Full implementation will take five years, when wages increased to between $19 to $27 per hour.
Workers employed after July 1 will receive wages based on qualifications.
For Ms Bartlett, on the minimum wage with no qualifications and more than 12 years' experience, her rate will go from $15.75 to $23.50 on July 1. In five years her rate would be $27 an hour - a total increase of 71 per cent.
Napier home support worker Hedda Atkins said industrial action for higher wages was not embraced in the sector "because people out there need care so badly".
She said it was important for workers to feel valued, which the increased pay helped address, but it also addressed the problem of financial survival.
The sector was becoming more important as the number of elderly people increased and better wages would lead to better care, she said.
"People looking after others will have much more knowledge and understanding, bringing our industry up to a level that is so important for elderly. They need proper care."
Unions commended the Government for agreeing to negotiate the settlement offer rather than spend years litigating.
E Tu assistant national secretary John Ryall said the pay rise would end poverty wages for the mainly female workforce "and set them on the path to a better life".
New Zealand Nurses Organisation industrial services manager Cee Payne said the settlement delivered pay rates reflecting the skills and importance of the work.
"This will build public confidence that high-quality care will be delivered to our families' loved ones in our rest homes and hospitals."
Et Tu Hawke's Bay organiser Thomas O'Neill said the settlement his union helped broker was welcome but "well overdue".
He said while National wrote a framework for equal pay it took decades for it to fund it.
He cited the 2012 report by Human Rights Commission equal employment opportunities commissioner Dr Judy McGregor, written after she worked undercover as a care worker. It condemned the sector as a "form of modern-day slavery" that knowingly exploited the goodwill of women.
He said wages in the sector were historically low because it was once work done by women voluntarily and remained undervalued.