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v2026.1 · Updated 2026-07-22 · License: CC BY 4.0

Open dataset · CC BY 4.0 · Reproducible from source

California IHSS caregiver wage by county, 2026.

California’s IHSS in-home caregiver wage runs from $16.90 an hour in Siskiyou to $23.00 in San Francisco, a $6.10 gap, with a statewide median of $18.50 across all 58 counties. These are Medi-Cal program wages set by counties, not what a family pays a private agency.

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Statewide headline, 2026

Lowest county wage

$16.90

Siskiyou County, per hour.

Median county wage

$18.50

Across all 58 California counties, per hour.

Highest county wage

$23.00

San Francisco, per hour. A $6.10 spread from the lowest county.

IHSS Individual Provider wage by county

Click a column header to sort. All 58 counties.

IHSS Individual Provider hourly wage by California county, 2026, sortable by county name or wage. Government caregiver wage, not a private-pay price.
Monthly, full-time
arithmetic illustration only		Effective
San Francisco$23.00$3,9872026-01-01
Alameda$22.10$3,8312026-07-01
San Mateo$21.70$3,7612026-01-01
San Luis Obispo$21.40$3,7092026-01-01
Monterey$21.04$3,6472026-07-01
Ventura$20.97$3,6352026-07-01
Santa Cruz$20.90$3,6232026-01-01
Napa$20.90$3,6232026-01-01
Santa Clara$20.44$3,5432026-01-01
San Diego$20.40$3,5362026-03-01
Marin$20.40$3,5362026-02-01
Sonoma$20.25$3,5102026-03-01
Santa Barbara$20.07$3,4792026-04-01
Contra Costa$20.03$3,4722026-01-01
Riverside$19.90$3,4492026-05-01
Mendocino$19.71$3,4162026-01-01
Los Angeles$19.64$3,4042026-01-01
San Benito$19.35$3,3542026-01-01
Sacramento$19.15$3,3192026-01-01
Yolo$19.05$3,3022026-01-01
San Bernardino$19.00$3,2932026-01-01
San Joaquin$18.97$3,2882026-01-01
Orange$18.90$3,2762026-01-01
Imperial$18.83$3,2642026-01-01
Yuba$18.78$3,2552026-01-01
Stanislaus$18.75$3,2502026-07-01
Fresno$18.75$3,2502026-01-01
Sierra$18.50$3,2072026-01-01
Shasta$18.50$3,2072026-01-01
Plumas$18.50$3,2072026-01-01
Placer$18.50$3,2072026-01-01
Nevada$18.50$3,2072026-01-01
Del Norte$18.50$3,2072026-01-01
Tehama$18.40$3,1892026-07-01
Humboldt$18.40$3,1892026-01-01
Amador$18.40$3,1892026-01-01
Trinity$18.25$3,1632026-01-01
Solano$18.10$3,1372026-01-01
Mono$17.95$3,1112026-01-01
Tuolumne$17.90$3,1032026-01-01
Sutter$17.90$3,1032026-01-01
Madera$17.90$3,1032026-07-01
Kern$17.90$3,1032026-07-01
Glenn$17.90$3,1032026-01-01
Butte$17.90$3,1032026-01-01
Calaveras$17.89$3,1012026-01-01
Alpine$17.85$3,0942026-07-01
Modoc$17.75$3,0772026-01-01
Inyo$17.65$3,0592026-01-01
Lassen$17.55$3,0422026-01-01
Lake$17.55$3,0422026-01-01
Tulare$17.50$3,0332026-01-01
Merced$17.50$3,0332026-01-01
Mariposa$17.50$3,0332026-01-01
Kings$17.50$3,0332026-01-01
El Dorado$17.40$3,0162026-01-01
Colusa$17.40$3,0162026-01-01
Siskiyou$16.90$2,9292026-01-01

Each county sets its own IHSS Individual Provider wage, usually through a local labor agreement, and the California Department of Social Services approves it. The “monthly, full-time” figure is the hourly wage multiplied by 173.33 hours, shown only to make the hourly number intuitive. It is not an amount anyone is charged or paid as a salary, and most IHSS recipients are authorized far fewer than full-time hours.

The county wage spread, visualized

IHSS Individual Provider hourly wage by California county, 2026. Lowest Siskiyou at $16.90, highest San Francisco at $23.00, median $18.50.

Reproduce it yourself

Every number regenerates from the state file

The dataset is built by a standard-library Python script that downloads the CDSS workbook and normalizes the current wage tab. No third-party packages, no hand-entered figures. Run it and compare to the table above.

git clone https://github.com/asafichaki/california-senior-care-rates-open-data
cd california-senior-care-rates-open-data
python3 scripts/fetch_ihss_county_wages.py

Source repository: github.com/asafichaki/california-senior-care-rates-open-data

Why this dataset exists

Families planning in-home care for an older parent in California keep hitting the same wall: it is genuinely hard to find out, county by county, what the state actually pays an in-home caregiver, and easy to confuse that number with what a private agency charges. This dataset publishes the one figure the state does release, the IHSS Individual Provider wage for each of the 58 counties, in a clean, citable, reproducible form, and is careful to say what it is not.

Methodology

Where the numbers come from. The wage for each county is taken from the California Department of Social Services IHSS county wage workbook (the “Individual Provider wages by county” file), specifically the current effective-wage worksheet, accessed on 2026-07-22. A published Python script downloads that workbook and reads the wage and effective date for every county directly from it.

What is calculated. Nothing is estimated. The hourly wage and its effective date are reproduced as published. The one derived column, the full-time monthly illustration, is simply the hourly wage multiplied by 173.33 (a nominal 40-hour week averaged across a month) and is labeled throughout as an illustration, not an observed cost.

What is not published, and not invented. The state does not publish private-pay home-care prices, and neither does this dataset. Where a number does not exist in public data, this page says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

What the dataset is and is not

This dataset tells you the IHSS Individual Provider wage the state pays an in-home caregiver in each California county in 2026. It does not tell you what a private, non-medical home-care agency will charge a family, which is higher and varies by agency, and it does not cover assisted living, memory care, or skilled nursing. We could not find a reproducible, provider-level file of private-pay facility prices in public California data. The most widely cited source for private-pay medians is the CareScout (formerly Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, which remains active as of 2026 and should be cited directly rather than reproduced here.

How to use IHSS as a family

IHSS is a Medi-Cal program that pays for personal-care hours at home for people who qualify, and a family member can often be the paid provider. Eligibility runs through the county, and the number of authorized hours depends on an assessment of the recipient’s needs, not on a flat schedule. To see whether IHSS fits, start with the county IHSS office or a benefits counselor.

License and citation

This dataset is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. You may freely cite, reproduce, and build on the data, with attribution.

Recommended citation:

California Care Compass. California IHSS Individual Provider County Wage Rates 2026. Version 2026.1, published July 2026. https://californiacarecompass.com/data/california-ihss-county-wages-2026

Refresh cadence and updates

Counties change IHSS wages on their own schedules through the year, and CDSS updates the workbook periodically. Because the dataset is script-generated, refreshing it means re-running the fetch against the current CDSS file. Version 2026.1 (July 2026) is the initial publication covering all 58 counties, retrieved 2026-07-22.

Common IHSS wage questions

5 entries

How much does IHSS pay caregivers in California in 2026?

IHSS Individual Provider wages are set by each county and approved by the California Department of Social Services. In 2026 they range from $16.90 per hour in Siskiyou County to $23.00 per hour in San Francisco, with a statewide median of $18.50 per hour across all 58 counties.

Is the IHSS wage the same as what a private home-care agency charges?

No. The IHSS wage is what a county pays an in-home caregiver through the Medi-Cal In-Home Supportive Services program. A private home-care agency charges a family more than this, because the agency rate also covers payroll taxes, insurance, overhead, supervision, and margin. Do not use the IHSS wage as a private-pay price.

Which California county pays IHSS caregivers the most?

San Francisco pays the highest IHSS Individual Provider wage in 2026 at $23.00 per hour. Siskiyou County pays the lowest at $16.90 per hour. The county-to-county spread is $6.10 per hour.

Where does this IHSS wage data come from?

It comes directly from the California Department of Social Services IHSS county wage workbook, retrieved on 2026-07-22. A published open-source script downloads that file and reproduces this table, so anyone can verify every number against the state source.

Does this dataset show assisted living or memory care prices?

No. This dataset only shows the IHSS in-home caregiver wage by county. It does not show assisted-living, memory-care, or nursing-home prices. We could not find a reproducible provider-level file of private-pay facility prices in public California data. For private-pay survey medians, the CareScout (formerly Genworth) Cost of Care Survey is the standard source and, as of 2026, is still published.

Sources

  1. 01California Department of Social Services · IHSS county wage rates (Individual Provider wages by county workbook) · accessed 2026-07-22
  2. 02California Care Compass open data · California senior care rates open-data repository (reproducible fetch script) · accessed 2026-07-22
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