According to Indeed.com, the salary data surveys provide an average yearly income for audiologists of around $66,010 per year. The starting hourly audiologist salary is comprised between $25 per hour and up to $33 per hour, and with experience it could climb up to $40 per hour.
How much does an Audiologist make?
On a ten year base, the job employment growth for an audiologist is determined to have a projection of 29% rate of increase. This projection that is estimated to be more than average for all occupations is brought forth by the incidences of hearing loss that manifest mostly in the elderly population. This percentage is also raised according to the aging baby boom population but also due to the newborns that are dealing with hearing issues.
With other words, the year 2017, is a good one for audiologists since with all the new technology the hearing disorders can be detected as well as diagnosed quite early, this leading to a constant number of demands for the Audiologist medical services, as well as an increase in the provided job opportunities. Another best reward is helping people of all ages to overcome these hearing issues by providing the right treatment. On the other hand, the incomes provided in this career field vary from a state to another as well as from a region to another.
According to Indeed.com, the salary data surveys provide an average yearly income for audiologists of around $66,010 per year. The earnings provided for related job titles express also a clear difference between jobs and specialties. For instance, a supervisory audiologist can expect to take home this year earnings that have an estimated average of around $96,010 per year. At the same time, an audiologist Ent Practice gains an income estimated at $82,010 per year. However in the same category of related job titles the income of a Hearing Aid Dispenser reaches only at $19,010 per year.
In the area of California the income of an audiologist is presented with an average of $71,010 per year. The reported earnings in the category of related job titles salaries are influenced by two particular factors: the living expenses as well as the costs of living. An audiologist Ent Practice that is located in this area gains a salary that reaches at around $88,010 per year. On the other hand, a supervisory audiologist can expect at earnings that exceed $102,900 per year. The incomes posted for this particular region are classified as being higher than the average received salaries for job postings on a nationwide base with an applied percentage of 7%.
The years of experience in this field bring various incomes for audiologists as well. For instance, one with up to 5 years of experience in this career field can expect at an annual state income that reaches at $44,282 per year. At the same time, an audiologist with up to ten years of experience gained at the working site can expect to earn around $49,782 per year.
Those professionals with up to 20 years of experience and with plenty of working activity can expect at an annual state base salary that reaches somewhere around $56,110 per year. On the other hand, those with more than 20 years of experience behind their backs can reach at higher incomes due to their knowledge in the field as well as their gained work experience that will always make a difference. Other factors that affect and influence the salaries of these professionals are linked with each individual’s qualifications, as well as the set of specialized skills that one was able to gain during his or her educational training and professional experience.
Audiologist Salary in 2016
An audiologist income in the United States, for the year 2016 is influenced mainly by several factors that will include education and training, location, type of facility, company size and other. As it seems according to some of the surveys, the median average for an income for someone working as an audiologist usually reaches around $70,127 per year. On the other hand based on other estimations and surveys that have been made the median annual income for these specialists reaches around $75,438 per year.
The percent vary a lot since you have to take into consideration several factors that affect the economic market. For instance, the income for audiologists will differ based on each state, the company and the industry in which you’ve found work and the duties and the responsibilities that you have to fulfill.
The salary is usually estimated at having lower and higher points starting from around $48,761 per year and climbing up to $86,137 per year. If it were to add the bonuses that are granted, the profit sharing and the commission you’ll have in the end a total payment estimated to be between $50,378 per year and up to $92,840 per year.
Depending on how much would your salary be as an audiologist also depends on how much education did you gain or you are ready to continue to invest in? Your earnings will also differ if, for instance, you have a Master’s degree or a Doctor’s degree. Another difference in the audiologist salary is based on the location.
For instance, if you have your job into a larger city then you can expect to receive a higher income compared to working in a rural area. The good news for those who work as audiologist is the fact that you’ll also receive salary benefits such as travel pay, profit sharing, that was remembered just earlier, health and life insurance, social security pension, 401 k and many other. All these salary benefits can really bump up your income very significantly.
Audiologist salary in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom
- If you live in Canada the audiologist salary ranges from CAD$65,000 to CAD$70,000 a year if you have a few years experience with the average being CAD$72,000 a year with several years of experience.
- If you work in Australia you can expect your audiologist salary to be AU$68,000 a year and this includes bonuses of over AU$15,000. Without any bonuses you can start out at AU$48,000 a year on average.
- In the UK is 12,000 pounds a year.
Audiology Career
What is an Audiologist?
Job description of an Audiologist
An audiologist does work that is very important for hearing impaired children and young adults. Without audiologists test and diagnosing their hearing problems many would not be able to hear today. When you work as a clinical audiologist you work to find the causes for the person’s hearing loss and then develop a treatment plan for them. While you are doing the evaluation you will also perform interviews and diagnostic tests with the patient in order to determine why they have the hearing loss. You will also have the job of fitting cochlear implants and prescribing hearing aids.
Because hearing loss can happen from having chronic ear infections, viral infections, loud noises, birth trauma, some medications, or genetic disorders the audiologist will need to determine just what caused the hearing loss. It could be one or more of these factors or something entirely different than what is the norm for a hearing loss. They may also work with the patient and teach them ways that they can cope with their hearing loss, especially if it is going to be a permanent hearing loss. If they are getting hearing aids an audiologist will work with them in how to use them.
An audiologist will also have to know how to use medical devices such as an audiometer. This piece of equipment is used to measure that sounds the patient can hear. Being an audiologist also means that you have to keep accurate records of their patients because in these records are the notes of the audiologist that tell them the patient’s evaluations, what and when they had treatments and how effective the treatments were. If the treatment plans are not working for the patient then the audiologist will need to adjust them until they work. Audiologist also works with the various insurance companies to make sure that they will pay for the services and equipment that the patients need. This includes private insurance companies, state insurance providers known as Medicaid, and federal insurance providers known as Medicare.
Audiologists also work with physicians and nurses to help identify and prevent hearing loss by administering specialized tests to help the physician diagnose certain disorders and diseases. You will also be able to adjust hearing aids to help the patients live a full productive life. Some audiologists go to community health fairs to give out information about hearing loss, what can cause it, and how they can prevent it. At these health fairs they may also demonstrate some hearing exercises to help improve people’s hearing along with helping to prevent the loss of hearing.
How to become an Audiologist?
One important thing to note if you want to get into the field of becoming an audiologist is that this is a specialized area of research along with being an independent branch of medical science. If you know that this is the field that you want to get in while in high school you should make sure that you take all the science and math classes you can take. You should take classes in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology and get high grades in them. After looking at what an audiologist does if you think that it is an easy job and that the education and training that is required is not hard then you need to do some rethinking. It is a very challenging job and does require detailed training and education. In fact, you will need at least master’s degree but not just any master’s degree. You will need a master of arts in speech pathology or masters of Science in audiology along with a Master of Arts degree in audiology. These are just the education parameters just to get a job as an audiologist. If you want to admission for postgraduate courses in audiology you will also need to complete graduate programs in linguistics, psychology, sign language or phonetics. In approximately twenty states you will need to have a Doctor of Audiology degree instead of just a master’s degree.
If you want to become an authorized audiologist you will need to obtain a license from the state where you live. If you decided to pursue a PhD program or postgraduate degree in audiology you will also need to be certified in Clinical Competence in Audiology from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). Once you have this you will have to have a minimum score of six hundred on the Praxis examination and a certificate in clinical fellowship from a professional certified audiologist.
When looking at a college that offers a Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree they should be accredited by the following regional accrediting colleges and schools:
- Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
- North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
- Western Association of Schools and Colleges
- New England Association of Schools and Colleges
- Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
- Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Some of the best places to get that Doctor of Audiology degree are:
- Vanderbilt University, Nashville
- University of Texas, Dallas
- University of Florida, Gainesville
- University of Washington, Seattle
- Purdue University, West Lafayette
- Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
Whichever college or university you choose it is a four-year course going full time. You will also need to apply for a Hearing Aid Dispenser License so you are allowed to test, prescribe, and issue hearing aids.
Work environment and schedule
- You will select, tune, and fit digital hearing aids for those who are suffering from hearing loss.
- You will examine the ear drum and outer ear to check for infections and/or excessive wax.
- Educating people who work in places with loud noises and how important it is to use ear protection while working in order to save their hearing.
- Screen newborns to see if they have any hearing loss
- Refer patients that have hearing problems to the places that will give them the appropriate services for their particular problems.
- Perform hearing tests for children who appear to have problems hearing or responding to loud noises.
- Most audiologists will work in some type of health care facility such as a physician’s office, hospital, audiology clinics, or for school districts traveling to different schools to do hearing tests.
- They may have their own practice and be a part of a group practice.
- Depending on where you work you may need special uniforms and shoes. If you have your own practice you will need office type apparel such as dress pants, skirts, dresses, heels, etc.
- Almost all audiologists work a full time schedule.
The work schedule will depend on which environment they work in. If they work for a hospital they may have a variable schedule such as working weekends, holidays, evenings, split shifts, or day shifts. In you have your own practice you can set your own hours and include some evening hours if you wish. When you work for a doctor’s office, a clinic, or for a school district, an audiologist will normally work a set schedule Monday thru Friday such as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with time off for lunch. There are even some audiologists who work on a contract basis where they go from office to office as needed which is good for audiologists who love to travel and meet new people.
Pros and Cons of being an audiologist
Being an audiologist is one of the rewarding jobs, and it plays an important role in the day by day society. One of the best benefits as working as an audiologist is that you have a huge possibility to assist others who are in need for better hearing. In your duties, the main reward is that you get a chance to establish relationships with the patients. The new relationships often involve the patients’ families as well. You can also instruct them to show them how to live a stress-free life by discovering how to communicate with other people by the language of signs and by reading their lips.
If you work as an educational audiologist, you have the opportunity and the reward of helping children to feel a part of the society that surrounds them and feel more normal. At the same time, an audiologist work can be sometimes frustrated due to the procedures of establishing what could cause a patient’s loss of hearing or the cause of his or her established hearing difficulties. The main issues will appear with having to determine the exact level of one patient’s disability. In some cases they have more disabilities, and then after all this process you need to establish the correct treatment that sometimes will have to be adjusted to function. Another con will be the education that is costly, and an audiologist will have to have a doctorate in audiology.
Having to work as an audiologist will also mean long hours of work including weekends and evenings and having to travel a lot between settings. Traveling applies if you are a professional hired on a contract basis and not only.
However, you’ll get a chance to have a great salary with an occupation that has been growing and growing over the past years and wit many career opportunities in various fields.
Audiologist Job Growth
This career has a very bright future perspective due to the high number f demanding for these specialists in every setting and facility. The clear reality of the percentage shown in the number of demands indicates that there is and will not be a shortage for those that are searching for work in this field of specialization.
For the next ten years, a job growth is also indicated in the salary and the number of possibilities, due to the comparison with other specialties that indicates above average figures for the incomes. This field of specialization, in the United States, for the year 2016 is expected to lead to a constant growth due to the number of cases seen in the last years especially in the elderly population, or the infants or in another age category.
With all this occurring you can expect that the compensation for audiologist will grow as well. There is a continual need for the aid of an audiologist.
Conclusion on Audiology salary
The audiologist’s salary will only go up as you gain more experience. Comparing the salary in the United States to other places like Canada, the UK and Australia, you can see that the audiologist salary in the United States is higher.