What Home Health and Personal Care Aides earn in Palm Beach County, FL
According to the latest federal wage data for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area, the median pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL is $32,890 a year, or $15.81 an hour. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare (and no state income tax), the paycheck shrinks to $28,556 a year, and rent, food and energy take another bite. The sections below walk through each step with the actual math for Palm Beach County, FL.
The mean wage is $34,420, which is 4.7% above the median, a sign that a group of high earners lifts the average. The survey counts about 28,350 people working in this occupation across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area, so the estimate rests on a substantial pool of workers. Palm Beach County, FL has roughly 1,533,806 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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL metropolitan area is not one number. The lowest-paid tenth of workers earn up to $31,200 a year ($15.00 an hour), while the highest-paid tenth earn $37,660 or more ($18.11 an hour). That is a gap of $6,460 between the bottom and the top of the scale. The middle half of workers falls between $31,560 at the 25th percentile and $35,740 at the 75th percentile. A top-tier earner makes 1.2 times what someone at the bottom makes, so experience, certification and employer all matter.
What the hourly rate looks like
Converted to an hourly wage, the median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL is $15.81. A full-time schedule of 40 hours for 52 weeks adds up to $32,890, and the same salary is $2,741 a month before taxes or about $1,265 per biweekly pay period. After taxes the same job pays $13.73 per hour of take-home income, which is the number that actually has to cover rent and groceries.
How pay in Palm Beach County, FL compares
Compared with the Florida average
The local median of $32,890 sits below the Florida employment-weighted average of $33,723. The shortfall is $833 a year, or 2.5%, so Palm Beach County, FL is a lower-paying market for this job than the state as a whole. Within Florida, Palm Beach County, FL 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 $32,890, Palm Beach County, FL pays $2,009 less, which is 5.8% below 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 Palm Beach County, FL
Among the 572 occupations with published wages in Palm Beach County, FL, Home Health and Personal Care Aides ranks number 550 by median pay, ahead of about 4% of them. The best-paying occupation we track here is General and Operations Managers at $105,640 a year, which is $72,750 more than the median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides.
From gross pay to take-home pay
A salary of $32,890 does not arrive in full. We model a single filer with wage income only, the standard deduction and tax-year 2025 rules, and we keep the three tax layers apart: federal income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and state income tax. Together they take $4,334 a year, which leaves $28,556, or $2,380 a month.
Put another way, of every $100 earned, about $13 goes to taxes and $87 reaches the paycheck. The overall effective tax rate is 13.2%.
Federal income tax
After the $15,750 standard deduction, taxable income is $17,140. 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 $1,818, an effective 5.5% 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 $2,039 on this salary. Medicare takes 1.45%, or $477. FICA totals $2,516, which is 7.6% of gross pay.
State income tax in Florida
There is no state income tax on wages in Florida, which means Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL keep the full $28,556 left after federal and payroll taxes. For scale, a hypothetical flat 5% state tax on this salary would cost about $1,645 a year, so the absence of a state tax is worth roughly $137 a month.
A cross-check with IRS data for Palm Beach County, FL
IRS Statistics of Income data for Palm Beach County, FL show an average adjusted gross income of $165,558 per return and an average effective federal income tax rate of 20.4% across all filers. Filers in the $25,000 to under $50,000 bracket, where this salary falls, paid an average of 5.1%, compared with the 5.5% 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 Palm Beach County, FL
Take-home pay only means something next to what life costs. We price four basics for one adult in Palm Beach County, FL: a one-bedroom apartment, food, home energy and gasoline. All of them are converted to annual figures first, then compared with the $28,556 of take-home pay.
Rent
The HUD Fair Market Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Palm Beach County, FL is $2,008 a month, or $24,096 a year. A two-bedroom costs $2,349 a month. For Home Health and Personal Care Aides, a one-bedroom absorbs 84.4% of take-home pay and 73.3% 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 10.4% of gross pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL. It is a thrifty budget with no restaurant meals, so treat it as a floor.
Energy and gasoline
Using Florida residential prices from the Energy Information Administration and national household averages for consumption, electricity costs about $1,494 a year and other home energy such as natural gas about $1,005, for $2,498 in total. Gasoline in Florida averages $3.08 per gallon; at about 463 gallons a year (11,106 miles at 24 miles per gallon) fuel adds $1,427.
What is left over
The basics cost $31,458 a year in Palm Beach County, FL, but take-home pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $28,556. That is a shortfall of $2,902 a year, or $242 a month, before health care, transportation beyond fuel, debt or savings. Closing the gap would take roughly 211 extra paid hours a year at the take-home hourly rate of $13.73, or a second earner, a cheaper home or a roommate.
Can Home Health and Personal Care Aides afford to live in Palm Beach County, FL?
The 30% rent guideline
A common rule of thumb says rent should stay under 30% of gross income. For a gross salary of $32,890 that ceiling is $822 a month. The one-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $2,008 is $1,186 over it, so rent breaks the guideline. Put as a wage, covering a one-bedroom at the 30% guideline takes $38.62 an hour; the median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $15.81, which is 59% below that mark. Another way to see it: at $13.73 of take-home pay an hour, a one-bedroom takes about 33.8 working hours every week.
Splitting a two-bedroom
Sharing a two-bedroom at $2,349 a month means $1,175 each. Compared with renting a one-bedroom alone, that saves $10,002 a year. With a roommate, the yearly margin after the basics becomes $7,100, which turns the shortfall into a surplus.
How fast you can save
With no monthly margin after the four basics, saving requires a change on one side of the ledger: higher pay than the $32,890 median, lower housing costs than the $2,008 one-bedroom rent, or a second income.
Frequently asked questions about Home Health and Personal Care Aides pay in Palm Beach County, FL
What is the hourly wage for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL?
The median is $15.81 per hour, based on $32,890 a year over 2,080 hours. Hourly pay runs from about $15.00 at the 10th percentile to $18.11 at the 90th percentile.
What is the take-home pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL?
After federal income tax, FICA, the median salary of $32,890 becomes $28,556 a year. That is $2,380 a month, $1,098 every two weeks or $549 a week.
What percentage of pay goes to taxes for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL?
Total taxes are $4,334 a year, an effective rate of 13.2%: $1,818 federal income tax, $2,516 FICA and no Florida income tax.
Is pay for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL above the Florida average?
No. The local median of $32,890 is -2.5% versus the Florida average of $33,723, a difference of $833 a year.
Is a one-bedroom rent affordable on the median Home Health and Personal Care Aides salary in Palm Beach County, FL?
A one-bedroom costs $2,008 a month against take-home pay of $2,380, which is 84.4% of take-home pay. That does not meet the 30%-of-gross guideline, which allows up to $822 a month.
How much is left after rent, food and energy for Home Health and Personal Care Aides in Palm Beach County, FL?
Nothing remains: the basics cost $31,458 a year, which is $2,902 more than take-home pay, a monthly shortfall of $242.
What hourly wage covers a one-bedroom in Palm Beach County, FL at the 30% guideline?
$38.62 an hour for a full-time schedule, calculated as the $24,096 annual rent divided by 0.30 and by 2,080 hours. The median for Home Health and Personal Care Aides is $15.81.
How we calculated these numbers
Wages are May 2025 medians from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL 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 Florida 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.