What’s the average pay for a speech–language pathologist?

The most readily found sources of speech–language pathologists' (SLPs) wage norms are inaccurate and unreliable. We'll teach you why, but first two things to note:

1) There are two accurate SLP wage data sources: ours and ASHA's. This article describes ours (n = 960 for 2025–2026). But because our dataset isn't as big yet, we recommend you use ASHA's wage data as your primary source for now (n = >4700 for 2025–2026).

2) All other available data sources we've come across have major issues, even traditionally trustworthy sources such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). We describe these other datasets and their problems, here. However, it's not enough to just know they're wrong. Instead, if you understand why they're wrong, you'll be able to explain this to others (e.g. during pay negotiations), and can even still lean on them a bit *if* you understand the calculation mistakes and can interpret them through that lens. 

Below, we'll describe Informed Jobs' wage data:

Where our data comes from:

Our data comes from SLPs who voluntarily share it, not from our job posts (which would be an unreliable method of collecting wage norms, and what screws up sources like Indeed). So the more SLPs who share their wages, the more useful this open-access (permanently free!) dataset will become. Share your wage data with fellow SLPs, here.

You'll notice that we have a lot of questions in our survey. This is because those questions are needed in order to get accurate numbers, and avoid the issues that other sources have of surveying SLPs incorrectly, leading to false wage data.

Where to find our full dataset:

We'll describe some key insights below, but the better way to use our data is to go straight to our data explorer.

1) Make sure to use the filters. Otherwise you won't get much out of the data:

2) Make sure you've made your way through our 1099 vs W2, contract, and PPV resources before looking at our dataset. If you don't understand how SLP contracts are set up in the first place, our data will confuse you because we display true hourly rates, not session rates which are wildly misleading.

Analyses and description of our dataset:

As of February 15th, 2026, 960 of you provided us with your wage data, which has been incorporated into our data explorer. Below are some select analyses and graphs that you may find useful:

• Average SLP hourly pay is $48.
  • The 1099 average is $61.
  • The W2 average is $47.
    • The difference between 1099 and W2 matters!
• Average annual pay if you’re salaried = $78,593
  • Note: This combines contracts, and includes people who work 30 hours per week with those working 40 hours per week, and people working 9 months in a year with those working 12. This is why we also include hourly rates in the dataset.
• Part-time SLPs make higher hourly wages than full-time:
  • Part-time/PRN: $53.58/hr (194 respondents)
  • Full-time: $46.92/hr (765 respondents)

Wages by setting:

Wages by years worked:

Pay by location

While we can’t chart pay by city or zip code (yet!) because our dataset isn’t large enough, we can chart hourly pay by Cost of Living Index (COLI). First Google your cost of living index, then compare it to this chart:

You'll see that there’s only a slight positive relationship between COLI and hourly pay. This suggests that cost of living has minimal influence on SLP pay — factors like setting, years of experience, and employment type likely matter much more.

Starting to feel like this wage data would be much more useful with finer levels of detail? Agreed! The higher our numbers, the savvier analyses we can run. Share your wages here so we can continue to run deeper analyses.

Benefits and stipends:

92% of SLPs are employees (W2), and 8% are contractors (1099). Read more here on why that matters. Interestingly, this is a much higher rate of W2s than we see in our own jobs database. 1099 positions seem to be open more often.

Those of you who have W2 roles are eligible for benefits and stipends. Here’s what’s common to receive:

• 85% receive health insurance
• 76% have PTO
• 78% have 401K plans or other retirement plans

And for part-timers,

• 14% receive health insurance
• 18% have PTO
• 32% have 401K plans or other retirement plans

And 28% of part-time workers receive no benefits, while only 2% of full-time workers receive no benefits. 

Here's a graph of those full-time employee benefits:

Note that CE and therapy reimbursements above include those who receive stipends for these, as well. We were actually really happy to see continuing education being reimbursed for 48% of you, and therapy materials for 29%! Remember—contractors (1099) can’t be reimbursed for any of these things.

Other details not included in this graph:

• 13% of SLPs get their CCCs paid for
• Many receive stipends as well. The average dollar value of stipends = $2127. However, five people receive over $7,000 in stipends annually!
  • Note that negotiating stipends can sometimes be easier than negotiating your hourly rate or salary. Think about what you have to pay for out of pocket, or why you deserve significantly higher pay than average, then request it as a stipend!

Now what?

1) Help us provide better wage data by sharing yours here.

2) We'll update this and our Data Explorer regularly, so come back monthly for updated data!

Have questions or feedback?

This data is for you, so please let us know! Email contact@informedjobs.com