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PERM Tracker

All occupations · #20 of 1,410 by volume

Personal Care Aides

SOC 31-1122.00, in the healthcare support major group. 2,630 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 2,387 certified and 155 denied.

Median wage

$31,200

all PERM $103,272

Filings

2,630

#20 of 1,410

Approval

93.9%

field 96.8%

Median days

485

8 slower than the field

Fig 01 Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$31,200above 11%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

93.9%ahead of 31%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

485 daysahead of 20%

323d 536d
Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. The line marks this one. DOL PERM disclosure files
Fig 02 The wage ladder, year by year Personal Care Aides, certified offers
  • 5th to 95th
  • 25th to 75th
  • Median
  • 10th and 90th

  1. FY2024

    $28,808 median · 193 certified cases

  2. FY2025

    $31,200 median · 1,504 certified cases

  3. FY2026

    $31,200 median · 686 certified cases

$20k$30k$40k$50k
10th
$23,192
-7.2% since FY2024
Median
$31,200
+8.3% since FY2024
90th
$39,520
+37.2% since FY2024
95th
$43,680
+47.4% since FY2024

These years are not measuring the same group of filings. The count moves by 7.8 times between the largest year and the smallest, so a change in the ladder is at least partly a change in which employers filed rather than a change in what the work pays. Read the shape, not the difference.

A median answers whether pay moved. The whole ladder answers which part of it moved, and those are not the same question: a distribution can hold its middle while its top stretches away. DOL PERM disclosure files, certified cases only

Who files this job

The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, and the states the work sits in.

Sponsors filing it

  1. DEVOTED GUARDIANS INC 234 filings · 94.0% approved
  2. Homes for Independent Living of Wisconsin LLC 206 filings · 100.0% approved
  3. 1st Senior Cares, LLC 109 filings · 100.0% approved
  4. Marsh Country Health Alliance 96 filings · 100.0% approved
  5. RGAC Enterprises, Inc. 84 filings · 100.0% approved
  6. Paragon Community Services LLC 72 filings · 100.0% approved

The employers with the most applications under this code. 801 of 2,630 filings, 30% of the total.

Firms filing it

  1. Law Office of Nhu Muon 1,105 filings · 98.9% approved
  2. NEW ERA GOLDEN CARE 277 filings · 94.5% approved
  3. American International & Immigration Law, PC 83 filings · 89.0% approved
  4. Ruby Law Group LLC 83 filings · 100.0% approved
  5. William Newell Siebert, PC 62 filings · 43.5% approved
  6. Jackson Lewis PC 55 filings · 100.0% approved

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 1,665 of 2,630 filings, 63% of the total.

Where the jobs are

  • Wisconsin 692
  • Arizona 249
  • California 211
  • Georgia 187
  • Minnesota 99
  • Indiana 90

The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 1,528 of 2,630 filings.

Where this sits in the ranking

Ranked 20 of 1,410 by volume: 19 filed at least as many filings, and 1,390 filed no more.

Just above
Financial and Investment Analysts 2,800 filings
Just below
Packers and Packagers, Hand 2,625 filings

Other healthcare support roles

Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.

Reading the wage

This is the median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to.

What these numbers don't say

The code is the identity
Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
A median isn’t an offer
It's the middle of every wage committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
Approval isn’t about the occupation
The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending
Every case in DOL's disclosure files carries a decision date, so a case still waiting is in none of these counts. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.

The window these figures cover

DOL's FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q4 and New Form FY2024 Q4 and FY2024 Q4 PERM disclosure files, unioned and de-duplicated by case number: 373,939 cases. Every case in them carries a decision, so nothing here counts what’s still pending. How each figure is built, and what it can and can't answer, is set out in the methodology.

Weighing an offer?

Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.

Setting one?

All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.

Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

Employers and firms: Derived from the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest