What Is a Speech Pathologist's Salary?
A speech pathologist, also referred to as a speech language pathologist, works with patients who have impaired speech and language functionality due to injury, illness or a birth defect. Speech pathologists also treat patients who have trouble swallowing due to muscle weakness. The majority of speech pathologists hold at least a master's degree, and individual states require a predetermined amount of clinical exposure before a speech language pathologist can obtain a license.
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Educational Salaries
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As of May 2009, professionals working in either a grade school or secondary school setting earned an average salary of $62,860, according to estimates released in May 2009 by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. The BLS estimates that approximately 48 percent of speech language pathologists worked in an educational setting as of 2009.
Health Services Salaries
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Professionals working in a hospital setting as of May 2009 reported annual earnings averaging $72,030, according to BLS estimates. Home health care agencies paid the highest wages for speech pathologists, with an average salary of $87,820 per year, while speech pathologists working for nursing home care providers earned an average of $80,500 annually, according to the May 2009 figures released by the BLS.
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Geographic Location
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As of May 2009, the top three paying states for speech pathologists included Alaska, Nevada and Maryland. Speech pathologists employed in the state of Nevada reported an average salary of $96,160, and professionals employed in Alaska earned average yearly salaries of $81,250, while speech language pathologists employed in Maryland received an average yearly compensation of $80,860, according to the May 2009 BLS estimates.
The two cities where speech pathologists reported the highest average salaries included the Las Vegas area in Nevada with average annual earnings of $111,430 and the Fresno area in California with average yearly wages of $97,650, according to the BLS May 2009 estimates.
Industry Concentration
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According to the BLS, New York had the highest number of speech pathologists employed in a single state, and workers in this profession reported average annual earnings of $74,360, as of May 2009. The highest concentration of speech pathologists worked in El Paso in Texas as of May 2009 and the average salary figure reported for this area equaled $79,990, according to estimates released by the BLS.
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