What Round-the-Clock Care Would Cost in the United States
The Mexico team comes to about a quarter of the United States figure.
Picture a man named Jasper, 69. His wife wakes several times each night, and he has not had a full night of sleep in months. He asked his daughter to help him price a caregiver for every hour.
"What is the number?" he asked her.
"Let us multiply," she said.
They started with the CareScout 2025 survey, which put the median hourly rate for a non-medical caregiver at US$35. The survey's own yearly figure assumes 44 hours a week, which is about US$6,673 a month. Round the clock is a different count.
| Step | Arithmetic | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Hours in a week | 24 x 7 | 168 |
| Hours in a month of 30 days | 24 x 30 | 720 |
| One month at US$35 | 720 x US$35 | US$25,200 |
| One year at US$35 | US$25,200 x 12 | US$302,400 |
| One month at US$45 (Washington State median) | 720 x US$45 | US$32,400 |
| What US$12,000 buys at US$35 | US$12,000 / US$35 | 343 hours, about 80 a week |
| What US$15,000 buys at US$35 | US$15,000 / US$35 | 429 hours, about 100 a week |
So a monthly spend of US$12,000 to US$15,000 covers about half of the 168 hours in a week. It would not reach the nights.
Jasper's daughter then put in the figure from my family. I paid 2,000 pesos for one 12-hour shift. With two shifts a day, three caregivers rotating, I wrote that team down as about US$6,000 a month when the dollar bought 20 pesos. At today's 17.96 it is closer to US$6,700.
| Mexico, my family | United States at US$35 | |
|---|---|---|
| One 12-hour shift | 2,000 pesos, about US$111 | 12 x US$35 = US$420 |
| One day, two shifts | 4,000 pesos, about US$223 | US$840 |
| 30 days | 120,000 pesos, about US$6,700 | US$25,200 |
The Mexico team comes to about a quarter of the United States figure. One shift costs a little under four times as much in the United States column. These are my own prices and a national median, not a like-for-like survey.
A single live-in worker is a different model. One commercial site reported about US$21,840 a month for live-in or full-time care in 2024, at US$30 an hour. A Mexican price page gives 18,000 to 32,000 pesos a month for one live-in worker, which is about US$1,000 to US$1,780. One person also sleeps, so the two are not the same service.
Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care. Families usually combine savings, income and, in some cases, insurance or Medicaid.
You could…
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Multiply the hours you need by the local hourly rate before you look at any quote.
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Ask an agency for separate prices for awake nights and sleeping nights.
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Compare the total with a care home quote, and ask what the home covers at night.
What did you find when you multiplied? Share it here. Someone reading may be holding a quote they cannot read yet.
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Sources: CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 and Washington State release (March 2026); Caring.com (December 2024); The Senior List; cuantomecuesta.com Mexico (May 2026); Xe currency tables, 6 October 2026; Medicare.gov. Our own prices are what we paid.
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