$6.92 between the bottom tenth and the top tenth: the spread inside a St. Louis home care wage
One metro, one occupation, and a wage that runs from $13.08 to $20.00. Third widest of the 25 largest metros.
The median is one number. The survey also publishes where the bottom tenth and the top tenth of aides sit, and in St. Louis those two are $6.92 apart: $13.08 at the 10th percentile, $20.00 at the 90th. Among the 25 largest metros in the country only Detroit, at $8.37, and Austin, at $7.14, have a wider gap.
That gap is why a single quoted rate in this metro tells you so little about the person who will show up. The wage under it could be near the floor or more than half again as high: the top tenth here earns 53 percent more than the bottom tenth. Compare Los Angeles, the narrowest of the 25 at $1.37, where the bottom tenth and the median are the same figure. The wage does not move at all between the 10th and the 50th percentile there, so at least four aides in ten are paid exactly that.
Ranking by spread reshuffles the metro page completely. Detroit, 17th by median, is 1st here. Los Angeles, 13th by median, is last. St. Louis moves from 20th to 3rd. Same 25 metros, same file, different question.
| St. Louis, 10th percentile, hourly | $13.08 |
|---|---|
| St. Louis, median, hourly | $14.28 |
| St. Louis, 90th percentile, hourly | $20.00 |
| Spread, 90th minus 10th | $6.92 |
| Median spread across the 25 metros | $4.84 |
Occupation 31-1120, area 41180, BLS OEWS May 2024. The spread row is the 90th percentile minus the 10th and nothing else.
| # | Metro area | 10th | Median | 90th | Spread | # by median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $11.62 | $15.53 | $19.99 | $8.37 | 17 |
| 2 | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | $10.26 | $13.35 | $17.40 | $7.14 | 23 |
| 3 | St. Louis, MO-IL | $13.08 | $14.28 | $20.00 | $6.92 | 20 |
| 4 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $14.55 | $17.91 | $21.41 | $6.86 | 6 |
| 5 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $10.07 | $12.51 | $16.92 | $6.85 | 24 |
| 6 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $11.73 | $13.81 | $18.56 | $6.83 | 22 |
| 7 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $14.86 | $17.38 | $21.59 | $6.73 | 10 |
| 8 | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $18.14 | $21.31 | $24.68 | $6.54 | 2 |
| 9 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | $15.00 | $17.64 | $21.53 | $6.53 | 7 |
| 10 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $19.32 | $22.45 | $25.82 | $6.50 | 1 |
| 11 | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | $11.78 | $14.91 | $18.08 | $6.30 | 19 |
| 12 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | $13.19 | $14.20 | $18.91 | $5.72 | 21 |
| 13 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | $16.96 | $18.27 | $21.80 | $4.84 | 4 |
| 14 | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $9.91 | $10.97 | $14.71 | $4.80 | 25 |
| 15 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | $14.52 | $17.54 | $19.12 | $4.60 | 8 |
| 16 | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $16.88 | $17.24 | $21.38 | $4.50 | 11 |
| 17 | Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | $17.08 | $18.17 | $21.50 | $4.42 | 5 |
| 18 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | $13.94 | $15.66 | $18.13 | $4.19 | 16 |
| 19 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $15.97 | $17.47 | $20.02 | $4.05 | 9 |
| 20 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | $14.04 | $15.48 | $17.90 | $3.86 | 18 |
| 21 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | $14.14 | $15.86 | $17.87 | $3.73 | 15 |
| 22 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $17.92 | $19.13 | $21.63 | $3.71 | 3 |
| 23 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $16.85 | $16.85 | $18.81 | $1.96 | 12 |
| 24 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $16.00 | $16.00 | $17.77 | $1.77 | 14 |
| 25 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $16.64 | $16.64 | $18.01 | $1.37 | 13 |
In three California metros the 10th percentile and the median are the same figure. That is what the file says; this desk prints it and does not explain it. St. Louis is set in the second colour.
How to read a spread
A wide spread says the metro pays very different wages under the same occupation code. It does not say why. The survey does not record experience, shift, employer type, or whether the top tenth is on a home health payroll doing work adjacent to a clinic while the bottom tenth is doing non-medical work in a living room. Code 31-1120 holds both kinds of aide, and this page cannot pull them apart.
Subtraction and division rank differently. Rank on the ratio of 90th to 10th instead of the difference and St. Louis is 6th of 25, not 3rd, while Dallas moves up from 5th to 3rd. This desk ranks on the difference because it is in dollars, and a budget is in dollars. It says so here so you can disagree.
It is not a price range. No quote runs from $13.08 to $20.00. The wage underneath a quote might. This desk prints no agency rate, since no public dataset records one and the commercial survey that does keeps its tables under licence, and it will not turn a percentile into a price with a multiplier.