VA audiologists are civilian federal employees paid on the General Schedule: entry at GS-11, GS-12 as the full-performance grade for staff audiologists, and GS-13 for roles such as clinical specialist, lead and supervisory audiologist.
Across the grades covered here (GS-11 to GS-13), the three 2026 locality tables on this page run from $74,678 (GS-11, step 1, Rest of U.S.) to $172,980 (GS-13, step 10, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland).
Here is how the grades, steps and locality percentages fit together.
VA audiologist salary range
VA audiologists are civilian federal employees paid on the General Schedule, the pay system whose 2026 tables the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) publishes.
Their positions sit in the GS-0665 series — the Speech/Language Pathology and Audiology Series — and they are paid as Title 38 hybrid employees: GS base pay plus locality.
The 2026 General Schedule base table took effect in January 2026 with a 1% increase.
Before locality pay, it runs from $63,795 (GS-11, step 1) to $82,938 (GS-11, step 10), $76,463 to $99,404 at GS-12, and $90,925 to $118,204 at GS-13.
No one is paid the base table alone.
OPM's locality tables add a percentage on top, and the table below shows what that does to the same three grades in three 2026 pay areas.
| 2026 GS table (steps 1–10) | GS-11 | GS-12 | GS-13 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rest of U.S. locality (17.06%) | $74,678–$97,087 | $89,508–$116,362 | $106,437–$138,370 |
| Washington-Baltimore-Arlington locality (33.94%) | $85,447–$111,087 | $102,415–$133,142 | $121,785–$158,322 |
| San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland locality (46.34%) | $93,358–$121,371 | $111,896–$145,468 | $133,060–$172,980 |
Read it as one system rather than one number: a VA audiologist's pay is grade, step and locality area together.
For scale, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' OEWS survey put the national median for audiologists — wage-and-salary employees in every setting, not just the VA — at $95,780 in May 2025.
For the job behind the numbers — federal hiring, the Title 38 qualification standard and the program's footprint — see the VA audiologist career guide.
Tables change every January
GS grade by experience
The entry point is GS-11.
VA audiologist postings state that a new graduate who is not yet licensed may be given a temporary appointment as a graduate audiologist at the GS-11 grade, and that the appointment cannot be promoted to GS-12 until the person is licensed.
GS-12 is the full-performance level for staff audiologists.
At that full-performance level, a staff audiologist's band is the GS-12 range for their locality area — for example, $89,508 to $116,362 in the Rest of U.S. area under the 2026 tables.
In the standard run, GS-13 attaches to roles such as clinical specialist, lead and supervisory audiologist.
In the 2026 base table GS-13 runs $90,925 to $118,204 before locality, and the Rest of U.S. table carries it to $106,437–$138,370.
The ranges in this page's tables run from step 1 to step 10 within a grade.
The federal rules that govern step increases are not reproduced here; OPM's tables and the announcement are the sources to check.
How locality pay works
Locality pay is a percentage OPM adds to the GS base table, and it varies by pay area.
In the 2026 tables, the Rest of U.S. area adds 17.06%, Washington-Baltimore-Arlington adds 33.94%, and San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland adds 46.34% — the highest locality percentage in the 2026 system.
The same grade and step therefore pays differently by duty station.
At GS-12, step 1, the 2026 tables show $89,508 in the Rest of U.S. area, $102,415 in Washington-Baltimore-Arlington and $111,896 in San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland.
OPM publishes each locality table for a named geographic pay area — "Rest of U.S.", "Washington-Baltimore-Arlington", "San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA" — so the duty station determines which table applies, and the vacancy announcement is where to confirm it.
Two audiologists at the same grade and step in different cities can sit on different locality tables.
Comparing the three GS-12, step 1 figures above shows the spread locality pay creates inside one federal pay system, before any special rate or incentive enters the picture.
Special salary rates and recruitment incentives
The standard tables are not the only rates in the federal system: a facility may also use a special rate table.
Whether any VA facility pays audiologists on a special rate is not established in our research — the confirmed structure for VA audiologist pay is the GS base table plus locality.
That makes the announcement's own salary range the authority for a given vacancy.
If a posting's range does not match the standard base-plus-locality figures for its grade, read the announcement for the pay authority it names.
Recruitment incentives — the federal version of a sign-on bonus — have their own rule.
Under 5 CFR 575.109, a federal recruitment incentive is generally capped at 25% of annual basic pay multiplied by the years of the service agreement, with a service period of at most 4 years, and the employee signs a service agreement with repayment conditions.
Whether a particular VA audiology vacancy offers an incentive is posting-specific, so confirm it in the announcement rather than assuming it.
Confirm incentives in the announcement
The value of federal benefits and loan forgiveness
Grade and step are not the whole offer.
The clearest federal-specific item in the sources is student-loan forgiveness: the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program counts U.S. federal government organizations among its qualifying employers, and the VA is one.
PSLF, which the Education Department administers, requires 120 qualifying monthly payments on Direct Loans — payments made after October 1, 2007 — and full-time employment, defined as a minimum average of 30 hours a week.
Debt is a real part of the audiology budget: ASHA's 2025 survey reported a median of $88,000 in unpaid student debt among salaried audiologists who had debt.
What the rest of VA's federal benefits package looks like in detail — retirement, health coverage, leave — our research did not collect, so this page will not summarize it secondhand.
OPM's benefits pages and the vacancy announcement are the sources for the current rules.
For comparison, here is what audiologists across settings reported in AAA's 2023 member survey: health insurance for 80% of respondents, a 401(k) or retirement plan for 74%, and paid professional development for 70%.
On time off, respondents averaged 17 vacation days, 7 holidays, 6 personal days and 5 sick days a year.
Those figures describe survey respondents across all settings, not VA employees.
VA vs private practice pay
Comparing VA pay with private pay means comparing different measurement systems, so each figure below is labeled with its series.
The federal wage survey: BLS's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics put the median annual wage for all audiologists (SOC 29-1181) at $95,780 in May 2025, with a mean of $97,740, a 75th percentile of $111,300 and a 90th percentile of $133,120.
OEWS counts wage-and-salary employees (self-employed owners are excluded); the sources for this page carry no VA-only wage row.
The academy-member survey: AAA's 2023 Compensation and Benefits Survey reported median total 2022 compensation of $100,000 for full-time audiologists overall.
By setting it reported $106,000 in VA positions, $107,000 in hospital in-patient roles and $127,500 in private-practice audiology — with two caveats: only 10 respondents reported a VA setting, and the private-practice audiology figure includes owners, which lifts it.
The professional association's base-salary survey: ASHA's 2025 survey reported a median full-time base salary of $103,000 in hospitals and $89,700 in nonresidential health care facilities.
ASHA's figure is base salary; AAA's is total compensation; the two are not interchangeable.
Against those, set the 2026 federal tables.
The GS-12 band runs from $89,508 to $116,362 in the Rest of U.S. area — a published 2026 pay range, not a survey median, so it does not rank against the figures above — and the tables reach higher: GS-13 tops out at $172,980 in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland area.
One structural difference is predictability.
The GS numbers are published annual rates — grade, step and locality area — so the federal rate for a given grade, step and duty station is published before you apply, and the announcement confirms the specific vacancy.
Private-sector packages can add bonus and commission on top of base salary; among ASHA's 2025 salaried respondents, 124 reported receiving a commission in the previous 12 months, with a median of $20,000.
No single number settles VA versus private.
Grade and duty station set the federal figure, setting and pay mix set private ones, and the measures differ.
The audiologist salary page carries the full BLS tables, national and by state.
Career information, not medical, legal, tax or financial advice. Pay tables, incentives and loan-forgiveness rules change; confirm current figures with OPM, the VA announcement and, for PSLF, the Education Department.