The Home Health Aide Experience: A Qualitative Analysis of the Value of Labor of Homecare Workers in the United States in Relation to Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

Home health care is a rapidly growing field and home health aides are at the heart of it. Their jobs put them in direct contact with patients, which is both difficult and demanding. For all their hard work they receive low pay, few benefits and little respect in society. The purpose of the study is to gain insight into how the labor of home health aides is valued in the United States and how it relates to gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. There has been little data collected directly from home health aides to provide their perspectives on their work. This qualitative analysis involved nine interviews with home health aides in Connecticut, which provide their personal perspectives on their jobs in the hopes to help to improve their experiences. In speaking with these nine aides it was revealed from their personal experiences that the vast majority of home health aides are minority women, a large amount of who are immigrants to the United States. These home health aides felt they should receive higher wages, ought to merit benefits from their employers and deserve more respect for their hard work.