Become a companion
Get paid properly to be good company.
Spend an afternoon with someone who'd like the company — a walk, the shopping, a crossword, a lift to an appointment. You see the work, the area, the limits and the money before you accept anything, and passing costs you nothing.
What it pays
You keep 80%, and you know the number first.
Every offer arrives with the pay already worked out — the hours, the travel allowance and any evening or weekend uplift, in one figure. Nothing is deducted afterwards.
Weekday base
$25.60
Per hour, before tips
Evenings
$30.72
+20% outside 8am–9pm
Weekends
$29.44
+15% Saturday and Sunday
Travel is paid separately
A travel allowance is added on top of the hourly pay and shown in the offer, so a visit further out isn't a worse visit.
Tips are entirely yours
We take nothing from a tip. It isn't part of the 80% split and never appears in our revenue.
Paid out weekly
Itemised by visit. Earnings shown in the app before payout are labelled as a projection, because that's what they are.
Figures are United States rates in USD, at the standard family rate of $32/hr. When a family is on a monthly plan their rate is lower, so the pay on those visits is lower too — the offer always shows the real number for that visit before you accept. Companions are independent contractors.
The work
Company, and a hand with things.
This is deliberately not care work. Knowing where the line sits protects you as much as it protects them.
You might be asked to
- Conversation, and being genuinely present
- Walks, errands, groceries, the library
- Going along to appointments and taking notes
- Helping with a phone, a tablet or a form
You must never
- No medication, wound care or nursing of any kind
- No bathing, dressing, toileting or lifting
- No handling anyone's bank card or cash
- No visit that has changed into something else — call support instead
Declining or ending a visit for any of these reasons never counts against your standing.
Getting approved
About two weeks, most of it waiting on a record check.
You can start the whole thing from the app. The two steps marked with a check are the ones a family is told you passed.
- Day 1
You sign up in the app
A phone number, your details, and the neighbourhoods you can reach. No office visit and no paper form.
- Day 1
Identity, against government ID
A photo of your ID and a face check against it. This is the step that makes you a known person rather than a profile.
- Days 2–7
Criminal record check and references
A police record check appropriate to working with vulnerable adults, plus two references we actually call.
- Week 2
First aid, and the boundaries session
Current first-aid certification, and a short session on what companion work is and where it stops. Both expire and have to be renewed.
- Then
Offers start arriving
Only visits you're eligible for — your area, your languages, the work you've said yes to. You see the pay before you accept.
What you'll need
No care qualification required.
We are not hiring nurses or personal support workers — this is companionship, and the qualification that matters is being someone an older person is glad to see. Students, retirees, people between things and people who just like older people all do this well.
Requirements that expire — first aid, the record check — stop new offers automatically when they lapse, and the app warns you well before that happens.
- 18 or older, and allowed to work in the country
- A smartphone you can be reached on
- Government photo ID for the identity check
- A police record check for vulnerable-sector work
- Current first-aid certification, or willingness to get it
- Two references we can call
Get the app
Everything happens in the companion app.
Signing up, the documents, the face check, the offers, the visit itself and the earnings. There is no other place to go.
The app isn't published yet — we're in closed pilot in Toronto and the GTA. Write to companions@hireagrandkid.com and we'll bring you into the pilot group.
