How to hire a pediatric audiologist: where to find candidates, what to look for and what to offer

Hiring a pediatric audiologist comes down to three moves: deciding whether your schedule genuinely needs a dedicated pediatric seat, screening for the state license and the pediatric skill set, and pricing the offer against labeled pay data instead of guesswork. This page walks practice owners, children's hospitals and ENT groups through each move.

The decision signals live in your own books, and our research found no published benchmark for when a practice is full. Referral volume is the honest one: how many infants and young children arrive each month, how far out the pediatric slots run, and how often a general audiologist is stretching a visit built for adults.

• Newborn hearing screening follow-up referrals with nowhere to land in the schedule.
• An ENT group's pediatric ear cases producing diagnostic requests the adult-focused seats cannot absorb.
• Families asking for a clinician experienced with young children's testing and fittings.
• Early-intervention or school contracts that add audiology coverage to the schedule.

The work runs on a clock set outside your practice. The EHDI benchmarks call for hearing screening by 1 month of age, audiological diagnosis by 3 months, and entry into early intervention by 6 months. ASHA's audiology scope adds that upon a diagnosis of hearing loss, audiologists should ensure the child and family are enrolled in an appropriate early intervention program — which makes the seat a coordination job as much as a testing one.

The screening side has a defined role for the license, too: ASHA, citing the JCIH 2019 position statement, recommends audiologist oversight of state and territory newborn hearing screening programs, with audiologists training and monitoring screening personnel and tracking refer rates.

Payers matter to the business case. Federal Medicaid's EPSDT benefit requires coverage for children that includes, at a minimum, diagnosis and treatment for defects in hearing, including hearing aids, for beneficiaries under 21 — which makes Medicaid a core payer lane for a pediatric caseload. On the Medicare side, the 2026 physician fee schedule keeps the pediatric behavioral audiometry codes active (92579 for visual reinforcement audiometry, 92582 for conditioning play, 92583 for select picture), and CMS's list allows the AB modifier on them.

FDA's rules sharpen why the seat must be licensed. The sale of an OTC hearing aid to or for a person under 18 is prohibited, and any air-conduction hearing aid that does not meet the OTC requirements is a prescription hearing aid. A device for a child is therefore prescription work under your state's dispensing rules — and whether your audiologist needs a credential beyond the audiology license to dispense is a board question to settle before you write dispensing duties into the role.

If you are weighing this seat against the rest of a clinic roster, the guides on hiring for your hearing practice compare audiologists, hearing instrument specialists and support staff side by side, and the general audiologist hiring guide covers the seat without the pediatric focus. Reading as a candidate rather than an employer? Our pediatric audiologist career guide covers the role from the job seeker's side. The rest of this page is written to the practice.

The gate is the state license. BLS notes that all states require audiologists to be licensed, with requirements that vary by state but typically include an AuD from an accredited program. The rules are state-specific, so never carry one state's terms into another state's posting.

Ask for the license number on your application form and say in the posting that you will verify it. EEOC guidance counts required certifications and licenses among the ordinary qualifications you may ask an applicant about.

Degrees and national credentials sharpen the shortlist. ASHA's standards for its CCC-A certification require a doctoral degree in audiology from a CAA-accredited program, a program in CAA candidacy status, or an equivalent qualification. The American Board of Audiology currently offers ABA Certified, a General Audiology Board Certification and specialty certifications in pediatric and vestibular audiology — treat the license as the requirement and the credentials as preferred signals.

The pediatric one deserves a close read. The ABA's Pediatric Audiology Specialty Certification (PASC), held as Board Certified in Pediatric Audiology, has eligibility rules worth reading closely. It requires a current audiology license, a master's or doctoral degree in audiology, and at least 2,000 hours of post-degree paid audiology experience within two years. It also requires 550 pediatric patient contact hours plus 50 pediatric case-management hours over two consecutive years within the past five, and externship hours do not count toward those totals. The application fee is $125 for AAA members or $160 for non-members, plus passing the exam. Holders recertify every 3 years with 60 CE hours, 30 of them in pediatric audiology.

Those eligibility rules carry a hiring consequence: a new graduate cannot hold PASC, because the qualifying hours are post-degree and externship hours are ineligible. Write it as a preferred qualification for experienced hires — and not as a requirement on an entry-level posting, which would filter out exactly the candidates who could grow into the seat.

Write the skill requirements around your caseload. A pediatric seat needs behavioral testing depth for children too young to respond like adults: visual reinforcement audiometry and conditioning play audiometry, the pediatric behavioral services on Medicare's fee schedule, plus auditory brainstem response (ABR) experience for the youngest referrals. Experience coordinating with the referring physicians involved in a toddler's care belongs on the list for hospital-linked seats. Round it out with amplification fitting and verification for infants and children, family counseling, and documentation built for early-intervention and physician referral partners.

Know where support staff fit. ASHA's Practice Portal lists assisting with pediatric testing among the tasks audiology assistants may take on where state law permits and competence is shown, and lets assistants run hearing and tympanometric screening on older children without interpretation. Interpretation and diagnosis stay with your audiologist, and Medicare does not pay for audiological tests performed by aides, assistants or technicians who do not meet its audiologist qualifications.

Rules change and vary by state. Confirm the current license, dispensing and supervision requirements with your state board before you finalize the posting.

Start with the size of the pool. BLS's OEWS survey counted 13,660 audiologists in national employment for May 2025 — wage-and-salary workers only, with the self-employed excluded — and pediatric audiologists sit inside that count as a specialty BLS does not break out separately. Pediatric specialization narrows that count further, and BLS publishes no separate pediatric employment figure.

Growth is steady rather than explosive. BLS Employment Projections put audiologist employment on an 11.0% growth path for 2025–35 — from about 14,200 jobs in 2025 to 15,700 in 2035 — with about 600 openings a year on average. That projection count includes the self-employed, unlike the OEWS figure above, so keep the two series separate when you read them.

Experienced candidates cluster in a handful of employer rows. BLS's list of the largest employers of audiologists runs offices of physicians (26%), offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists and audiologists (26%), hospitals (16%) and educational services (10%). For a pediatric seat, that means children's hospitals, hospital audiology departments, ENT groups and school programs are calling the same people you are.

Recruiting difficulty is real but uneven across settings. In ASHA's 2023 audiology survey, audiologists in nonresidential health care facilities (52%) were the most likely to say there were more job openings than job seekers in their setting, and those in hospitals (36%) the least likely. Treat it as one survey's snapshot and plan the search timeline accordingly.

Use the title candidates actually hold. O*NET lists Pediatric Audiologist among the reported job titles for the audiologist occupation, so a posting headed “pediatric audiologist” speaks the profession's language rather than a generic “audiologist wanted” line.

AuD programs are the entry pipeline, and a pediatric placement in your clinic is a multi-year audition for a future hire. Hosting carries rules of its own. ASHA's certification standards require a practicum that counts toward the CCC-A to be supervised by an audiologist holding a current CCC-A. That supervisor needs at least 9 months of full-time clinical experience after certification, plus at least 2 hours (0.2 ASHA CEUs) of professional development in clinical instruction or supervision. At a for-profit practice, an unpaid student is allowed only if the student, not the employer, is the primary beneficiary under the seven-factor test DOL describes — otherwise the FLSA requires pay. Our guide on recruiting from AuD programs walks through the placement playbook.

Post the role where pediatric audiologists look, and mind the posting rules while you are at it. Federal EEO law makes it illegal to publish an ad that shows a preference for, or discourages, applicants because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. The EEOC's own example of a problem ad is one seeking “recent college graduates,” and a “new AuD grads only” pediatric posting carries the same risk.

Pay disclosure is law in the states we verified. Washington requires employers with 15 or more employees to post the wage scale or salary range and a general description of benefits in each job posting. New York requires employers with four or more employees to include compensation or a range in advertised jobs performed at least in part in New York. Since January 1, 2025, Illinois has required employers with 15 or more employees to include pay scale and benefit information in postings and to tell current employees about open ones. Other states and cities have rules our research did not verify, so check yours before you post.

Our guide on where to post the job compares the channels, and the pediatric audiologist jobs page shows what candidates see on this board.

Screen in a fixed order so every candidate gets the same treatment. First the license: request the state audiology license number — a permissible pre-offer question, because required licenses count as ordinary qualifications — and verify it with the board that issued it rather than taking the resume's word for it.

Second, if your practice bills Medicare or your state Medicaid program — EPSDT's mandated coverage makes Medicaid a core payer for children's hearing care — search the candidate in the HHS-OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities. No program payment can be made for items or services an excluded person furnishes, and a positive match points to OIG's Special Advisory Bulletin on the effect of exclusion and to its Self-Disclosure Protocol if the person is already employed. OIG's instruction to check the list monthly is addressed to state Medicaid agencies, not private practices, so ask your state program what screening applies to you.

Third, the interview's federal lines. Before an offer you may ask about education, work history, required licenses and certifications, and whether and how the applicant can perform the job's functions — not whether they have a disability, and no medical questions until an offer is made. Workers' compensation history is off limits before an offer.

Hiring for a children's practice does not make family questions lawful. The EEOC lists questions about pregnancy, marital status, number and ages of children, and child-care arrangements among those that may be regarded as evidence of intent to discriminate — keep them off the form and out of the room.

After a conditional offer and before the start date, a medical exam or inquiry is allowed only if every entering employee in the same job category goes through it regardless of disability. Coverage has thresholds: Title VII and the ADA's employment title reach employers with 15 or more employees, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act those with 20 or more. State fair-employment laws often reach smaller employers, though — do not read the thresholds as an exemption. Confirm with your state labor agency or counsel.

A working interview needs two safeguards. The FLSA defines employ to include “to suffer or permit to work,” and no DOL regulation names working interviews specifically. That definition is the federal basis on which productive working-interview time is treated as compensable hours — an inference rather than a named rule — so pay for the time and confirm with the Wage and Hour Division. And a candidate who is not yet licensed does not hold the license your state requires for audiology, so keep the visit observational or verify licensure first.

Score the clinical conversation against the seat, not trivia. Good prompts come from your own workflow. Ask the candidate to walk through a first diagnostic visit with a toddler, and how they explain the results and next steps to a worried parent. Ask how they document a battery for the early-intervention program or the referring physician. Ask what they would tell a family that wants an OTC hearing aid for a two-year-old — a sale the FDA rule prohibits, so the answer should route back to prescription care. What you are scoring is judgment with children, communication with families and documentation habits.

Red flags are practical. A license number that will not verify, pediatric test experience the candidate cannot describe concretely, or discomfort with family counseling — the counseling half of this seat is not optional.

Start from labeled data, then adjust for your market. BLS's OEWS survey for May 2025 puts the national median annual wage for audiologists (SOC 29-1181) at $95,780, with the 25th percentile at $79,340, the 75th at $111,300 and the 90th at $133,120. BLS has no pediatric-specific occupation — all the specialties sit in this one code — and the survey counts 13,660 wage-and-salary audiologists, excluding the self-employed.

The setting rows are the ones to read for this hire. In the OEWS May 2025 industry data, audiologists' median was $103,700 in general medical and surgical hospitals — the hospital row — and $132,390 in outpatient care centers on a small employment base, a row to treat with caution. Physicians' offices, the row that includes ENT groups, showed $92,620; elementary and secondary schools $97,790; and health and personal care retailers $87,990.

In the industry row closest to private audiology practice — offices of physical, occupational and speech therapists and audiologists — the May 2025 median was $81,730.

Professional surveys fill in what BLS does not break out; read each on its own terms. AAA's 2023 Compensation and Benefits Survey — Academy members only, a convenience sample of full-time 12-month respondents, reporting total compensation (salary, bonus and commission) — put the median at $90,000 in pediatric hospital and clinic settings, the row closest to this seat.

ASHA's 2025 audiology survey measures base salary excluding bonus and commission, among ASHA-certified audiologists: medians of $103,000 in hospitals, $89,700 in nonresidential health care facilities (audiologists' and physicians' offices) and $87,513 in schools. Never average the series with each other or with BLS — they measure different pay concepts on different samples.

Beyond those series, our research found no published sign-on, bonus or commission-split benchmarks for pediatric audiologists, so set incentive terms from your own books rather than an industry average. The audiologist compensation plans guide works through the structure options, and the audiologist employment contract guide covers the terms that belong in writing.

Classification is part of the offer. The federal white-collar salary threshold is $684 per week ($35,568 a year) as of 2026, and the FLSA's exemption for licensed practitioners of medicine defines the physicians it covers as MDs, DOs, podiatrists, dentists and optometrists — audiologists are not named. Paying a salary alone therefore does not settle overtime treatment; confirm classification with the DOL's Wage and Hour Division or a health-care attorney.

Schedule and benefits are commitments you make deliberately: predictable testing blocks, protected admin time for early-intervention reports, support for license renewal and continuing education, call and weekend expectations stated in writing, and a growth path into the pediatric service lines you want built. The hearing practice employee benefits guide covers the package beyond pay; set the terms from your practice and say so in the offer.

The paperwork floor is federal: examine each new hire's Form I-9 identity and work-authorization documents within three business days of the hire. Build it into the start-date checklist so it does not slide.

Start payer enrollment alongside the contract rather than after the start date, and have your MAC or billing adviser confirm how your employed audiologist will be set up to bill. Wire the pediatric workflow before the first patient. Set how the front desk books the pediatric behavioral testing services that stay active on the 2026 Medicare fee schedule, and leave modifier choices, including whether AB applies to a given visit, to your biller. Decide how device sales are handled too: Medicare statutorily excludes hearing aids from its benefit, while Medicaid's EPSDT benefit requires coverage that includes hearing aids for children. Confirm the details with your biller or MAC.

Compliance orientation belongs in week one, not month three. Where OSHA's Bloodborne Pathogens standard applies, employers must offer the hepatitis B vaccination within 10 working days of initial assignment to exposed employees and provide bloodborne-pathogen training annually. CDC's Standard Precautions — hand hygiene, personal protective equipment whenever exposure to infectious material is expected, and proper handling, cleaning and disinfection of patient-care equipment — give the clinical orientation a practical backbone.

If your new hire will host a fourth-year extern, the supervisor rules from the sourcing section apply to them too: a current CCC-A, the post-certification experience and the supervision training ASHA's standards require. After that, design the ramp yourself — our research found no published productivity ramp or pediatric audiologist productivity target to copy. Anchor it to what you can count: referral volume, rooms and pediatric equipment, and the service lines the hire owns month by month. Pair the new clinician with your senior audiologist, with review checkpoints across the early weeks and months.

Retention starts the day they sign. Build the loop from your own exit conversations and turnover count; the audiology staff retention guide collects the levers that are yours to set, from labeled pay to a schedule that holds. For the whole checklist, the onboarding new audiology staff guide covers the first weeks for clinicians and support staff together.

Employer information, not licensing, legal, medical, clinical, billing or coding advice. Rules change and are state-specific; confirm requirements with the board or agency named, and with a health-care attorney or your CPA for contract, classification and billing questions.