Key Takeaways
- • Cornell University's Worker Institute released a study documenting poor working conditions at five private-equity-owned home care agencies across New York, based on interviews with 40 subjects including 25 home care workers conducted between April 2025 and March 2026.
- • Home care workers at these agencies earn $17.50 to $22 per hour (typically $18–$19), face unstable scheduling with most securing fewer than 25 hours weekly, and frequently perform unpaid work including overtime and travel between clients.
- • Private equity ownership has perpetuated existing industry problems and introduced technology systems that impede worker-manager communication and client-worker matching, according to the study's authors.
- • The research included workers from the Buffalo-Rochester region and New York City, with limited benefits availability and difficulty accessing managers when clients required immediate assistance cited as recurring challenges.
Summary
A new Cornell University study released through the university's ILR School has documented systemic working-condition deficiencies at five private-equity-owned home care agencies across New York State. The Worker Institute conducted 40 interviews—25 with home care workers and 15 with industry insiders including union representatives, researchers, government officials, and a private equity consultant—over a 12-month period from April 2025 through March 2026. The sample included ten workers from the Buffalo-Rochester region and 15 from the New York City area.
Compensation and scheduling emerged as primary pain points. Workers reported hourly wages ranging from $17.50 to $22, with most earning $18–$19 per hour. The vast majority struggled to secure stable full-time or near-full-time work, with most piecing together fewer than 20–25 hours weekly. Hours fluctuate based on client demand, creating income volatility. Beyond low base pay, workers described minimal benefits and a persistent pattern of unpaid labor: many reported staying beyond scheduled shifts to assist clients without compensation, and unpaid travel time between client visits further eroded effective hourly earnings.
The study identifies private equity ownership as a complicating factor in home care sector labor dynamics. Rather than introducing improvements, the authors found that PE ownership often reinforced existing industry problems while adding technological systems that degraded operational efficiency. Specifically, the study notes that technology implementations made it harder for workers to communicate with management and for agencies to match workers with appropriate client assignments. Workers also cited difficulty reaching managers when clients faced urgent needs.
The research is qualitative in nature—based on worker interviews rather than a comprehensive statewide survey or direct measurement of patient outcomes. The report does not identify the five agencies by name and provides no separate breakdown of findings between the Buffalo-Rochester and New York City cohorts.
Compensation and scheduling emerged as primary pain points. Workers reported hourly wages ranging from $17.50 to $22, with most earning $18–$19 per hour. The vast majority struggled to secure stable full-time or near-full-time work, with most piecing together fewer than 20–25 hours weekly. Hours fluctuate based on client demand, creating income volatility. Beyond low base pay, workers described minimal benefits and a persistent pattern of unpaid labor: many reported staying beyond scheduled shifts to assist clients without compensation, and unpaid travel time between client visits further eroded effective hourly earnings.
The study identifies private equity ownership as a complicating factor in home care sector labor dynamics. Rather than introducing improvements, the authors found that PE ownership often reinforced existing industry problems while adding technological systems that degraded operational efficiency. Specifically, the study notes that technology implementations made it harder for workers to communicate with management and for agencies to match workers with appropriate client assignments. Workers also cited difficulty reaching managers when clients faced urgent needs.
The research is qualitative in nature—based on worker interviews rather than a comprehensive statewide survey or direct measurement of patient outcomes. The report does not identify the five agencies by name and provides no separate breakdown of findings between the Buffalo-Rochester and New York City cohorts.
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