Updated
PERM occupation, SOC 39-9021, #269 of 1,410 by filings
Personal Care Aides
- Biggest sponsor
- Valley VNA Health System, Inc dba VNA Senior Ca · 20% of its filings
- Busiest state
- WI · 20% of its filings
- Major group
- Personal care and service · SOC 39
Weighing an offer for this job?
Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.
Median wage
$29,120
all PERM $103,272
Filings
128
#269 of 1,410
Approval
67.2%
field 96.8%
Median days
446
31 faster than the field
What it pays
Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.
Median offered wage
$29,120above 7%
Approval rate
67.2%ahead of 0.9%
Median days to decision
446 daysahead of 70%
Each bar counts occupations at that value. More
Who files it
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.
Sponsors filing it
- Valley VNA Health System, Inc dba VNA Senior Ca 25 filings
- Caplan Home Care LLC DBA Home Care Assistance 23 filings
- HOOSIER CARE INC. 15 filings
- HOME CARE THERAPIES, LLC DBA HORIZON HEALTHCARE 14 filings
- Medside Corporation 12 filings
- ALTERNATIVE HOME CARE, LTD. 7 filings
How this is counted
The employers with the most applications under this code. 96 of 128 filings, 75% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Law Office of Nhu Muon 41 filings · 100.0% approved
- Maatuka AlHeeti Emkes LLC 15 filings
- Hammond Neal Moore, LLC 14 filings
- Gambini Law 10 filings
- Law Offices of Jonelle Ocloo LLC 4 filings
- BRIKHO LAW OFFICE PLLC 3 filings
How this is counted
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 87 of 128 filings, 68% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- Wisconsin 25
- Texas 24
- Illinois 22
- New York 15
- California 14
- Georgia 12
How this is counted
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 112 of 128 filings.
Where the work is
- Neenah, WI 25
- Addison, TX 23
- Plainview, NY 13
- Sandy Springs and other unanticipated cities in GA, GA 12
- Champaign, IL 7
- Westmont, IL 7
How this is counted
The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 87 of 128 filings.
- Every sponsor that files it, by state, approval rate, offered wage and time to a decision
- Every filing for it, PERM, wage requests and H-1B, case by case
Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023
From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.
Country of citizenship
- Philippines 739
- South Korea 96
- Nigeria 54
- Bangladesh 48
- Nepal 44
- Vietnam 39
Worker's education
- None 638
- High School 290
- Bachelor's 266
- Associate's 35
- Other 33
- Master's 21
Visa held when filed
- NOT IN USA 285
- F-1 86
- B-2 71
- E-2 23
- J-1 14
- B-1 11
Schools
- NORTHERN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 6
- CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY 5
- LICEO DE CAGAYAN UNIVERSITY 5
- N/A 5
- NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL 5
- OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY 5
Fields of study
- NURSING 110
- ACADEMIC 40
- GENERAL EDUCATION 36
- HIGH SCHOOL 35
- N/A 33
- NA 30
The job itself
What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.
- Oshkosh-Neenah, WINeenah
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TXAddison
- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJPlainview
- Champaign-Urbana, ILChampaign
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-INWestmont
- middle half of pay (BLS)
- median
- 10th to 90th percentile
- DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
| Area | BLS median | Level I | Level II | Level III | Level IV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oshkosh-Neenah, WI | — | $21,694 | $24,086 | $26,478 | $28,870 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | — | $17,763 | $19,989 | $22,235 | $24,461 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | — | $27,269 | $29,619 | $31,949 | $34,299 |
| Champaign-Urbana, IL | — | $22,630 | $25,584 | $28,538 | $31,491 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | — | $24,710 | $26,645 | $28,558 | $30,493 |
How these figures fit together
BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.
The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More
Against other jobs
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 269 of 1,410 by volume: 268 filed at least as many filings, and 1,141 filed no more.
- Just above
- Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria 130 filings
- Just below
- Regulatory Affairs Managers 127 filings
Other personal care and service roles
Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More
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.
- #260 Childcare Workers 139 filings · 12 denied
- #257 Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists 140 filings · 11 denied
- #228 Nannies 176 filings · 29 denied
- #339 Amusement and Recreation Attendants 83 filings · 2 denied
- #350 Nonfarm Animal Caretakers 81 filings · 37 denied
- #355 First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers 79 filings · 2 denied
The same job on H-1B
1 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $35,360 a year; the middle half ran $35,360 to $35,360. By state and year in the salary explorer.
Notes on these numbers
Reading the wage
A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.
What the median 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. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.
What these numbers don't say
4 notes
- The code is the identity
- This one is SOC 39-9021. 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 all 128 wages 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, so nothing here is a property of Personal Care Aides. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- All 128 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is Valley VNA Health System, Inc dba VNA Senior Ca. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built
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.
Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load
O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year
BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring
BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn
DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july
What each source includes
Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.
Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.
O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.
BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.
BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.
DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.
Cite this page
Waiting on a PERM case?
- When it'll likely be decided
- An email when DOL moves it