commute. The figures below are exact U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates for West Baton Rouge Parish, LA, set beside the Louisiana and national medians.
Property taxes in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
Homeowners in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA pay a median of $1,251 a year in real estate taxes, 6% above the Louisiana median of $1,180 and 60% below the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $229,900, the median tax bill is 0.54% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Home Health and Personal Care Aides median of $23,040, a tax bill of that size would equal 5.4% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
Renters in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA pay a median gross rent of $973 a month in the Census survey, 9% below the Louisiana median of $1,064. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,014 a month; the two measures differ because the Census figure covers units of every size that renters already occupy, while the HUD figure is a one-bedroom benchmark. The median value of an owner-occupied home is $229,900, 6% above the Louisiana median of $216,500. Median household income is $87,299, 44% above the Louisiana median of $60,756, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 13.9% of that income.
Commuting in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
Workers in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA who travel to a workplace spend an average of 25.0 minutes each way, 3% below the Louisiana average of 25.7. For someone who commutes five days a week, that is 4.2 hours of round-trip travel every week, a cost the budget does not price. 4.4% of workers in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA work from home, compared with 15.1% nationally, which removes the commute for them.
Can Home Health and Personal Care Aides afford to live in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $23,040 that ceiling is $576 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,014 is $438 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $19.50 an hour; the median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $11.08, which is 43% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $9.73 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 24.1 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,149 a month means $575 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $5,274 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $6,664.
How fast you can save
At $116 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 87 months (7.3 years). Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 174 months. These figures ignore interest, raises and any spending beyond the four basics.
Frequently asked questions about Home Health and Personal Care Aides pay in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA
How much do Home Health and Personal Care Aides make per hour in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA?
The median is $11.08 per hour, based on $23,040 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $9.68 at the 10th percentile to $14.41 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Home Health and Personal Care Aides take home after taxes in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $23,040 becomes $20,232 a year. That is $1,686 a month, $778 every two weeks or $389 a week.
How much tax do Home Health and Personal Care Aides pay in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA?
Total taxes are $2,808 a year, an effective rate of 12.2%: $729 federal income tax, $1,763 FICA and $316 Louisiana income tax.
Do Home Health and Personal Care Aides earn more in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA than elsewhere in Louisiana?
Yes. The local median of $23,040 is +2.6% versus the Louisiana average of $22,455, a difference of $585 a year.
Can Home Health and Personal Care Aides afford a one-bedroom apartment in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA?
A one-bedroom costs $1,014 a month against take-home pay of $1,686, which is 60.1% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $576 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA?
About $116 a month ($1,390 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $18,842 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in West Baton Rouge Parish, LA at the 30% guideline?
$19.50 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $12,168 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $11.08.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Baton Rouge, LA metropolitan area; hourly-only values are annualized at 2,080 hours. Rents are HUD Fair Market Rents, food costs come from the USDA Thrifty Food Plan, and energy prices come from the Energy Information Administration. County-level tax statistics come from the IRS Statistics of Income.
Taxes use tax-year 2025 federal brackets, FICA rates and the Louisiana rules for a single filer with wage income only. Figures are estimates for planning and comparison, not tax or financial advice, and they exclude local income taxes, benefits, retirement contributions and individual circumstances.