Audiologists earned a median annual wage of $95,780 in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — $46.05 an hour, in a distribution running from $64,610 at the 10th percentile to $133,120 at the 90th.
ASHA's 2025 survey put median full-time base salary at $95,000, and AAA's 2023 survey reported median total compensation of $100,000.
This page explains what each figure measures and what moves audiologist pay.
What is the average audiologist salary?
The headline federal figure is a median, not an average: half of wage-and-salary audiologists earned more, half earned less.
In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for May 2025, that median was $95,780 a year, and the mean — the straight average across the occupation — was $97,740.
ASHA's 2025 Audiology Survey, fielded in late 2025 and published in 2026, is a self-reported survey of ASHA-certified (CCC-A) audiologists.
It reported a median full-time base annual salary of $95,000, with part-time respondents at a median of $65,000.
Base salary excludes bonus and commission, which ASHA reports separately.
ASHA's trend file shows how the number has moved.
The median full-time salary in its survey rose from $78,000 in 2016 to $95,000 in 2025, and clinicians — ASHA calls them clinical service providers — went from $75,000 in 2016 to $92,000 in 2025.
In the same survey year, college and university faculty reported a median of $96,000 and researchers $100,000.
Neither federal data nor a professional survey answers every question, so this page keeps the sources separate throughout.
For the profession behind the numbers — training, licensure and settings — see the audiologist career guide.
For the wider market picture, our hearing care industry statistics pull the federal and listing data together.
Audiologist hourly vs annual pay
BLS publishes a median hourly wage alongside the annual one: $46.05 for audiologists in May 2025.
It is a median for the whole wage-and-salary occupation, not a figure drawn only from people who are actually paid by the hour.
In ASHA's 2025 survey, being paid by the hour was the minority arrangement: 83% of employed audiologists were paid primarily an annual salary, 15% primarily an hourly wage and 2% primarily a commission.
Among the respondents paid primarily by the hour, ASHA reported a median hourly wage of $53.00.
The 25th percentile was $45.00 and the 75th was $67.75.
Hourly earners worked a median of 30 hours a week, and those at 30 hours or fewer earned a median of $60.00 an hour versus $50.00 for those working more than 30.
The two hourly numbers differ because they describe different groups.
BLS's $46.05 is a median for everyone in the wage-and-salary occupation, while ASHA's $53.00 describes only survey respondents paid hourly — a smaller group whose median workweek was 30 hours.
Audiologist salary range: 10th to 90th percentile
A median hides the spread, so BLS publishes the full percentile distribution for audiologists.
In May 2025 it ran as follows.
| Percentile (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-1181) | Annual wage |
|---|---|
| 10th | $64,610 |
| 25th | $79,340 |
| 50th (median) | $95,780 |
| 75th | $111,300 |
| 90th | $133,120 |
ASHA's survey percentiles describe its own respondents' base pay.
Full-time salaries ran from $82,000 at the 25th percentile to $112,548 at the 75th in 2025.
BLS's own 25th and 75th percentiles were $79,340 and $111,300, but the two are not like-for-like: the survey covers ASHA-certified audiologists and counts base salary only, excluding bonus and commission.
Read the percentiles as positions in a distribution, not promises.
Where an individual offer lands can reflect the drivers in the rest of this page: setting, region, experience, bonus and commission.
Why BLS, ASHA and AAA figures differ
Search audiologist pay and you will see three headline numbers that do not match.
Each is a real measurement — of a different population, on a different definition of pay.
- BLS OEWS produces a wage distribution for the whole occupation, SOC 29-1181: a median of $95,780 and a mean of $97,740 in May 2025. It counts wage-and-salary workers only, so self-employed practice owners sit outside it.
- ASHA's 2025 Audiology Survey is self-reported by ASHA-certified audiologists, with 1,525 respondents. Its headline is median base salary, $95,000 full-time, and it excludes bonus and commission.
- AAA's 2023 Compensation and Benefits Survey is a member survey reporting total 2022 compensation — salary, bonus and commission combined — with a median of $100,000 (mean $115,649) for full-time, 12-month audiologists. The Academy runs the survey every three years, and the full report is free to members and $150 to non-members.
Even BLS's two programs count differently.
OEWS counted 13,660 employed audiologists, while the Employment Projections program's 2025 base is about 14,200 and, unlike OEWS, includes the self-employed — 2.2% of the occupation in 2025.
The gaps between the numbers are not a contradiction to resolve but a set of definitions to keep straight.
That is why every figure on this page carries its source with it.
Compare like with like
What drives audiologist pay: setting, region, experience, bonus and commission
Four factors show up in the cited data: the employer group, the region, the years in practice, and pay on top of base salary.
Here is what each one shows.
Setting shows up first in BLS's industry rows for audiologists in May 2025.
Each row is an employer group, not a job title, and small cells carry high sampling error, so read the table as a spread rather than a ranking.
| Employer group (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-1181) | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Outpatient care centers | $132,390 |
| Temporary help services | $132,150 |
| General medical and surgical hospitals | $103,700 |
| Elementary and secondary schools | $97,790 |
| Offices of physicians | $92,620 |
| Health and personal care retailers | $87,990 |
| Offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists, and audiologists | $81,730 |
Two rows need a note.
The offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists, and audiologists row — the industry closest to private audiology practices — also takes in other therapy practices' offices and carries a 15.4% relative standard error.
The temporary-help row covers only 180 audiologists with a 13.3% relative standard error — a small staffing-agency cell, not a travel-pay figure.
Region works at two scales.
By community type, ASHA's 2025 respondents reported median full-time salaries of $98,088 in city and urban areas, $94,000 in suburban areas and $92,000 in rural areas.
Across states the spread is wider — the next section covers it.
Pay is higher with experience in both surveys.
ASHA's 2025 respondents with 1–3 years of experience reported a median full-time salary of $85,000.
AAA's 2023 member survey showed the same upward direction on its total-compensation measure: $80,955 at 1–3 years and $125,000 for those with more than 20 years.
Bonus and commission add to base salary for some audiologists.
Among ASHA's 2025 salaried respondents, 323 reported a bonus with a median of $5,000.
Commission is lumpier: 124 salaried respondents reported one, with a median of $20,000 and a median salary-plus-commission of $105,000 — both figures describe recipients only, not all audiologists.
Retail pays on a different line.
BLS's health and personal care retailers row put audiologists' median at $87,990.
ASHA's trend file reported franchise and retail-chain medians of $70,000 (2016), $73,000 (2018), $68,000 (2021) and $80,000 (2023); the 2025 figure was not reported, with fewer than 25 respondents in that setting.
Audiologist salary by state
State comparisons are best taken from one source, and BLS's state table is the most complete.
Among the jurisdictions where it published a mean for audiologists in May 2025, Oregon was highest at $128,950 and Mississippi lowest at $78,510; no mean was published for Rhode Island or Wyoming.
Two cautions before quoting a state number: the rankings are not adjusted for living costs, and they rank means, not medians.
ASHA's survey could report state medians for only 19 states in 2025 — California led at $122,000 — so the survey view covers less of the map.
The full state-by-state table — medians, hourly wages, the 10th-to-90th percentile range and employment for each state and DC where BLS published them — is on our audiologist salary by state page.
That page ranks states by median, so its highest and lowest states can differ from the mean ranking above.
How audiologist pay compares with other health professions
Audiology's typical entry education, per BLS, is a doctoral or professional degree, and the profession's own degree is the Doctor of Audiology (AuD).
The table below compares audiologists with other health professions using BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians for every occupation, keeping the comparison like-for-like.
| Occupation (BLS SOC) | Median annual wage, May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Optometrists (29-1041) | $136,570 |
| Physician assistants (29-1071) | $135,880 |
| Physical therapists (29-1123) | $102,760 |
| Occupational therapists (29-1122) | $100,330 |
| Speech-language pathologists (29-1127) | $97,870 |
| Audiologists (29-1181) | $95,780 |
Audiologists sit below every occupation in the table, including speech-language pathologists, whose median was slightly higher.
The ranking also moves with the measure: these are national medians for all workers in each occupation, not offers for a specific role or city.
The outlooks differ as well.
BLS's 2025–35 projections expect 16.6% employment growth for speech-language pathologists and 11.0% for audiologists, with about 600 openings a year for audiologists.
Career information, not medical, legal or tax advice. The figures on this page are the published data of the sources named — BLS, ASHA and AAA — so check the current release from each before relying on a number.