Want better wage data for SLPs? (We do too!!)

The problem: Our field's wage data is pretty weak. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) dataset is large but misleading. ASHA's dataset is strong but small. And all other datasets (e.g. from other jobs boards) are so outlandishly skewed it's just silly.

The solution: Share your wages here! Then we'll run the analyses (updated every 60 days) AND build an interactive calculator for you with raw data included (coming once we get at least 3K data points), so you can know what pay to expect (and negotiate for) in your next SLP job!
 

Our goal is to exceed ASHA’s salary survey numbers as quickly as possible over the next several months, then provide you with a calculator where you can input the setting and location and it tells you what to expect for pay. Yes, seriously! We just need you to input your wages and tell other SLPs to do it too.

Interactive Wage Norms Calculator coming soon! We've already started building it :) 

We've started analyzing the data we do have. Take a peek:

As of March 15^th, 2025, 738 of you have provided us with wage data. With the caveat that you should still be using ASHA’s data over ours until we collect more, here’s a preview of the trends so far.

Pay

• Average SLP hourly pay is just under $48.
  • This includes all contract types, though, so don’t use it. It’s meaningless. And exactly what’s wrong with the BLS data.
    • Why? Well, for example, if you remove W2 hourly rates from the dataset, average 1099 pay is $61/hour. It just isn't helpful to collapse all contract types together. The details matter. A lot.
• Average annual pay if you’re salaried = $81,324
  • Again, somewhat meaningless because this is across all settings and contract types (e.g. both 9 month school contracts and 12 month contracts).
• Average annual pay if you’re hourly = $84,596
  • ***We think this number is wrong, though, and are going to change the way we ask you all this question going forward. We think it’s skewed by some of you reporting that you’re paid “full-time” year-round, but experience with hosting jobs tells us a lot of these are probably actually PPV contacts, which makes the true pay reported wrong, and we need to ask slightly different questions to ensure accuracy, which we’ll do going forward!
• Average annual pay for SLPs on pay-per-visit (PPV) contracts = $79,650.
  • Note that while SLPs on pay-per-visit (PPV) contracts tend to have the highest hourly wages, they are on average paid for only 27 hours of work per week, even if working 40 hours per week.
    • We’ve been screaming this from the rooftops lately, because it’s so important! Example: A salaried full-time job at $40/hour will pay you $83,200/year. But most PPV full-time jobs listed at “$40/hour” actually pay you closer to $54,000. How many times can we say ‘the details matter’?!
• Part-time SLPs make higher hourly wages than full-time:
  • Part-time, salaried = $54/hour; part-time, hourly = $53/hour
  • Full-time, salaried = $49/hour; full-time, hourly = $46/hour

Other, more useful analyses of pay

For both of the following graphs, n = 730, and hourly pay is converted to annual (for full-time only), and annual converted to hourly:

• These numbers above represent the average (mean) annual pay per setting. Overall mean is $80,250, and median is $77,160. Range is $41,206 to $156,000.
• Medical settings (particularly Skilled Nursing Facility at $95,783) tend to offer higher annual pay than education settings.
• Elementary School positions, despite being the most common in the dataset (124 entries), offer below-average salaries at $74,345 (but see the next graph below!!)
• Private Practice settings have the lowest average annual pay at $73,307.

Notice how the "highest paid" jobs if you look at hourly rates are in the schools? And the “highest paid” jobs if you look at annual wages are in SNFs and other medical settings? Think for a second about why that might be…

Good, yes! Contact type. School-based SLPs make less per year but more per hour because they’re only working 9 months. Med SLPs make less per hour but more per year because they’re working 12 months. Hourly and annual rate norms DO NOT carry across setting and contract type very well. The details matter ;)

Pay by years of experience

What if we look at this by years of experience? The following graph includes both hourly pay and annual-converted-to-hourly, to get the clearest picture of what SLPs (n = 730) are making per hour:

And how much does pay change? 

The biggest jump is between 2–5 years and 5–10 years. Our prediction is that the ~ 5-year mark is when SLPs get really good at their jobs and get savvier about negotiating pay. But that's just a guess so maybe you have other predictions?

Not shown in this graph, but the pay range also widens as you go up in years. This suggests that the longer you're in the field, the more your pay may vary from peers, whereas new SLPs tend to be paid more similarly.

Note also that we have pretty decent numbers per age group, with 13% of the sample in their CFY, 41% in years 2–5, 27% in years 5–10, 11% 10–15 years, and 7% over 15 years in the field.

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.

Note that the colors represent different regions based on the first digit of the zip code. There’s also a moderate positive correlation between hourly rate and cost of living (stats come later, with a bigger data set). 

• If you're not familiar with Cost of Living index (COLI), this may be confusing. An example: The Informed SLP and Informed Jobs are based in Kansas City. Our COLI = 92, which means it's 8% below the national average of 100. So we can look at the left side of this graph, go to about the "92" level, and see the spread of our hourly wages between $30 and $60. You can't tell the mean from this, but you can see that what we make in Kansas City (pink) is not what people make in California (orange). While all this graph really shows is that location matters, with larger datasets and the calculator we're building you, you can use COLI to predict the exact average, range, and percentiles for your zip code!

Starting to feel like this wage data would be much more useful with finer levels of detail? Right! Share your wages here so we can analyze it by setting, location, and contract type together, rather than in separate graphs!

Benefits and stipends:

Two out of three SLPs are employees (W2), and one in three are contractors (1099). Read more here on why that matters.

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 (n = 579):

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 salary data by sharing yours here.

2) We'll update this page with new, deeper, more helpful data every 60 days.

3) The real goal isn't a mile-long webpage with graphs, though. These are just to tide you by and show you the data we do have! The real goal is to build an interactive calculator where you can input things like setting, location, contract type, click "Calculate" and it'll tell you the average and range of pay! Hopefully we'll have enough data to do this by mid/late 2025. This is also the point at which we'll share the raw data, so you can run your own analyses if you wish.

Have questions or feedback?

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