Methodology
Last updated: April 2026
Every number on ParentCareCalc traces back to a named, dated, public data source. This page explains exactly which sources the calculator uses, how the math works, when the data gets refreshed, and where the estimates are weakest. If you've ever wanted to audit the tool before trusting it, this is the page to read.
Primary data sources
The calculator relies on three long-running, widely-cited data sources. None of them are proprietary, none of them are paywalled for the figures we use, and all of them are published by organizations with no stake in which care option a family chooses.
Provides the median monthly cost of assisted living, the median monthly cost of memory care, and the median hourly rate for a home health aide, broken out by state and metro area. This is the most widely cited senior care cost dataset in the United States and is used as the baseline for nearly every major insurer, financial planner, and elder law attorney who needs a neutral cost reference. CareScout, a wholly-owned Genworth subsidiary, now publishes the survey at carescout.com/cost-of-care.
We use Genworth / CareScout state-level medians as the baseline figure on every state page. Where the survey reports both a state median and metro sub-medians, we present the state median and note the metro range where variation is significant.
AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) jointly publish the most rigorous studies of unpaid family caregivers in the United States — who they are, how many hours they provide, and what caregiving costs them personally. We draw on two AARP research streams: the periodic Caregiving in the U.S. landscape report (2020, and now 2025) and the 2021 Caregiving Out-of-Pocket Costs study.
We use AARP's figures for the "hidden cost of caregiving" portion of the calculator: average hours of care provided per week, average out-of-pocket spending, and average lost annual expenditure for working caregivers who reduce hours or leave the workforce.
BLS provides the wage, benefit, and labor force participation data we use to estimate the full financial impact of leaving work or reducing hours to provide care. We pull from the Current Population Survey for median wages by age and sex, and from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) series for the ratio of benefits to wages.
BLS data is what lets the calculator move beyond "lost paycheck" to a more honest picture that includes employer retirement match, Social Security credits, and employer-paid health insurance — pieces that AARP's survey captures at an average level but that BLS lets us model with more precision for different wage brackets.
The 40-hour rule, derived
The "40-hour rule" is the rule of thumb that drives the headline comparison on every state page: below roughly 40 hours per week of care needed, paying an in-home agency is typically cheaper than moving to assisted living; at or above 40 hours, assisted living usually wins on cost. It's a heuristic, not a law of nature, and the exact break-even depends on your state. Here's where it comes from.
The national-average derivation
Using the Genworth 2024 national medians, the math is simple division. We're solving for the number of home-care hours per week at which the two options cost the same per month.
That's the raw arithmetic: at the most recent Genworth national medians, roughly 41 hours per week of in-home care costs about the same as assisted living. The "40-hour rule" is a round-number version of that break-even that's easy for families to remember. Three real-world factors make the actual threshold a bit messier than the clean division suggests:
- Agency minimums. Most home care agencies require a 4-hour minimum shift and many charge short-shift or last-minute premiums that push the effective hourly rate above the median when care needs are sporadic.
- Weekend, overnight, and holiday surcharges. The $33/hr Genworth median is a blended weekday daytime rate. Families needing weekend or overnight coverage pay 1.25× to 1.75× more for those hours, which quietly raises the all-in weekly cost.
- Respite and supplementary care. Even at 40+ paid hours per week, families typically still provide substantial unpaid supplementary care — overnight check-ins, medication management, transportation to appointments. The real-world threshold at which paying for structured facility care starts to make economic sense often arrives before the raw math says it should, once caregiver time and burnout are factored in.
Some states land well below the 40-hour break-even; a few land above. Every state page shows its own state-specific break-even number, calculated from that state's Genworth medians rather than the national figures.
How the break-even shifts by state
The break-even hours per week moves up or down depending on the ratio of assisted-living cost to home-health-aide cost in each state. States where assisted living is relatively expensive and home care is relatively cheap produce a higher break-even; states with the opposite ratio produce a lower one. Two worked examples:
These are illustrative; the state pages show the current number for each state using the latest Genworth release. The underlying formula never changes: divide the monthly facility cost by the hourly home-care rate, then divide by 4.33 weeks.
The hidden cost of family caregiving, broken down
The calculator's fourth option — "family member provides care unpaid" — is the one most other calculators leave out. The cost isn't zero. It's just paid in a different currency. Our "true cost" figure combines four line items:
1. Lost wages
The caregiver's estimated lost annual income, calculated from (a) the hours per week of care provided, (b) the hours per week reduced from paid work, and (c) the caregiver's stated hourly wage. For caregivers who leave the workforce entirely, we use full-time equivalent at the stated wage. Where a caregiver hasn't provided their own wage data, we use AARP's reported average for working caregivers with two or more work-related strains: $10,525 per year in caregiving-related financial impact [4].
2. Lost employer benefits
For caregivers who reduce paid hours or leave work, we estimate lost benefits at roughly 43% of lost wages. Here's where that comes from: the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation series reports that for private-sector workers in December 2025, benefits made up 29.9% of total compensation and wages made up 70.1% [5]. So for every $100 of total compensation, a worker receives $70.10 in wages and $29.90 in benefits — meaning benefits are about 29.90 ÷ 70.10 ≈ 42.7% the size of wages alone. A caregiver who loses $20,000 of wages typically loses roughly another $8,500 in employer-paid benefits on top. This line item captures the value of employer-paid health insurance, retirement contributions, paid leave, and the employer portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes.
3. Lost Social Security credits
Years of reduced earnings translate directly into a smaller Social Security benefit at retirement. We flag this as a qualitative line item rather than a precise dollar figure, because the calculation depends on the caregiver's birth year, full-benefit age, and entire earnings history. For caregivers in their prime earning years (typically ages 45–60), a multi-year caregiving period can measurably reduce lifetime Social Security income. The Social Security Administration's online benefit estimator is the right tool for a personal projection [9].
4. Out-of-pocket spending
Direct caregiver spending on the parent — transportation, medications, home modifications, supplies, occasional paid respite, food. AARP's 2021 Caregiving Out-of-Pocket Costs study documented an average of $7,242 per caregiver per year, with wide variation based on the parent's living situation and medical needs [4].
What we deliberately don't include
We don't monetize the caregiver's personal time at an hourly rate (e.g., "your care is worth $X/hr if you paid someone else to do it"). That framing is common in advocacy research but adds a large theoretical cost without any cash changing hands, which makes the "true cost" figure harder to compare directly with the paid-care options. We stick to costs that are real dollars leaving real bank accounts.
Update cadence
Data on this site is refreshed on the following schedule:
- Annually, following the Genworth / CareScout release. The survey typically publishes updated Cost of Care Survey data in late summer or early fall. Within 30 days of that release, we refresh the state-level and national-level assisted living, home health aide, and memory care figures across every state page. The 2024 survey is the current source of record across the site; the 2025 survey was released in early 2026 and we are transitioning the state pages over to the new figures as we verify each state.
- Mid-year, when AARP or BLS publishes. AARP periodically releases follow-up studies on caregiver finances (Caregiving in the U.S. 2025 is the current reference); BLS updates the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation series quarterly. We revise the hidden-cost assumptions whenever a material new data point is published.
- As-needed, for corrections. If a figure, formula, or citation is flagged as incorrect during an internal review, it's corrected and the page's "last updated" date is bumped. The homepage and sitemap reflect the most recent modification dates.
Known limitations
The calculator produces a defensible estimate for planning purposes. It is not a personalized financial projection, and there are specific places it is weakest:
- State medians mask local variation. Assisted living in a dense metro area is often 25–40% more expensive than in rural parts of the same state. Use the state figure as a starting point, then adjust upward for metro and downward for rural when pricing your specific situation.
- Memory care is a range, not a point. Memory care facilities typically charge a 20–30% premium over standard assisted living because of higher staffing ratios, specialized dementia training, and secured environments. That premium varies by facility; we use the midpoint of the range the survey reports for each state [1].
- Home care hourly rates reflect agency pricing, not private-hire. Hiring a caregiver privately (a "private duty" arrangement) is typically 25–40% cheaper per hour than agency rates, but shifts all the employer responsibilities — taxes, insurance, scheduling, backup coverage — to the family. The calculator uses agency rates because that's what Genworth measures.
- The hidden-cost number is an order-of-magnitude estimate. Your actual lost income depends on your specific wage, your specific benefits package, your employer's leave policies, and how many hours you actually reduce. The calculator gives you a directionally correct figure, not a paystub projection.
- Medicaid, VA, and long-term care insurance aren't modeled in the comparison. These programs significantly reduce out-of-pocket cost for families who qualify, but eligibility rules vary by state and situation. The calculator shows the gross cost of each option; coverage that applies to your family gets subtracted separately.
What we don't do
- We don't apply proprietary "adjustments" to published figures. What Genworth publishes is what the calculator uses.
- We don't blend data from sources without disclosing the blend. Every figure traces to one named source.
- We don't use estimated or projected figures when a recent published figure is available. If the most recent Genworth data is from the prior year, we use that year's figure and say so.
- We don't accept paid placement or sponsored figures from any senior care company, referral network, or product vendor.
Citations
- Genworth & CareScout, Cost of Care Survey 2024 (results released March 2025). Press release: investor.genworth.com — Cost of Care Survey Results 2024. Data tables: carescout.com/cost-of-care.
- CareScout, Cost of Care Survey 2025 (preliminary results, July–November 2025 fieldwork). carescout.com/cost-of-care.
- AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving, Caregiving in the U.S. 2025, July 2025. DOI: 10.26419/ppi.00373.001. aarp.org/pri — Caregiving in the US 2025.
- Skufca, Laura, and Chuck Rainville. Caregiving Out-of-Pocket Costs Study 2021. Washington, DC: AARP Research, June 2021. DOI: 10.26419/res.00473.001. aarp.org/pri — 2021 Caregiving Out-of-Pocket Costs.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — December 2025, released March 20, 2026 (USDL-26-0505). bls.gov/news.release/ecec.htm.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey — Median Weekly Earnings. bls.gov/cps/.
- Louisiana state-level figures from Genworth / CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2024 data tables, summarized by ElderLife Financial. elderlifefinancial.com — Louisiana. Assisted living $4,750/mo; home health aide $24.96/hr.
- Massachusetts state-level figures from Genworth / CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2024 data tables, summarized by ElderLife Financial and confirmed by Genworth Massachusetts press release. elderlifefinancial.com — Massachusetts; investor.genworth.com — MA press release. Assisted living $7,120/mo; home health aide $34.44/hr.
- Social Security Administration, Retirement Estimator. ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/estimator.html.
Related pages
- About — who runs the site and why it's independent
- Privacy policy — what we collect (almost nothing) and how ads work
- Calculator — the tool itself