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 | $38k |
| Personal care aide | 2.8 | $26k |
| Psychiatric technician | 2.8 | $37k |
| Family social worker | 2.8 | $49k |
| Healthcare social worker | 2.8 | $61k |
| Speech language pathologist | 2.7 | $79k |
| Substance abuse social worker | 2.7 | $49k |
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
14% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 5 stars
29% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 4 stars
28% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 3 stars
18% of speech language pathologists rated their compensation 2 stars
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
17% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
27% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
27% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
17% of speech language pathologists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
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
24% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 5 stars
33% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 4 stars
25% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of speech language pathologists rated their career fit 2 stars
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
15% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 5 stars
30% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 4 stars
31% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 3 stars
16% of speech language pathologists rated their work environment 2 stars
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
13% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
27% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
28% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
22% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
11% of speech language pathologists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars