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Pay · 29-1127

Speech-Language Pathologists earn $97,870 a year at the midpoint

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The lowest tenth are paid about $62,900, the highest tenth about $134,160 — figures from the 2025 federal wage survey.

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$97,870median a year · United States
$47.05an hour $98,170average 183,390people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$77,73025th $97,870median $114,57075th
$62,90010th percentile $134,16090th percentile
$77,730a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$118,970best-paying state · California
$65,680lowest-paying state · South Dakota
+22%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $118,970 in California and $65,680 in South Dakota — a gap of $53,290 a year.

Speech-language pathologist earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Neighbouring work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Speech-Language Pathologists$97,870
Physical therapists$102,760+$4,890 Occupational therapists$100,330+$2,460 Respiratory therapists$82,280−$15,590

Speech-language pathologist pay rate, hourly to annual

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$97,864a year

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  • Evaluated hearing or speech and language test results, barium swallow results, or medical or background information to diagnose and plan treatment for speech, language, fluency, voice, or swallowing disorders.
  • Wrote reports and maintained proper documentation of information, such as client Medicaid or billing records or caseload activities, including the initial evaluation, treatment, progress, and discharge of clients.
  • Monitored patients' progress and adjusted treatments accordingly.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Place 130 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 84% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 128 Agricultural Engineers $98,590
  2. 129 Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary $98,070
  3. 130 Speech-Language Pathologists $97,870
  4. 131 Geography Teachers, Postsecondary $97,590
  5. 132 Registered nurses $97,550

Speech-language pathologist wages across the states

The 39 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.71 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $118,970 $79,750 $79,750 — $160,900 16,930
Colorado $110,750 $73,900 $73,900 — $164,520 4,420
Washington $105,550 $81,330 $81,330 — $132,630 3,570
Nevada $104,510 $63,180 $63,180 — $136,520 1,270
Oregon $102,660 $74,410 $74,410 — $143,000 1,600
New Jersey $101,560 $71,620 $71,620 — $167,230 6,840
Massachusetts $101,310 $71,030 $71,030 — $129,730 5,290
New York $100,610 $64,980 $64,980 — $157,920 15,310
Connecticut $100,110 $65,400 $65,400 — $130,290 2,390
Florida $99,990 $69,970 $69,970 — $122,050 10,080
Texas $99,910 $66,370 $66,370 — $132,990 19,120
Maryland $99,190 $63,480 $63,480 — $130,590 3,510
New Mexico $98,690 $61,630 $61,630 — $134,750 1,250
Arizona $97,800 $68,990 $68,990 — $130,550 3,390
Georgia $96,760 $59,800 $59,800 — $125,550 4,030
Virginia $96,250 $66,890 $66,890 — $132,400 4,460
Illinois $95,080 $60,870 $60,870 — $123,800 9,040
Ohio $93,300 $61,840 $61,840 — $125,330 7,270
Pennsylvania $92,960 $60,650 $60,650 — $130,780 6,570
Utah $91,560 $56,070 $56,070 — $128,490 1,460
South Carolina $90,530 $56,560 $56,560 — $124,070 2,190
Minnesota $89,380 $62,390 $62,390 — $107,820 3,890
Missouri $89,280 $58,180 $58,180 — $119,240 3,230
Michigan $89,120 $62,430 $62,430 — $108,670 4,730
Indiana $87,360 $60,990 $60,990 — $122,930 3,310
North Carolina $86,460 $60,800 $60,800 — $121,040 5,600
Tennessee $84,630 $58,550 $58,550 — $116,790 3,320
Oklahoma $84,470 $51,230 $51,230 — $127,920 1,870
Idaho $84,380 $62,090 $62,090 — $121,890 1,210
Nebraska $84,350 $59,120 $59,120 — $117,980 1,310
Arkansas $83,580 $56,250 $56,250 — $134,420 2,430
Kentucky $83,550 $63,250 $63,250 — $121,090 2,610
Wisconsin $83,000 $61,320 $61,320 — $108,360 2,940
Iowa $81,050 $63,270 $63,270 — $106,460 1,540
West Virginia $80,970 $62,690 $62,690 — $125,160 880
Kansas $80,120 $59,390 $59,390 — $108,390 1,690
Mississippi $78,130 $50,280 $50,280 — $106,170 1,790
Alabama $73,660 $58,010 $58,010 — $109,300 2,060
Louisiana $69,610 $53,480 $53,480 — $107,650 3,000

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Questions people often ask

What is a speech-language pathologist’s yearly income?

A speech-language pathologist makes a median of $97,870 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $77,730 and $114,570.

What is a speech-language pathologist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $47.05 an hour; the average is $98,170 a year.

What is the starting pay for a speech-language pathologist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $77,730 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $62,900.

Which state pays speech-language pathologists the most?

California, with a median of $118,970 a year.

How many people work as speech-language pathologists?

About 183,390 in the United States — number 130 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $720 of what speech-language pathologists earn — $97,870 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations