Speech Language Pathologist Salary in Texas 2026,
$99,910 Median | BLS Data by City

A median $99,910 a year, or $48.03 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 2.1% above the national median of $97,870, with no state income tax deducted. The middle half falls between $79,230 and $118,490 and the full band runs $66,370 to $132,990. Paying above the national median with no state tax makes Texas a strong market for this profession.

Sherman-Denison at $115,940, ahead of Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos $106,290, Brownsville-Harlingen $100,940, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands $100,400 and Texarkana $99,990. A north Texas market leading the table ahead of Austin reflects recruitment difficulty in the smaller districts and health systems rather than any cost-of-living effect.

Through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which handles this profession alongside dozens of other occupations. You need a master's degree from an accredited programme, supervised clinical experience and the national examination; the department also issues an intern licence covering the supervised clinical fellowship year. For school-based practice, Texas Education Agency requirements apply in addition.

Medical and contract practice generally pays above school district employment, and the difference is much of the distance between the $79,230 twenty-fifth percentile and the $118,490 seventy-fifth. School work offers a district schedule, the academic calendar and stable hours; hospital, skilled nursing, home health and contract work pays more and often involves swallowing and neurological caseloads. Both are substantial employers in this state.

The published data says so. A median above the national figure, no state or local income tax, employment at 1.15 times the national concentration across about 19,120 posts, and fifteen per cent projected national growth all point the same way — and about 1,390 openings a year pro-rated from the national figure is one of the larger state counts here. Property tax is the main household offset.

Administratively, it makes the process routine — the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation processes this profession alongside dozens of others with standardised procedures, which for a clinician relocating means less friction than a specialised board sometimes involves. Substantively, it means the profession's regulation sits within a general occupational framework rather than a health-professional one, and that the intern licence covering the clinical fellowship year is handled as a straightforward licence category. The layer that adds complexity is education: school-based practice, which employs a large share of Texas speech-language pathologists, brings Texas Education Agency requirements alongside the state licence, so a school clinician deals with two systems.

It blends school district, hospital, skilled nursing, home health, early intervention and private practice employment, which pay differently — school work generally below the median, medical and contract work above it. School positions also annualise a shorter contract year, which the wage figure does not adjust for. And it reports wages and salaries, so private practice income is under-represented.

Setting first: medical, home health and contract practice above school district employment, roughly the distance from the $79,230 twenty-fifth percentile to the $118,490 seventy-fifth. Specialty competence second — swallowing, neurological rehabilitation and augmentative communication are the areas with genuine demand. Location third, and it points to the smaller and border markets, with Sherman-Denison at $115,940 leading. Private practice ownership and lead clinician roles fourth, which is what the $132,990 ninetieth percentile describes.