Living wages and retention of homecare workers in San Francisco

This study records the impact on workforce retention of the nearly doubling of wages for homecare workers in San Francisco County over a 52-month period. Using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis the author finds that the annual retention rate of new providers rose from 39 percent to 74 percent following significant wage and benefit increases and that a $1 increase in the wage rate from $8 an hour-the national average wage for homecare-would increase retention by 17 percentage points. The author also shows that adding health insurance increases the retention rate by 21 percentage points.