Speech language pathologists are one of the least happy careers in the United States.

At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, speech language pathologists rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 14% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy speech language pathologists are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:

Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers

Career Satisfaction Avg Salary
Optician
2.9
$23k
Personal care aide
2.8
$25k
Psychiatric technician
2.8
$23k
Family social worker
2.8
$28k
Healthcare social worker
2.8
$47k
Speech language pathologist
2.7
$52k
Substance abuse social worker
2.7
$51k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are speech language pathologists happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do speech language pathologists find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as speech language pathologists?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are speech language pathologist’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are speech language pathologists making the best use of their abilities?

Are speech language pathologists happy with their salary?

Speech language pathologists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.2/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most speech language pathologists having generally positive views of their salary.

We asked speech language pathologists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

632 speech language pathologists

5 Star
14%

14% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
29%

29% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
28%

28% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
18%

18% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 1 stars

Do speech language pathologists find their jobs meaningful?

On average, speech language pathologists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.2/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.

We asked speech language pathologists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

645 speech language pathologists

5 Star
17%

17% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
27%

27% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
17%

17% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
13%

13% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as speech language pathologists?

Speech language pathologists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.6/5. The majority of speech language pathologists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked speech language pathologists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.6 out of 5 stars

669 speech language pathologists

5 Star
24%

24% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
33%

33% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
12%

12% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
6%

6% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a speech language pathologist’s work environment?

As a whole, speech language pathologists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked speech language pathologists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.3 out of 5 stars

662 speech language pathologists

5 Star
15%

15% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
30%

30% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
31%

31% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
16%

16% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
7%

7% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 1 stars

Are speech language pathologists making the best use of their abilities?

Former speech language pathologists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.1/5. Most speech language pathologists are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.

We asked speech language pathologists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

3.1 out of 5 stars

664 speech language pathologists

5 Star
13%

13% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
27%

27% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
28%

28% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
22%

22% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars