Test hearing and balance, fit hearing aids, and help people hear again. A master's degree and only six schools in Canada.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$96,000
New grad
$69,000
Clinic owner or senior
$124,000
Job Bank groups audiologists with speech-language pathologists and puts the median at about $46 an hour, roughly $96,000 a year full time, with a spread of about $33 to $60 an hour. Hospital and public health jobs pay on a grid. Private hearing clinics often pay a base salary plus commission on hearing aid sales, so income there swings with sales.
$33 to $42 an hour
About $69,000 to $87,000 a year at full-time hours
Hospital positions in Ontario and Alberta start near the top. Small private clinics may start lower but add commission.
$5,000 to $30,000 a year
Typical commission on hearing aid sales in private clinics
A pair of hearing aids can cost $3,000 to $8,000. Some audiologists dislike the sales pressure and choose hospital or public health work instead, trading top pay for peace of mind.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a four year undergraduate degree at in province public rates followed by the shorter two year master's, with no private tuition anywhere. The high end is a three year master's at a costlier program plus placement travel, immunizations and a police check, and the first year of registration with the provincial regulator. That registration fee repeats every year for the rest of your career. Because only a handful of audiology programs exist in Canada, most students move provinces to study, and the cost of moving is not counted here.
Roughly $45,000 to $70,000 in tuition. Because there are only six programs, many students move provinces to study, which adds living costs.
Defined-benefit pension in hospitals
HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) in Ontario hospitals. Private clinics rarely offer a pension.
Extended health and dental
Regular daytime hours
Almost no evenings, nights or weekends.
Continuing education budget
Equipment and hearing aid tech change fast.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Six to seven years of university. The bottleneck is the master's.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 physics, biology, math and English. Sound is physics, so do not skip it.
Undergraduate degree
4 years
Any major with the prerequisites: physics or acoustics, statistics, anatomy, psychology and linguistics. Keep a high average.
Master's in audiology
2 to 3 years
Only six universities: Dalhousie, Western, UBC (University of British Columbia), Université de Montréal, University of Ottawa and Université Laval. Classes are small. Hundreds of supervised clinical hours.
Register with your provincial regulator
A few weeks
In Ontario that is CASLPO (the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario). Some provinces add a short test on the rules of practice.
Physics
Sound waves, decibels and frequency are the core science.
Biology
Ear and brain anatomy come later.
Math
Statistics in the master's.
English
You explain results to worried people all day.
French
Required for the Montréal, Laval and Ottawa programs, and a plus everywhere.
These are the only audiology master's programs in Canada:
Dalhousie University
Halifax. Takes students from across the country.
Western University
London, Ontario.
UBC (University of British Columbia)
Vancouver.
Université de Montréal, Université Laval and University of Ottawa
French language programs.
In most provinces, audiologist is a protected title. You register with the provincial college, for example CASLPO (the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario), and renew every year. Where there is no college, employers ask for certification from SAC (Speech-Language & Audiology Canada). Hearing instrument practitioners, who finish a college diploma, can fit and sell hearing aids but cannot call themselves audiologists or do diagnostic testing.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Cochlear implant programs
Hospital teams that program implants for people who are deaf. Highly skilled, hard to get into.
Pediatric audiology
Following up newborn screening and fitting hearing aids on babies.
Vestibular (balance) testing
Dizziness clinics. A growing area with few trained people.
Hearing conservation
Noise testing for mines, factories and the military.
Owning a clinic
The top earners in the field run their own practice.
Comfort with physics and technology
Hearing aids are tiny computers you program.
Volunteer with seniors
Most patients are older adults.
Customer service experience
A lot of the job is explaining, reassuring and following up.
Some sign language
Useful, and shows real interest.
A 2-year college diploma trains you to test hearing for the purpose of fitting and selling hearing aids. Pay is roughly $50,000 to $80,000 with commission. You cannot diagnose or work with children in most provinces, but it is a real job in the same field with far less school.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In a clinic you see 8 to 12 people. A hearing test in a soundproof booth takes about 30 minutes, then you explain the results, fit or adjust hearing aids, and program them on a laptop while the person tells you how the restaurant sounded. Hospital days add newborn screening, balance tests and cochlear implant checks. You end the day with reports and hearing aid orders.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
Statistics Canada measured the hearing of adults aged 20 to 79 and found about 4 in 10 had at least mild hearing loss in one ear. Most of them did not know it.
Canada trains audiologists at only six universities. Most graduating classes are a few dozen people, which is one reason the job market stays open.
Most provinces screen every newborn's hearing in the hospital. Audiologists follow up the ones who do not pass, and a child found early can get hearing aids or an implant before speech is delayed.
That is about a busy city street. A loud concert can hit 110. Audiologists spend a lot of time explaining that earbuds at full volume are doing permanent harm.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.