This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.
Before anyone starts, confirm the caregiver is on California’s Home Care Aide Registry, verify the background check yourself, and put the whole arrangement in writing.
Those three steps take an afternoon and they prevent most of what goes wrong later. The rest of this guide covers the decision underneath them: whether to go through an agency or hire someone directly, what that choice costs you in paperwork and liability, and what belongs in the agreement you both sign.
Most families in Pasadena arrive at this question in a hurry, usually after a hospital stay, a fall, or a phone call from a neighbour. Hurrying is understandable and often unavoidable. Skipping the checks is the part that turns a difficult month into a considerably worse one, and it is also the part that takes the least time to do properly.
Agency or Private Caregiver: What Actually Changes for You?
What an Agency Carries
The paperwork side matters more than people expect. With an agency you pay the agency, which takes a percentage and handles payroll, scheduling and taxes. You are trading some hourly rate for the absence of a payroll system in your kitchen.
California added another layer in 2025. The state’s Cal/AIHA guidance on SB 1350 explains that from 1 July 2025 the law extends workplace safety protections to workers employed by a business to perform household domestic services, and that in that arrangement the third-party agency is considered the employer. A household hiring a caregiver directly for ordinary domestic tasks is exempt from that coverage.
What Falls on You With a Private Hire
Insurance is the part families overlook. Agencies insure their workers, and you may be liable for an on-the-job accident unless you buy liability insurance that covers the caregiver. Workers’ compensation insurance is required in some states, and some legal experts recommend it in all of them.
Then there is the Tuesday problem: sick days, vacation or a fast departure for a new job can upend everyone’s schedule, and you have no fallback plan unless you create it. Ask yourself now who covers a shift at short notice, because you will need the answer within the first two months.
What Does Hiring a Caregiver Cost You in Taxes?
Federal unemployment tax works on a different trigger. The same publication states that paying total cash wages of $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter of 2025 or 2026 to household employees means paying FUTA tax at 6 percent of cash wages, and that you must not withhold FUTA from the employee’s wages but pay it from your own funds.
When the Threshold Does Not Apply
Calling a regular caregiver an independent contractor to avoid this does not hold up. The arrangement is judged on the actual working relationship, not the label on the invoice, and getting it wrong leaves the household owing the employment taxes anyway.
How Do I Check a Caregiver's Background in California?
The Home Care Aide Registry
Anyone can check a caregiver’s status. The department’s registry search asks for the aide’s first name, last name and Personnel Identification number, often written as PER ID or HCA ID. Ask the caregiver for that number at the interview. Someone who is properly registered will have it and will hand it over without fuss.
A profile on a caregiver marketplace is not the same thing as a registry entry, and neither is a photograph of a certificate sent by message. Marketplaces vary widely in what they verify, and none of them replace the state record. Run the search yourself and look at the result on your own screen before the first shift is scheduled.
The National Sex Offender Check
Run the search using the legal name on the identity document rather than the name the person goes by day to day, since a nickname or a married name will return nothing useful. Ask to see photo identification at the interview, write the name down exactly as it appears, and search that spelling as well as any variants.
Checking References Without Feeling Rude
Pay attention to the claim that appears in almost every conversation, which is some version of caring for a grandparent for several years. It may be entirely true. It is also unverifiable, and it is not a substitute for a reference from someone who paid this person to do this work.
What Should a Home Care Agreement Include?
Keep the language plain and the scope specific. Bathing, dressing, meal preparation, laundry, driving and medication reminders are all different tasks with different implications, and spelling them out protects the caregiver at least as much as it protects the family. Nobody has to guess what was included once it is on paper.
One practical note on records. California’s Wage Order 15, which governs household occupations and was last revised in November 2025, requires that all required records be kept on file by the employer for at least three years. Start that file on day one rather than reconstructing it later.
| Section of the agreement | What to write down |
|---|---|
| Duties | The specific tasks, and anything explicitly outside the role |
| Schedule | Days, hours, start and end times, and how shift changes are requested |
| Pay | Hourly rate, pay dates, overtime terms, and how time is recorded |
| Driving | Whose car, proof of a current licence and insurance, and mileage |
| Time off | Notice for vacation and sick days, and who covers the shift |
| Records | Daily log, medication reminder log, and where they are kept |
| Ending the arrangement | Notice required on each side, with and without cause |
California Rules That Apply Even to One Caregiver
That definition matters because it sets which rules apply. A caregiver who also cleans the house, cooks for the family and runs errands may not be a personal attendant at all, which changes the wage and hour picture. Write the duties down honestly rather than to fit a label.
Minimum Wage and Live-In Arrangements
None of this is unusual or hostile to caregivers. It is the same body of rules any employer follows, scaled down to one household, and following it is what keeps a good working relationship from souring over a misunderstanding about hours.
Protecting Valuables, Medications and Accounts
Frame it as ordinary household practice rather than a precaution aimed at one person, because that is what it is. A professional caregiver expects it and is usually relieved by it, since clear boundaries protect them from suspicion just as effectively as they protect the family from loss. Say it out loud on the first day.
Warning Signs Worth Knowing
The department also flags signals about the caregiver rather than the older adult. A caregiver who appears angry, indifferent or aggressive, or who has a history of substance abuse, criminal behaviour, mental illness or family violence, is listed there for a reason.
Where to Report a Concern
You do not need proof to make a report, and you are not accusing anyone by making one. If the concern involves a licensed facility rather than a private home, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman hotline on 1-800-231-4024 is the right number.
If Dementia Is Part of the Picture
Ask for an example rather than a claim. How did you handle someone who refused a shower, or who insisted on going home while already at home, or who accused you of taking something. The answer tells you far more than any certificate will.
Training Worth Asking About
If the level of care needed has moved beyond what one person at home can cover, that is worth naming out loud rather than solving with longer shifts. Memory Care vs Assisted Living: A Pasadena Family Guide lays out the comparison.
Getting Help Locally
A Better Solution In Home Care works across the north Los Angeles County area and offers personal care, homemaker support, post-discharge care and programmes for dementia and chronic conditions, which covers the common reasons a family starts looking in the first place.
When the question has shifted from who comes to the house to whether the house still works, a placement agency looks at the whole picture. Assisted Living Connections covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties and works with families through that decision.
The Medical Side
Two smaller things belong in the caregiver’s brief from the first week. It helps to know what a walk-in clinic in Pasadena can and cannot handle before an urgent evening arrives, and if mobility is limited, the early warning signs of pressure sores are exactly the kind of thing a caregiver spots days before anyone else does.
Sources Used
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website – U.S. Department of Justice
Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide – Internal Revenue Service (2026)
California Extends Workplace Health, Safety Protections to Domestic Service Workers – AIHA
Report Elder Abuse – Long-Term Care Ombudsman – California Department of Aging
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I hire a caregiver who is not on the Home Care Aide Registry?
Registration applies to affiliated and independent home care aides under California’s home care law, and a caregiver who is not listed has not been through that background check process. Ask why, and treat a vague answer as an answer.
How much notice should a caregiver give before leaving?
Two weeks is the common expectation, but only if it is written into the agreement. Put the same notice period on both sides so it reads as fair rather than one-directional.
What happens if the caregiver is injured in the house?
With an agency, the agency handles it. With a private hire, it can fall to the household, which is why liability and workers’ compensation coverage come up before the first shift rather than after an accident.
Should the caregiver be allowed to drive my parents to appointments?
Only with a current licence, current insurance and a written agreement on whose vehicle is used and how mileage is handled. Check the licence yourself rather than accepting a description of it.
Is it reasonable to install a camera?
California law places real limits on recording, particularly audio and particularly in private areas such as bedrooms and bathrooms. If you are considering it, get advice on the rules first and tell the caregiver, since a disclosed camera causes far fewer problems than a discovered one.
What if my parents refuse to accept a caregiver at all?
That is common and usually about control rather than the caregiver. Starting with a short weekly shift for a specific task, rather than full days of general help, tends to get further than a longer argument.
