and fell further during the pandemic and assisted living is at about 75 percent of capacity the number of people seeking home care keeps increasingmore than 800000 older and disabled people who qualify for medicaid are on state waiting lists for home care agencies serving privatepay clients are turning away businesscongregate living looks less attractive after covid as residents died and family members were locked out for months moreover a return to workplaces means that some adult children can no longer provide elder care even before the pandemic the bureau of labor statistics projected the addition of one million home care jobs by 2029the surge is here and we cant meet the need ms hoak said its dishearteningimagecreditphyllis b dooney for the new york timesin response many agencies are offering signing bonuses to employees and those who refer new hires usually paid out over several months a 500 incentive is common ms hoak said but one franchise of the national chain home instead dangled 1200seniors helping seniors with more than 100 franchisees in 30 states has begun paying new employees 100 to 500 bonuses after three months earmarking a portion of that amount as a donation to local alzheimers association organizationsits franchise operators employ about 7000 home care aides most over age 55 were looking to add another 1000 to 1500 caregivers through this program said namrata yocomjan its presidentin eastern tennessee where ray bales operates two seniors helping seniors franchises 11 people applied within a week after he advertised 200 bonuses on facebook he said he hopes to attract 30 to 40 new workers none objected to funding the companys philanthropy with 50 from their prospective bonuses he saidbut bonuses may not retain newcomers working in a field with notoriously high turnover more than 80 percent in 2018 the home care association found since then turnover has fallen still twothirds of agency employees have left each yearsome aides are taking advantage of higher pay in retail fast food and other industries others have moved to independent work avoiding intermediaries who pocket at least half of what clients paywendy gullickson a licensed practical nurse in wellfleet mass spent only a few months as a 13anhour agency worker before discovering that she could make 25 as a private aide still less than local agencies charge home care cost an average of 23 to 24 an hour nationally last year but 29 to 30 in massachusettsto advocates therefore the key to enticing new aides into home care is not a mystery what they need is a competitive wage because they can make as much or more in other sectors with fulltime hours said robert espinoza vice president of policy at phiin 2018 the nations estimated 28 million home care aides most of them women of color and about onethird immigrants earned a median 12 an hour and 17200 annually very few received benefits more than half relied on food stamps medicaid or other public assistancei dont think a bonus is going to