invisible but essential women

“I am a home helper. And today, I can’t get out of it anymore. Every day, I travel miles to help people in need. My car is essential to my work. However, fuel prices are exploding… and my mileage allowances have not changed! With a salary below the minimum wage, what to do? »

Here is what we can read in the online petition launched by Manuela Cabot Salar, 58 years old, a carer for twenty-five years in Libournais, in Gironde. Because the cup is full in the profession, among whom this call has resonated strongly. “The 600,000 home helpers in France are poor workers, 93% women, with an average age of 45, and are little recognized,” explains economist François-Xavier Devetter. However, these professions require real technical and social skills. They also wear out the body and mind. There are more work accidents in this profession than in construction. »

These women take care of the elderly, sick or disabled, carry heavy loads, and are sometimes mistreated. Two thirds of them have a part-time contract and earn 900 euros on average, while a third works full time for a minimum wage. A good part of the hours are spent on unpaid journeys. And for those who use their car, the cost of gas matters.

“We run all the time!”

“We have 40 euro cents reimbursed per kilometer,” says Manuela Cabot Salar, at the origin of the petition. And the trips to go to the first client and end the day don’t count. This is also the case if there is more than an hour of beating between two clients. This is counted as free time. We can do 500 to 600 km per week! And tractors on the road or time wasted parking in town are not expected. We run all the time. »

Added to this is an insidious “task shift”, observes François-Xavier Devetter. Caregivers often do the work of nursing assistants. They are on the front line of the aging population. So what keeps them going? The vocation to help others, the recognition read in their eyes, they respond.

“I did this job out of passion,” says Manuela. But today, we are being dehumanized, and the mistreatment we suffer will have repercussions on the elderly. » She, who is employed by a large group, Onela, regrets her former employer for fifteen years, the Familles Rurales association: “It was human. »

The sector suffers from a lack of public funding. Since the 2000s, the State has entrusted departments with the management of social policies without the necessary allocations. Structures are therefore struggling with tight budgets. Which encourages excesses in this lucrative sector. Some of them, however, try to defend an ethical model.

“I prefer to stay a little longer than rush my beneficiaries,” confides Lila, 42, of Kabyle origin, employee of Alenvi in ​​Bagneux (Hauts-de-Seine). I am very sensitive, I get attached! » Lila first worked for an unscrupulous agency, paid 8 euros per hour, without being able to adapt her schedule and forbidden from obtaining her colleagues’ numbers. A common strategy, which prevents employees from uniting. His current company, Alenvi, 91 employees, is more ethical and empowering.

Every morning, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., she is with Farida, 59, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. She helps him get up, wash himself and takes him for a walk in the green paths of Bagneux. “I hope you’ll sing like you did during the last walk,” she laughs, delicately untying Farida’s turban and braid.

Without a diploma, her life experience was enough, supported by training within her company: “I supported several people in my family in old age and illness,” she murmurs.

Bad memories in nursing homes

Same love of the profession among the employees of Z’aides Services, which brings together two agencies of 36 employees in Seine-et-Marne, in Lagny-sur-Marne and Crécy-la-Chapelle. Sarah, 49, a former ultra-toned worker who completed her care assistant diploma, is having fun. “My little morning couple, you’ll see, they’re very nice. And my lady of the evening, you will love it. At 97 years old, she is in her right mind! »

This morning, toilet and lunch for the gentleman, laundry to wash, hang out, change of sheets, cleaning of the bathroom, toilets, kitchen, lunch. Sarah works in a pretty house in Villiers-sur-Morin from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. two mornings a week.

“Has my husband finished eating?” » asks Colette, from her armchair in the living room. “It’s not a goose, I’m not force-feeding it to you!” » replies Sarah. “Oh, I’ve had it for seventy years, I’ll gladly lend it to you!” » smiles the lady, who then praises Sarah: “She takes care of us, she is charming, I let myself be spoiled…”

Augusta, 33, has just been hired at Z’aides services. This woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo is delighted, because her former work in a nursing home did not leave her with good memories: “The colleagues manipulated me, gave me lots of tasks…” She wants to get her diploma as an auxiliary, then as a nursing assistant.

“I like being in contact with older people. This is obvious to us who come from Africa. I know the technical gestures. You have to be organized, sociable, patient. We don’t just wash. We listen. I like to accompany someone in their last days. »

These pearls, like Lila, Sarah or Augusta, companies and associations are snapping up. Because the demand for care assistants is growing strongly and the supply is not keeping up.

People who sign their contract sometimes disappear into thin air. Facing old age, disability, elderly people’s toilets, is sometimes too difficult for them. As well as homes sometimes neglected for too long, because children often only call for help when the situation becomes serious. Without forgetting the schedules which change all the time, the compulsory last minute replacements to ensure continuity of service.

Others, lacking motivation, botch their work. “In these structures, there are the best and the worst,” emphasizes François-Xavier Devetter. The best: planning made in advance, taking into account the time and cost of transport; opportunities for exchange, development and training; psychologists, occupational therapists. And the worst: schedules given late, which change all the time; fragmented schedules…” How to recruit good professionals in these conditions?

300,000 people to recruit

The challenge is daunting as the population ages. Vincent Terrade, of the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy, a branch of Social Security created in 2004, estimates that it will be necessary to recruit 300,000 people by 2030. “In Haute-Garonne for example, there will be 56% more people to support, or 20,000 help to recruit… Seniors want to age at home. But the number of caregivers, chronically understaffed, is eroding. Already, we should retain those who are in office! »

The breakage rate during the trial period is 30%, according to France Travail. Some structures have improved their practices. “When I arrived in 2019, the situation was catastrophic,” says Octavie Gorlier, general director of Home Assistance in Rural Areas of the North, which manages 1,300 employees in 26 associations. There was 20% absenteeism. The isolated workers carried out one intervention after another. We have created teams in a geographical sector and participation in the senior support project: travel times have decreased, there is less stress and risk of accident and the satisfaction rate of beneficiaries has increased. » But the director believes that she will not be able to do more without political will.

On April 21, 2026, the State announced pump assistance for “heavy riders”. But the salary increase of 63 euros gross per month decided by the sector is currently blocked, with the departments and the State passing the buck to pay. And the government again postponed the Old Age Plan, announcing a national autonomy conference for September. An Arlesian who has been hanging around for years, to the great dismay of the caregivers and those being helped.