Apple - How to see the current playback speed in VLC?
On the Mac version of VLC, to see the playback speed, you have to click the Playback menu. It won't be shown on the default window.
You can also setup the OnScreenDisplay which will display playback speed changes, step forwards, step backwards and other changes during playback.
Go to VLC -> Preferences -> Subtitles/OSD -> Enable OSD.
Save settings and quit the vlc app so settings get applied.