St. Louis metroUpdated September 12, 2026
Most St. Louis home care websites will not say what an hour costs, and this desk prints no agency price either. But an agency can still be honest about money before you sign: how its rate is built, whether there is a minimum shift, whether the first visit is free. We read seven agencies' own websites for exactly that, and ranked them by how plainly each one talks about money.
Each agency carries its real Google figures and a label from its own website. We score none of them.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
The only agency here with a dedicated pricing page. No rate, but the mechanism: hourly pricing "does not change based on care types, but on the length of care visits," and starting "should never require any deposits or service length commitments." A free discovery visit comes first, and it names the payers it does not take: Medicaid, Medicare and consumer-directed services.
The most-reviewed agency proper in the dataset. Its FAQ answers the minimum outright: "No, we have no minimum hours." Its homepage says "same price for days, nights, evenings, and weekends" and "no long-term contracts required." Pricing follows a free consultation and assessment. The rate itself is not on the site.
The other agency that puts its minimum on the page: service runs "from as little as a four-hour visit up to 24 hours a day." Pricing "is based on the level of care needed," the assessment is complimentary, and the FAQ is direct that its private duty services are not covered by Medicare. Rates are for the phone.
Its St. Louis FAQ is the only page we read that prints an hourly dollar range, framed as what area agencies typically charge, not as Amada's own rate. We do not reprint it: an unsourced metro-wide range is the number we refuse to turn into data. Credit for raising the subject, and a free consultation.
A whole page on ways to pay, from long-term care insurance to Veterans Aid and Attendance, without its own price. Its FAQ says services are "typically billed on an hourly basis" and sends you to the local office for "the exact rates." No minimum is stated, and the assessment is not described as free.
A contracted provider of Missouri Medicaid and Veterans services, and clear about it. Visits run per task, hourly or live-in, with a free consultation. The one dollar figure on its site is a caregiver wage, not a client rate. For a household paying entirely out of pocket it is the least direct fit here.
A free consultation is promised within 24 hours. On money its St. Louis pages are silent: no rate, no minimum, no payer sources. A finding, not a fault, and why a 122-review file sits seventh here.
Whatever any of these agencies quotes you, one number inside it was actually measured.
Median hourly wage · home health and personal care aides · St. Louis metro
$14.28
A wage, measured across 42,390 aides. Not a rate, not a quote.
| Bottom tenth, hourly | $13.08 |
|---|---|
| Median, hourly | $14.28 |
| Top tenth, hourly | $20.00 |
| Median, annual | $29,700 |
| Aides counted in the metro | 42,390 |
| Average weekly wage, home care payroll, St. Louis County | $763 |
BLS OEWS May 2024 and QCEW 2024 Q4. Against the 25 largest US metros, St. Louis pays 20th of 25; against the 8 metros filed under Missouri, 7th of 8.
What this desk will not print
Agency prices. No public dataset contains them, and we will not turn a wage into a price with a multiplier.
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Nothing about anyone's health belongs in this form.
The federal wage and payroll pages this desk was built on
Cut from the same Google Maps pull, September 12, 2026
Answered with the wage data, never with an agency price.
No public dataset says. The one measured number underneath every quote is the $14.28 median aide wage; a rate sits above it by an amount no public file publishes. Ask each agency for its rate in writing.
The wage is the only measured line inside the rate. Above it sit the employer's 7.65 percent payroll tax, per the IRS, plus insurance, supervision, scheduling and margin, which nothing public breaks out. More here.
Hours drive the month. At the median wage, the wage line alone for a four-hour visit is $57.12 before employer cost or margin, and needing two hours still means paying for four. See shift types.
The rate for your shift type, any minimum visit, any first-visit charge, and how evenings and plan changes reprice. Get it in writing; here is the checklist.
Sometimes, in part. A program can pay a share of an invoice; it does not change the wage underneath it. Ask which payer sources an agency takes. The offsets page covers each program.