What Home Health and Personal Care Aides earn in Kent County, RI
According to the latest federal wage data for the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metropolitan area, the median pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Kent County, RI is $40,890 a year, or $19.66 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state income tax, the paycheck shrinks to $34,050 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Kent County, RI.
The mean wage is $42,200, which is 3.2% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 15,670 people working in this occupation across the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Kent County, RI has roughly 171,456 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 Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $35,960 a year ($17.29 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $46,620 or more ($22.41 an hour). That is a gap of $10,660 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $38,590 at the 25th percentile and $44,610 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.3 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: $19.66 an hour or $40,890 a year at the median for Kent County, RI. Before any deductions, that is $3,408 a month, $1,573 every two weeks and $786 each week. After taxes the same job pays $16.37 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 Kent County, RI median of $40,890 is 14.2% above it.
How pay in Kent County, RI compares
Compared with the Rhode Island average
Pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Kent County, RI is in line with the statewide figure: $40,890 locally against an employment-weighted Rhode Island average of $40,890, a difference of only $0 (0.0%). Within Rhode Island, Kent County, RI 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 $40,890, Kent County, RI pays $5,992 more, which is 17.2% above 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 Kent County, RI
Among the 512 occupations with published wages in Kent County, RI, Home Health and Personal Care Aides ranks number 446 by median pay, ahead of about 13% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $110,360 a year, which is $69,470 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 Kent County, RI median of $40,890, they add up to $6,840. The result is $34,050 of take-home pay a year ($2,838 a month), based on a single filer using the standard deduction.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $17 goes to taxes and $83 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 16.7%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $25,140. 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 12% bracket. The resulting federal income tax is $2,778, an effective 6.8% of gross pay, well below the 12% 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 $2,535 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $593. FICA totals $3,128, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Rhode Island
Rhode Island income tax on this salary is $933 a year, or 2.3% of gross pay, after the state's own deductions and exemptions are applied. That is 34% of the federal income tax bill, and it comes out to $78 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 Kent County, RI
IRS Statistics of Income data for Kent County, RI show an average adjusted gross income of $90,418 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 13.6% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.6%, compared with the 6.8% 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 Kent County, RI
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Kent County, RI: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $34,050 of take-home pay.
Rent
Housing is the largest line in most budgets. For Kent County, RI, HUD sets the Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom unit at $1,509 a month ($18,108 a year), and at $1,879 for two bedrooms. For Home Health and Personal Care Aides, a one-bedroom absorbs 53.2% of take-home pay and 44.3% 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 8.4% of gross pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Kent County, RI. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Rhode Island residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $3,027 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $859, for $3,886 in total. Gasoline in Rhode Island averages $3.34 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,546.
What is left over
Rent, food, energy and gasoline cost $26,976 a year in Kent County, RI. Subtract that from $34,050 of take-home pay and $7,074 remains, which is $590 a month of breathing room. That margin equals 17.3% of gross pay, a workable but modest cushion.
Local housing and commute data for Kent County, RI
The budget above covers rent, food, energy and gasoline. Three more local facts shape what a paycheck buys in Kent County, RI: 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 Kent County, RI, set beside the Rhode Island and national medians.
Property taxes in Kent County, RI
Homeowners in Kent County, RI pay a median of $4,957 a year in real estate taxes, 1% above the Rhode Island median of $4,900 and 59% above the U.S. median of $3,119. Against a median home value of $366,100, the median tax bill is 1.35% of that value (the ratio of the two county medians). For a worker paid the local Home Health and Personal Care Aides median of $40,890, a tax bill of that size would equal 12.1% of gross pay, which matters for anyone planning to buy rather than rent.
Rents, home prices and household income in Kent County, RI
Renters in Kent County, RI pay a median gross rent of $1,327 a month in the Census survey, 1% below the Rhode Island median of $1,342. HUD's Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment, which this site uses in the budget, is $1,509 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 $366,100, 9% below the Rhode Island median of $404,200. Median household income is $94,345, 7% above the Rhode Island median of $87,796, so a year of one-bedroom Fair Market Rent equals 19.2% of that income.
Commuting in Kent County, RI
Workers in Kent County, RI who travel to a workplace spend an average of 25.1 minutes each way, 2% below the Rhode Island average of 25.5. 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. 11.9% of workers in Kent County, RI 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 Kent County, RI?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $40,890 that ceiling is $1,022 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,509 is $487 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $29.02 an hour; the median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $19.66, which is 32% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $16.37 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 21.3 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $1,879 a month means $940 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $6,834 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $13,908.
How fast you can save
At $590 a month of margin, building a $10,000 emergency fund would take about 17 months. Setting aside half of the margin stretches the same goal to about 34 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 Kent County, RI
How much do Home Health and Personal Care Aides make per hour in Kent County, RI?
The median is $19.66 per hour, based on $40,890 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $17.29 at the 10th percentile to $22.41 at the 90th percentile.
How much do Home Health and Personal Care Aides take home after taxes in Kent County, RI?
After federal income tax, FICA and state income tax, the median salary of $40,890 becomes $34,050 a year. That is $2,838 a month, $1,310 every two weeks or $655 a week.
How much tax do Home Health and Personal Care Aides pay in Kent County, RI?
Total taxes are $6,840 a year, an effective rate of 16.7%: $2,778 federal income tax, $3,128 FICA and $933 Rhode Island income tax.
Do Home Health and Personal Care Aides earn more in Kent County, RI than elsewhere in Rhode Island?
It is about the same. The local median of $40,890 is within 0.0% of the Rhode Island average of $40,890.
Can Home Health and Personal Care Aides afford a one-bedroom apartment in Kent County, RI?
A one-bedroom costs $1,509 a month against take-home pay of $2,838, which is 53.2% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $1,022 a month.
What is the monthly budget margin for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Kent County, RI?
About $590 a month ($7,074 a year) remains after a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline, which together cost $26,976 a year.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Kent County, RI at the 30% guideline?
$29.02 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $18,108 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $19.66.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA 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 Rhode Island 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.