by Jeanette Janota
Two 2003 salary reports of the annual and hourly salaries of speech-language pathologists and audiologists show a steady rise in salaries from 2001. Annual salaries for SLPs rose from $45,000 to $52,600, and audiologists' salaries increased from $50,000 to $55,000, according to the latest data gathered by ASHA for the 2003 Omnibus Survey. Those salaries reflect data for a calendar year of 11-12 months.
The survey was sent to a sample of 7,500 members in the United States with proportionate representation of certified SLPs, certified audiologists, dually certified clinicians, and non-certified members and those in the process of obtaining certification. Of those surveyed, 58% or 4,387 responded.
The median annual salary for SLPs (on an 11-month or 12-month contract) was $52,600. Audiologists earned a median annual salary of $55,000. Hourly salaries are as follows:
- Median for SLPs employed for 26 or more hours per week: $28.33
- median for SLPs employed for 25 or fewer hours per week: $40
- median for audiologists working 26 or more hours per week: $25
- median for audiologists working 25 or fewer hours per week: $30
Degrees
Annual salaries for those with doctorates were higher than for those with only a master's. In 2003, SLPs with doctoral degrees in the professions reported a median salary of $57,114; those with a master's reported a median salary of $47,000.
Audiologists with highest degrees in the professions reported median annual salaries for an academic year of $47,000 with a master's and $56,500 with a doctorate. For a calendar year, their median salaries were $52,000 and $70,000, respectively.
The difference between those with a doctorate in the professions and those with a master's was $10,114 for SLPs and $15,000 for audiologists (computed from combined academic and calendar-year salaries).
Geography and Locale
Both annual and hourly salaries vary by geographic region and locale. Annual salaries for SLPs were highest in the Northeast for academic-year employment ($54,000) and highest in the West on a calendar-year basis ($60,000). Audiologists reported the highest median annual salaries for an academic year in the Midwest ($50,000) and the highest calendar-year salaries in the West ($60,000).
Hourly salaries for SLPs were highest in the Northeast for either a workweek of 25 hours or less ($56 per hour) or for a longer workweek ($34 per hour). For audiologists, hourly salaries topped out in the Northeast ($40) for a workweek of 25 hours or less, and in the West for longer workweeks ($28.83).
In terms of locale, annual salaries for SLPs, audiologists, and dually certified clinicians were lowest in rural areas. Hourly salaries for audiologists tended to be lowest in metropolitan/urban areas.
Employment Facility
Annual salaries were $58,000 per calendar year for audiologists in full-time private practice, $53,350 for SLPs, and $83,500 for dually certified individuals. For school-based clinicians, annual academic-year salaries were $45,000 for SLPs, $47,000 for audiologists, and $50,000 for dually certified professionals. Median annual salaries based on a calendar year were higher in colleges and universities than in other types of facilities for audiologists ($68,000) and highest for SLPs in residential health care facilities ($62,000).
For professionals paid on an hourly basis, median salaries in full-time private practice were $25 for audiologists and $60 for SLPs. School-based SLPs employed for no more than 25 hours a week reported a median wage of $50 per hour, and those employed for more hours earned $40 per hour.
Audiologists employed in nonresidential health care facilities for up to 25 hours a week earned $30 per hour; those working more hours earned $23.54.
A Valuable Career Tool
ASHA's salary reports give you valid, reliable data that you can use to compare salaries, identify geographic regions or types of facilities where you might like to work, and help you plan your career. They're useful, too, in recruiting students into the professions and in developing private practice business plans. Members who work in schools have used the reports to successfully lobby for salary supplements for certification in some states.
The salary reports are used by employees and employers alike. Ruth McNatt, who hires from both professions as controller of the nonprofit HEAR Center in Pasadena, CA, relies on the omnibus data. "ASHA's salary reports are what we use in determining audiologists' and speech-language pathologists' salaries," she said.
During the more than 20 years that ASHA has been collecting salary data, salaries have increased by about 250%. In 1981 the average salary for a certified SLP was $18,000; for a certified audiologist, nearly $21,000.
Visit ASHA's Web site at www.asha.org/about/membership-certification/omnibus.htm to access both 2003 salary reports (for annual and hourly salaries). In addition to material included in this article, the reports address years of experience and employment function.
Jeanette Janota is ASHA's senior research associate and statistician. Contact her by e-mail at jjanota@asha.org
Looking Ahead: The 2004 Surveys
ASHA's Omnibus Survey has been the source of salary data for the Association for more than 20 years, but that is changing. Beginning this year, the questions typically asked in the omnibus will be combined with questions from other surveys, resulting in specialized surveys focused by profession and facility. A series of four such surveys will rotate, two each year. Look for the first one later this spring. It will be mailed to a random sample of certified speech-language pathologists who work in the schools and will gather data on salaries as well as on other topics of interest to school-based professionals.
Remember that you are the most vital link in gathering data. The reports are compiled from data members provide, so the most important thing you can do is to complete ASHA surveys if you receive one. Surveys are confidential. For more information about ASHA research, visit www.asha.org or contact Sarah Slater at sslater@asha.org or through the Action Center at 800-498-2071, ext. 4149.
Cite this article as: Janota, J. (2004, February 3). Annual, Hourly Salary Figures Available. The ASHA Leader, Vol. 9., No. 2, pp. 1, 10.
Reprinted from the ASHA Leader
