Characteristics of home care workers who leave their jobs: a cross-sectional study of job satisfaction and turnover in Washington State.

Attracting and retaining a stable and motivated home care workforce has become a top policy priority. We surveyed 402 former home care workers in Washington State. We compared these "leavers" to current home care workers recently surveyed. Those who left the profession were more highly educated, had higher household income, and were more likely to be White. Those newly employed have better benefits, wages, hours, and career mobility than in their home care jobs. The low status and poor pay of home care workers may result in the inability of the profession to retain those who face better prospects.