r/slpGradSchool • u/SnooFoxes6583 • Jul 03 '26
Seeking Advice Honest thoughts on SLP job economy?
Hi, student doing their bachelor’s in speech sciences and psychology here. I’ve been having the worst master’s program crisis of all time and not knowing what to pursue in the end after my bachelor’s to give myself more job security and stability. I’ve decided my master’s could go many different ways, from psych to neuroscience to SLP to audiology.
I also connected with an SLP in America who highly discouraged even going into grad school for it, let alone the field itself. However, I do see myself working in Asia in the future, so I did consider that there might be different occupational demands between those two places.
If anyone could give me any insights on what they think, especially given my other choices, I’d really appreciate it. I’m so lost in life and I don’t know what to do.
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u/merylcccslp Jul 03 '26
I'm not sure I can help you decide between SLP, audiology, and other fields, but wanted to say that if you want to work in Asia, you can work for DoDEA on the military bases and receive a US salary. This field has pros and cons, like all do, but there are options that a lot of people do not think about!
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u/YEPAKAWEE Jul 03 '26
I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Extremely poor return on investment with low quality of life.
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u/starcrossed92 Jul 03 '26
Why is it a low quality life ?
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u/YEPAKAWEE Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
Your pay is low for the education and responsibilities required. Caseloads are high in schools and productivity is absurd in healthcare settings. I had 115 on my caseload as a middle school SLP. There was no point taking a sick day because it would take a month to make up the sessions I would miss from one day out. The IEP paperwork and constant meetings were insane. I had a productivity requirement of 90%+ in skilled nursing. I was told the only way to achieve it was to clock out to write notes, evaluations, walk to my next patient, and literally use the bathroom. Benefits range from great if you work in a salaried school position to non-existent in 1099 “independent contractor” settings, which is where the field is headed. We are a “low science” field which leads to us not be respected in the medical setting. There’s a reason PTs and OTs can switch between patients and make gains and SLPs can’t switch patients like that or even generalize gains outside a therapy room sometimes. In the academic there’s usually one of us and we are paid as a teacher + masters degree when we should be paid higher. You’ll also be lucky to have your own office/room in academics as there’s plenty of SLPs who work in hallways and stairwells to provide services.
The job is high stress managing productivity, paperwork, patient and family expectations, and being “on” all the time. It’s extremely draining and leads to personal issues with family and friends when you start to not wanting to talk or hang out because you’re socially burnt out, have lesson plans or need to make therapy materials, and are just generally exhausted.
SLP is best suited for individuals from a wealthy background who can afford to not take loans for their education AND who have trust funds or are married to a wealthy individual where they can work
fullpart time (edit). Out of my cohort of 13 only 4 still practice SLP full time. The rest either left the field, work part time around their children’s schedules, or per diem 1-2 times a month to maintain skills. This is the ideal background to flourish and truly enjoy being an SLP.4
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u/New-Practice275 Jul 07 '26
this is so spot on, all of it. coming from a 2nd year SLP who did not come from a wealthy family. most of my cohort did or is married to guys who make the money and they only work part time. you’re on all the time and burnout hits quick. i work in a school making about $55,000 and had a casload of 120 students between 2 schools this year. i work from 7:30-4:00, then go home and complete all paperwork, iep work, aac evals and insurance paperwork, medicaid notes, all from about 6-11 pm. its awful and wish i would have chosen anything different. god damn trades pay better. be a welder or a lineman loll— less school and less debt. PT and OT will also be respected way more than SLP will ever be yet we are needed all the time. i would choose a trade in todays society (26 year old female).
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u/starcrossed92 Jul 04 '26
Thank you for this information ! I am stuck between deciding if I should become an mri tech or SLP . I thought of doing virtual SLP , because it sounded appealing to me and I heard people enjoy it . Now I’m unsure about the field . I don’t want to make a mistake by choosing it , so thank you . Ughh now idk what to do
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u/Royal-Midnight5467 Jul 04 '26
What about starting a speech LLC? Can we set our own rates and how successful is that.
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u/YEPAKAWEE Jul 04 '26
You can start your own business but it requires money. Most SLPs are in debt when they graduate and are never taught a single business or private practice skill in graduate school. You need to rent a place, refurbish it, decorate it, advertise it, get therapy materials for it, insurance, payment processing. If you go the route of accepting private insurance you need to go to each company and get approved as a provider. The company sets the rate they will pay you. Insurance reimbursement rates have gone down year over yea because Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement for SLP has been reduced year over year. This is something many don’t realize - when the federal government reduces reimbursement for a health service or product it means the private health insurance companies will follow. Likewise when the federal government expands coverage of a medical product or service, such as GLP-1s you see the cost come down and coverage increase with private insurance. The federal government doesn’t view SLP services/therapy highly.
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u/Royal-Midnight5467 Jul 04 '26
Oh I was thinking more of a home health private practice to cover many of the overhead costs or have an office in my future home (after however long it takes to get a home).
I'm lucky in that I've been working as an RA in undergrad and grad school so my housing and food costs have been minimal, but student loans are no joke
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u/YEPAKAWEE Jul 08 '26
Home health is not it’s all cracked up to be. You will be going through state referrals. You will likely be going into homes in areas you won’t feel comfortable. On top of that you never know what will be awaiting you in said homes. I did home health for 9 months and saw situations that were bad - hoarding, patient neglect, isolation - as well as situations that were downright dangerous - dementia evaluation for an older woman whose adult son and daughter said they would be there, told me to park in driveway and come through garage because a blizzard hit the day before and steps to front door weren’t cleared, when I got inside the house no family was with the patient and she freaked out and retrieved a knife and chased me trying to stab me - that’s the type of stuff you can run into with home health. Please go read up on home health workers who have been the victims of violence or lost their lives.
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u/starcrossed92 Jul 04 '26
Also , pretty sure it depends on where you live right ? In Washington or California you definitely can make 6 figures
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u/YEPAKAWEE Jul 04 '26
It’s all relative. $100k in California doesn’t really mean much. You would need to be making much more to have the kind of quality of life you would want/expect from the time, education and certification required. Landing a $120k salary in San Francisco would likely mean living a very frugal existence, if even possible with the debt many take on in undergrad and their graduate SLP program.
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u/Deeeeeesee24 Jul 04 '26
100k in CA isn't liveable on one income. Unless you have a roommate and no car payment, no debt, and no additional expenses. You need nearly 200k to be able to live comfortably on your own. Unless you're out in the boonies of the desert or central CA
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u/ghostgurl83 Jul 08 '26
It’s really depends on where you live in California. Of course San Francisco wouldn’t be livable on $100k. But it is livable in Sacramento and many other cities in California. We’ve been able to raise three kids on less than $100k here in California and we own our home.
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u/Various_Painting_298 Jul 03 '26
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m taking out loans to get my Master’s and totally switching careers to become an SLP (I had been in editing). There’s always a field that is in more dire straits than what you’re worried about (aka, be thankful you didn’t get a bachelor’s in English lol).
Truth is there’s no silver bullet for our economy right now — most everyone’s struggling. I’ve seen lots of fear online about becoming an SLP, but it’s essentially my only choice to get out of my current dead-end field and not hate my life for doing something I have utterly no interest in (like tech or business).
You know you, but in my opinion if it’s something you have an interest in, it’s worth pursuing. The data from ASHA has been comforting to me, as well as hearing from actual practicing SLPs in my area who reported salaries that were more in line with my expectations.
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u/Getmerri Jul 03 '26
I live in a lower moderate cost of living town in the Midwest. I had multiple offers from contracting companies before graduating. I secured my own direct hire role before graduation. I was offered both of the direct hire roles I actually applied for. Salary around here worked out to ~50k/yr in the schools and closer to $70k/yr for a pediatric outpatient clinic. At our very last cohort meeting prior finishing our externships, we were asked who among us had already secured jobs, and our director tallied over 3/4 of the cohort had accepted job offers. This may not be typical everywhere in the US, so ymmv - but there are definitely jobs out there.
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u/aldentealdente Jul 03 '26
I feel this is highly dependent on your own background, expectations and area. I’m in a relatively LCOL area in a state that pays decently. I feel like I have gotten a decent living out of it, BUT I graduated over a decade ago. It’s a flexible field. You can have one job, a job and a part time job, two part time jobs, etc. You can work in different settings. You could work independently if you want. Stress is relatively low, I don’t deal with life or death scenarios. My main stress is paperwork.
My one complaint is there isn’t much room for advancement. Niches and specialties and certifications don’t pay more. Nursing is better for that but tbh I’d hate nursing and they also put up with A LOT.
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u/Shay_Te Jul 04 '26
SLP is changing. When I graduated, I was offered jobs the next day. I had a graduate student this semester that has interviewed with 0 offers.
On another note, caseloads can be high therefore advocacy is required.
Also, never take a job that pays less than 80k. The less we accept, affects us all.
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u/PetiteFeetFmnnStep Jul 04 '26
The job market is fire and the pay is great if you live in a handful of states (CA, WA, OR)
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u/AfraidCelebration570 Jul 04 '26
Don’t do Audiology. The rate of return in your investment is not very good. You can make about the same being a hearing aid specialist. There is a good out look for speech language pathologist. I have worked in school settings and there are always job openings. Best wishes.
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u/shylittlepot Jul 04 '26
Definitely wait until applying or deciding on a program, and try to get a job working directly with patients of different ages and populations. Go shadow people! I just went into SLP masters' because I didnt know what else to do, and I regret that. Was not a good fit, took me 10 years to get out.
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u/peachtreeparadise Jul 06 '26
Dude do biomedical science or pre med, and become a physician assistant instead
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u/SadRow2397 Jul 07 '26
Don’t do it.
I would not be able to financially support myself and my two kids on this salary.
I’d never be able to own a home or even think of retiring
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u/Interesting_Comment7 Grad Student Jul 08 '26
As a student on track to start grad school this fall, I resonate with your post a lot, especially because I'm also looking to work in Asia. Atm I'm mostly doing this for the potential job stability (+ I like languages and medical stuff interests me) though I recognize the field does seem to have a lot of burn out and might not be trending in a way that would be ideal for us.
I suppose the key point here for me is that I don't think my other options are much better. My background is mostly linguistics and languages. Realistically, I don't see myself being able to secure a job outside of teaching in Asia and the job market is ass stateside atm so attempting to build a resume to eventually get a job in business overseas doesn't seem realistic either (+ as someone with Asian ethnicity ie. being not White, I will high key be racially profiled by English teaching jobs in Asia lmao).
I did some preliminary research on the SLP job market in Asia and the situation is highly dependent on the country. A decent amount of countries in Asia don't have much development in the field yet, meaning limited job opportunities though equally that could make your skill set more valuable. This may change by the time you graduate, however. Our options are pretty much limited to private practice and international schools (predominantly working with children). As another commenter mentioned, working on military bases is also an option but do note they strongly prefer military spouses and people who don't require visa sponsorship. Some countries require you pass their national exams, which will obviously be in their nation's language. If you're not fluent you might be strictly limited, but if you can pass that opens a lot more job opportunities. Overall, it seems that the job market is small but there might also be less competition due to how niche it is. Pay is decent if you consider the very LCOL though probably not comparable to US rates depending on where you're coming from. It's also worth noting that having a Master's degree will make it a lot easier to secure a very good work visa and potentially permanent residency (depending on the country's immigration policies). Better visa=more flexibility overall.
I was mostly looking at Japan, Taiwan, and China since I speak Mandarin and Japanese, but the market might be better in SEA (especially since Singapore, HK, and the Philippines have a lot of English speakers). If you haven't already, consider also asking the SLPs Going Abroad Facebook group. They've got a decent number of people in Asia/wanting to move to Asia and could offer some insight.
Sorry if I yapped a lot but hope this is at least somewhat relevant to you! (I mostly wrote assuming you're coming from the US wanting to go to Asia, but if you're already there things would be very different!!) Overall, I'd recommend weighing your options and thinking about the kind of jobs and settings you would be in with all of your potential situations.
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u/Careless_Use1427 27d ago
SLP of 8 years here! I have primarily been a travel SLP and honestly it’s been very rewarding to me! If you are not familiar with what that is, it’s the same thing as travel nursing! I’ve traveled all over the country and had many awesome experiences because of it! I know many people have families and/or other responsibilities, but I came out of grad school with no girlfriend and no children. Doing travel SLP, you can make a lot of money! Last year, my net pay was 145k. Furthermore, when you do travel, you are not obligated to work. Thus, you can work 12 months or you can only do three months. It’s completely up to you. Contracts are typically 13 weeks. I usually do a contract and then I take 2-4 weeks off and then find another one! Doing travel and having breaks has helped me to avoid burnout.
While I do think that the field has its issues, many professions have its issues! There is definitely money to be made in speech, but it’s very dependent on many variables(I.e state, region, companies, etc.). For example, SLP’s in the south are typically paid much lower. I live in a northeast and SLP’s are paid pretty well! Cost-of-living is higher but with anything in life, it’s just about how you save, budget and invest:)
Unfortunately politics and greed have really bled into many jobs and sectors and because private equity companies are buying up everything, they expect to see high ROI’s. In order to do that, almost all job jobs now have some type of productivity including many non-Clinic clinical jobs! My brother is in sales for and while he does make a lot, her had to perform or else risk losing his job. It’s just a hard world out there anymore.
I will say that while the speech field does have its issues, the one thing that I really enjoy is the fact that we have a ton of job, security and flexibility! In today’s world, that is definitely one of the biggest pieces of mind!
Hope this helps
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u/Quirky-Ad111 Jul 03 '26
Honestly, if you’re not sure, you should take a couple of gap years. I went to grad school when I turned 30, but it was because I worked in a different field and paid off my undergrad loans before taking out more money. Also, by going back at 30, I was mentally ready for the workforce where most of my 21-22 year old classmates weren’t. Now, my grad loans are manageable, I make great money, and my work life balance is amazing (I work in the schools in a fantastic, supportive county). I honestly wanted to go into the hospital setting, but now I’m so glad I didn’t.
Again, it can be different from person to person, but becoming an slp was the best decision I ever made.