The average taxable income for an audiologist in Australia was just under $97,000 in 2022-2023 while ENT surgeons remained the nation’s fourth highest paid profession, according to the latest salary data released by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Audiologists earned slightly less in 2022-2023 than in 2021-2022 – overall $41 less or, for females, an average $93 less.
Women again earned less than men in every job category in the sector.
Female audiologists earned about $25,000 on average less than their male counterparts. And the average taxable income for female audiometrists was about $18,000 less than males. However, this figure needs to be interpreted cautiously as audiometrists were grouped in the broader medical technicians category in 2022-2023.
Ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons remained the nation’s fourth highest income earners, earning just over $595,000 on average, a rise of about $18,000 on the previous year.
The gender wage gap was far greater for ENT surgeons as otorhinolaryngologists who are women earned about $232,000 less than men.
The ATO released its taxation statistics for 2022-2023 on its website and updated the data on 13 November 2025.
For professions where a greater proportion work part-time, this can skew salaries down so when comparing between men and women, it may not necessarily be a like-for-like comparison.
Based on tax returns filed by 3,403 audiologists, the average taxable income of audiologists in 2022-2023 was $96,892. In 2021-2022 it was $96,933.
For female audiologists, it was $90,979, based on 2,565 tax returns. This dropped $93 from the 2021-2022 figure of $91,072.
For their male counterparts, average taxable income was $114,988, based on information provided by 838 men. This amount fell $27 from $115,015 in 2021-2022.
ENT surgeon salaries average $600,000
The average taxable income for otorhinolaryngologists – combining male and female ENT surgeons – was $595,362, a rise of $18,680 from the previous year’s $576,925.
Male ENT surgeons earnt on average $641,204 compared with female ENTs on $408,600. This data was based on tax returns from 110 men and 27 women.
For the second year running, ophthalmology was the nation’s highest paid profession. Ophthalmologists had an average taxable income of $643,389 in 2022-2023 followed by neurosurgeons on $611,754, plastic and reconstructive surgeons on $595,969 and otorhinolaryngologists on $595,362.
There was no specific category for audiometrists as in 2022-2023, they were classified under the broader category of medical technicians (other).
On average, yearly taxable income for medical technicians was $69,696. Men earned $18,812 more than females – $80,060 for males versus $61,248 for females.
The combined male/female figure was on parity with 2021-2022 when it was $69,694.
Other relevant salary details for the hearing health sector include health practice managers whose average taxable income was $83,534.
Again, males earned more on average ($105,059) than females ($80,695).
There was no category for audiometry nurses, but child and family health nurses had an average taxable income of $76,154.
Male nurses earnt about $25,000 more than females – approximately $95,000 versus $75,000.
The situation was similar for community health nurses who overall earned $75,830 or about $88,000 if they were male and $74,000 if they were female.
School teachers of the hearing impaired earned an average $78,782 – or about $96,000 for males and $77,000 for females while university lecturers took home $118,668 (about $128,000 for males versus $108,000 for females.)
Interpreters, including Auslan interpreters, earned just under $50,000. The average taxable income was $49,623. For females it was $48,315 and males, $52,500.
The Australian Government’s Jobs and Skills Australia data defines interpreters as those who transfer spoken or signed languages into other spoken or signed languages, usually within a limited timeframe in the presence of the participants requiring the translation.
