New grad salary

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NorthTexasPharmacist

NorthTexasPharmacist

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Just confirmed that a new grad in DFW area was hired with $45/hr at CVS. CVS used to pay the most at $60/hr when I graduated back in 2012. This is getting scary low. At 40 hours, that's $600 less per week.
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NorthTexasPharmacist said:
Just confirmed that a new grad in DFW area was hired with $45/hr at CVS. CVS used to pay the most at $60/hr when I graduated back in 2012. This is getting scary low. At 40 hours, that's $600 less per week.
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$31,200 less a yr. Can get a full time tech for that money.
 
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Momus said:
$31,200 less a yr. Can get a full time tech for that money.
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Considering there are about 10,000 CVS stores in the US, that's about $32 million a year for them. There goes your reason why Larry Merlo gets a raise every year.
 
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Congrats to new school that opened post 2012 and all the "leaders" from APhA who became their deans.
 
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This is an example of what I meant when I previously stated that it's not just an issue of finding a job in the first place, but also one of actually *wanting* to work in retail, especially with salaries being so much lower now than they were even just a year or two ago. Even for (some of) those of us who are unemployed new grads, the motivation just isn't there. But apparently it throws up red flags for someone to decide that they don't have enough natural passion or interest in the field anymore and would rather train for a different career, so whatever. Are there seriously any other professions in which it looks bad to immediately transition into something else without getting a job in the field first, or is that just another unique-to-pharmacy-ism?
 
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So almost 10 years later the going rate for a new grad is $15 lower. Congrats to all of us in this field, we played ourselves.
 
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NorthTexasPharmacist said:
Just confirmed that a new grad in DFW area was hired with $45/hr at CVS. CVS used to pay the most at $60/hr when I graduated back in 2012. This is getting scary low. At 40 hours, that's $600 less per week.
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Is this new grad before being registered or after getting license?
 
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Saiyo said:
So almost 10 years later the going rate for a new grad is $15 lower. Congrats to all of us in this field, we played ourselves.
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I'm surprised it took this long honestly. We had no business making $60+/hr with so many PharmDs in the past ten years.
 
Old said:
Is this new grad before being registered or after getting license?
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Obviously after license. No new grad intern is making $45/hr, and no new pharmacist is making $90/hr.
 
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NorthTexasPharmacist said:
Just confirmed that a new grad in DFW area was hired with $45/hr at CVS. CVS used to pay the most at $60/hr when I graduated back in 2012. This is getting scary low. At 40 hours, that's $600 less per week.
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how many hours they getting? 24?
 
mentos said:
Obviously after license. No new grad intern is making $45/hr, and no new pharmacist is making $90/hr.
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Lol I wish this was true. It was true back in 2008 where I heard RPh in NY made 85 bucks / hour.
 
Back in 2012 when I was a tech, the pharmacist take home was ~6500 (post California/bay-area tax)
Fast forward to 2020, now as a registered pharmacist, my gross is barely her take her home :hungover:

now factor in added responsibilities and less staffing :dead:

50k/year less and way more work :rage::rage::rage::rage:
 
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Ladyg228 said:
Back in 2012 when I was a tech, the pharmacist take home was ~6500 (post California/bay-area tax)
Fast forward to 2020, now as a registered pharmacist, my gross is barely her take her home :hungover:

now factor in added responsibilities and less staffing :dead:

50k/year less and way more work :rage::rage::rage::rage:
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Don't forget inflation.
 
At this point it is simply time to start looking for work in different professions. Making 40 bucks an hour is not some sort of curse - in fact I may be much happier making that money in a different job.

I can say for sure, though, that retail pharmacy is not worth putting yourself thorough for that much.

On the other hand - I suppose I could give them what they paid for and just not take the job personally. Just really suck at your job and know it
 
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JustFillIt said:
At this point it is simply time to start looking for work in different professions. Making 40 bucks an hour is not some sort of curse - in fact I may be much happier making that money in a different job.

I can say for sure, though, that retail pharmacy is not worth putting yourself thorough for that much.

On the other hand - I suppose I could give them what they paid for and just not take the job personally. Just really suck at your job and know it
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What other jobs can we do that pay $40/hr? That's still a high salary that probably requires a different degree to get.
 
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mentos said:
What other jobs can we do that pay $40/hr? That's still a high salary that probably requires a different degree to get.
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This is a good question and one that I have thought about a lot. You work in long term care - I would recommend that you look into nursing home administration. You are qualified for the job, have relevant experience, and if you have leadership qualities you would be a perfect fit.

I have looked into this myself. The only hurdle that we would have to jump through is to complete a certain amount of shadowing hours before applying. Every state has a different number of hours. Their salary averages around 100-110k yearly.

There are other options as well. If you have some money in your pocket you could even look into franchising of some sort. I know some that have cashed out their 401k to risk franchising - I won’t debate if this is smart or not I’m just saying it’s an option. I know an ex-pharmacist that started a tree trimming business and he makes twice as much as he used to - this risk turned out to be the best choice he ever made.

Otherwise any job is an option really - we may not make 100k at the start, however working our way up is something that stands the test of time.
 
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These new grads have to resist the urge to accept those offers.. only way to prevent it from falling l
Ladyg228 said:
Back in 2012 when I was a tech, the pharmacist take home was ~6500 (post California/bay-area tax)
Fast forward to 2020, now as a registered pharmacist, my gross is barely her take her home :hungover:

now factor in added responsibilities and less staffing :dead:

50k/year less and way more work :rage::rage::rage::rage:
Click to expand...

feels bad man, shouldve just stayed a tech LOL ...
 
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Well, I'm in an unfortunate position to confirm these low salaries, experience or not. It would be easier to accept $40 if you knew that it would lead to 60 to 70 plus with experience but we all know that is not realistic.

CVS is hiring a lot of seasonal pharmacists in anticipation of busy flu shot season. These positions supposedly have an end date.
 
mentos said:
What other jobs can we do that pay $40/hr? That's still a high salary that probably requires a different degree to get.
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You can always find a justification for taking such a position but smart hardworking people can do better. No wonder rphs get no respect. Who works themselves like a dog for a weak salary? My first rph job was $36 per hour but $38 came fast. The new source of pharmacy profit is their employees pockets thru wage cuts
 
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johnpharm01 said:
You can always find a justification for taking such a position but smart hardworking people can do better. No wonder rphs get no respect. Who works themselves like a dog for a weak salary? My first rph job was $36 per hour but $38 came fast. The new source of pharmacy profit is their employees pockets thru wage cuts
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What? I asked what other jobs besides pharmacy we can do that pays $40/hr.
 
JustFillIt said:
This is a good question and one that I have thought about a lot. You work in long term care - I would recommend that you look into nursing home administration. You are qualified for the job, have relevant experience, and if you have leadership qualities you would be a perfect fit.

I have looked into this myself. The only hurdle that we would have to jump through is to complete a certain amount of shadowing hours before applying. Every state has a different number of hours. Their salary averages around 100-110k yearly.

There are other options as well. If you have some money in your pocket you could even look into franchising of some sort. I know some that have cashed out their 401k to risk franchising - I won’t debate if this is smart or not I’m just saying it’s an option. I know an ex-pharmacist that started a tree trimming business and he makes twice as much as he used to - this risk turned out to be the best choice he ever made.

Otherwise any job is an option really - we may not make 100k at the start, however working our way up is something that stands the test of time.
Click to expand...

Does your friend use a bucket truck to trim trees or does he climb them himself? I know there's big money in trees. But it's also tough work. The older tree guys in my area all have arthritis, bad knees etc just like many others in the trades.
 
mentos said:
Does your friend use a bucket truck to trim trees or does he climb them himself? I know there's big money in trees. But it's also tough work. The older tree guys in my area all have arthritis, bad knees etc just like many others in the trades.
Click to expand...

I talked to him for hours about his tree business, I was super intrigued. It was all started via Facebook, Craig’s, word of mouth that sort of thing. He does it himself. He owns a large beater truck with a trailer and high powered wood chipper - one of those massive tree grinder things (don’t know what they are called). He owns a couple mechanical pole saws and yes he climbs the trees, he said it’s very safe if you use the safety equipment correctly.

He hires high school kids to do a lot of the extra work. He still works part time as a fill in at Walgreens.

But seriously - check out nursing home administration, it’s right up your alley.
 
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M0df said:
Well, I'm in an unfortunate position to confirm these low salaries, experience or not. It would be easier to accept $40 if you knew that it would lead to 60 to 70 plus with experience but we all know that is not realistic.

CVS is hiring a lot of seasonal pharmacists in anticipation of busy flu shot season. These positions supposedly have an end date.
Click to expand...
Wal-Mart is in the process of hiring temporary pharmacists for this flu season also.
 
ranger99rx said:
Wal-Mart is in the process of hiring temporary pharmacists for this flu season also.
Click to expand...

At least, Walmart is hiring at 55/hour. Highest starting wage I've seen thus far.
 
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owlegrad said:
I wonder if that affects the insurance rates. Honestly that seems kinda crazy to me.
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Hiring high school kids? I don’t think they climb the trees - he climbs and the kids just haul the branches to a pile. They do the hauling.
 
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projektreverb said:
Are those Walmart hourly positions really temporary?
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No, you will be informed or they will have in the posting that the position is temporary. Hourly pharmacists won't be terminated after 180 days. I'm pretty sure they wil mention temporary in the job offer letter too.
 
mentos said:
What other jobs can we do that pay $40/hr? That's still a high salary that probably requires a different degree to get.
Click to expand...

I've met quite a few people who do factory work- which literally consists of not much more than pushing a button repeatedly. They have better or equal benefits than mine and infinitely more flexible schedules. When I tell them I've often had to schedule my vacations a year in advance they think I'm joking. They can actually even take sick days, rather than being told you have sick days on paper but are forbidden under penalty of termination to use them. Some of them make damned near the money (actually more with overtime- they don't work any extra hours for free like RPhs are expected to) that I do as a pharmacist. Granted, most of these are union jobs. Kind of hard to justify the education for the low return on pharmacy anymore. Most of these guys barely finished high school.

That being said, I'd never work in a pharmacy for 40 bucks an hour. Just never. There are plenty of other things I'd happily do for that money but certainly not pharmacy. Anyone who would accept such a wage for that kind of responsibility/ liability is crazy.

I hope I'm still alive for the day that pharmacy becomes so distasteful that NO ONE will do it. It's already pretty much there for me...
 
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Read this whole post

Let’s just be honest - retail pharmacy is horrible in ways that you will only understand if you find yourself in that position behind the counter. The only people who I truly know understand what I have gone through working retail are people like the ones reading this post.

I truly have had better days in retail pharmacy - once upon a time i was a PIC and I had a crew of 8 well trained technicians, and 2 reliable pharmacists that I could always depend on having things under control. We would crush about 400-500 Rx daily without much turbulence. However, these days this sort of situation is very rare. We would do 400-500 Rx with one pharmacist, and 5 eight hour techs in 11 hours. It was 4 days on and 3 days off.. honestly it was great

Then my company went out of business and I went to work at Wags. I think what I hated the most was about 10pm every night when the impending doom of having to do it all over again started to set in. Then the drive to work in the morning when I would start ruminating in who would call in today and how bad it would get... I would realize how many gaps in training existed in the many part time/unreliable help we had and how difficult these gaps were to fill.

How terrible it was to see the insurance rejection que pile up and no one really knew how to make it all work. It’s a terrible joke to look at the software at a place like Walgreens and have to make sense of all the bleeps and bloops of a dinosaur program. And the damn rejection codes that the insurance company sends - they may as well send Chinese symbols back to us... how the hell are we supposed to explain to a damn customer why their insurance rejected a medication when the message sent back goes something like “code pinto 763 user spanksalot” - am I then supposed to take that code and go tell customer that they are spanking it too much so their insurance won’t pay for it?? If that last part made absolutely no sense - that is how I feel about handing insurance rejections. If any sort of reform needs to be done, there needs to be more responsibility put on the insurance companies to explain to their customers why they won’t pay for something. Not us... anyways I have gone off the deep end.

I walked from that job 3 weeks in. I’ll never do that again even if it means I have to work outside of pharmacy. I’ll never let myself be taken advantage of in such a gross way again.
 
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JustFillIt said:
Let’s just be honest - retail pharmacy is horrible in ways that you will only understand if you find yourself in that position behind the counter. The only people who I truly know understand what I have gone through working retail are people like the ones reading this post.

I truly have had better days in retail pharmacy - once upon a time i was a PIC and I had a crew of 8 well trained technicians, and 2 reliable pharmacists that I could always depend on having things under control. We would crush about 400-500 Rx daily without much turbulence. However, these days this sort of situation is very rare. We would do 400-500 Rx with one pharmacist, and 5 eight hour techs in 11 hours. It was 4 days on and 3 days off.. honestly it was great

Then my company went out of business and I went to work at Wags. I think what I hated the most was about 10pm every night when the impending doom of having to do it all over again started to set in. Then the drive to work in the morning when I would start ruminating in who would call in today and how bad it would get... I would realize how many gaps in training existed in the many part time/unreliable help we had and how difficult these gaps were to fill. How terrible it was to see the insurance rejection que pile up and no one really knew how to make it all work.

I walked from that job 3 weeks in. I’ll never do that again even if it means I have to work outside of pharmacy. I’ll never let myself be taken advantage of in such a gross way again.
Click to expand...
This is exactly how I feel. I can’t wait to get out of pharmacy for good. Retail is pure hell and customers are stupid. It’s constantly stressful with no Work life balance. Pay sucks too now.
 
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Farmgurl20 said:
Damn that’s nice. They are offering 56 in Bay Area And COL is insane.
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lmao 56. In 2008, they gave us 63/hr in SF. Start hanging around where all the tech people hang out, catch yourself a sugar daddy. Time is of the essence!
 
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JustFillIt said:
I talked to him for hours about his tree business, I was super intrigued. It was all started via Facebook, Craig’s, word of mouth that sort of thing. He does it himself. He owns a large beater truck with a trailer and high powered wood chipper - one of those massive tree grinder things (don’t know what they are called). He owns a couple mechanical pole saws and yes he climbs the trees, he said it’s very safe if you use the safety equipment correctly.

He hires high school kids to do a lot of the extra work. He still works part time as a fill in at Walgreens.

But seriously - check out nursing home administration, it’s right up your alley.
Click to expand...
They quoted me $3k to remove a big tree. I don't let a tree grow at all after that. If I don't like it, it's gone before it gets too big and too expensive later.
 
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Just Fill It and Farmgurl....I can't like your posts enough. I'm not too far from retirement but last week my wife and I sat down and discussed the possibility of my just walking away from all of this now. I needed to see if it was a possibility- that's how much I hate it. The thought of being able to leave it is the ONLY thing that gives me hope. Doing so would clearly impact the quality of my retirement in the future. But I'm not sure if hanging in there is worth the cost on my mental health. I've come to hate the job. I've come to hate people as a whole. Literally if someone offered me a one man, one way mission to mars I'd take it without a second thought. I can't unsee the things I've seen.

But unlike most of those on this forum I did see some of the good years. That may even make it worse for me as I KNOW how far we've fallen. We'll never have the good days back. With the profession like it is now there's just no reason to do it anymore.
 
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Xenophylia said:
Just Fill It and Farmgurl....I can't like your posts enough. I'm not too far from retirement but last week my wife and I sat down and discussed the possibility of my just walking away from all of this now. I needed to see if it was a possibility- that's how much I hate it. The thought of being able to leave it is the ONLY thing that gives me hope. Doing so would clearly impact the quality of my retirement in the future. But I'm not sure if hanging in there is worth the cost on my mental health. I've come to hate the job. I've come to hate people as a whole. Literally if someone offered me a one man, one way mission to mars I'd take it without a second thought. I can't unsee the things I've seen.

But unlike most of those on this forum I did see some of the good years. That may even make it worse for me as I KNOW how far we've fallen. We'll never have the good days back. With the profession like it is now there's just no reason to do it anymore.
Click to expand...

I was even ok with giving up “the good old days” and having to hit the grindstone a little harder. I started pharmacy in 2009, so I was at the Tail end of the golden age. The problem is that “they” have gone entirely too far. It’s become a frightful nightmare of which no one should experience. It’s almost become an impossibility.

I can not tell you what to do with your retirement - however, i would say that the real pharmacists who have learned how to truly run a professional retail pharmacy are leaving retail to its demise.
 
Momus said:
lmao 56. In 2008, they gave us 63/hr in SF. Start hanging around where all the tech people hang out, catch yourself a sugar daddy. Time is of the essence!
Click to expand...

lol already married to one:D
 
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JustFillIt said:
Read this whole post

Let’s just be honest - retail pharmacy is horrible in ways that you will only understand if you find yourself in that position behind the counter. The only people who I truly know understand what I have gone through working retail are people like the ones reading this post.

I truly have had better days in retail pharmacy - once upon a time i was a PIC and I had a crew of 8 well trained technicians, and 2 reliable pharmacists that I could always depend on having things under control. We would crush about 400-500 Rx daily without much turbulence. However, these days this sort of situation is very rare. We would do 400-500 Rx with one pharmacist, and 5 eight hour techs in 11 hours. It was 4 days on and 3 days off.. honestly it was great

Then my company went out of business and I went to work at Wags. I think what I hated the most was about 10pm every night when the impending doom of having to do it all over again started to set in. Then the drive to work in the morning when I would start ruminating in who would call in today and how bad it would get... I would realize how many gaps in training existed in the many part time/unreliable help we had and how difficult these gaps were to fill.

How terrible it was to see the insurance rejection que pile up and no one really knew how to make it all work. It’s a terrible joke to look at the software at a place like Walgreens and have to make sense of all the bleeps and bloops of a dinosaur program. And the damn rejection codes that the insurance company sends - they may as well send Chinese symbols back to us... how the hell are we supposed to explain to a damn customer why their insurance rejected a medication when the message sent back goes something like “code pinto 763 user spanksalot” - am I then supposed to take that code and go tell customer that they are spanking it too much so their insurance won’t pay for it?? If that last part made absolutely no sense - that is how I feel about handing insurance rejections. If any sort of reform needs to be done, there needs to be more responsibility put on the insurance companies to explain to their customers why they won’t pay for something. Not us... anyways I have gone off the deep end.

I walked from that job 3 weeks in. I’ll never do that again even if it means I have to work outside of pharmacy. I’ll never let myself be taken advantage of in such a gross way again.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I felt after I finished my first community pharmacy rotation at a local chain retail pharmacy location. I just knew I could never see myself being competent in such a job, and the scary thing is, the rotation was done at one of the "better" chains to work for.

The other thing about the newly-low starting salaries that sucks is that the prospect of making more money over time through raises or by jumping ship to another employer is not really there anymore. One of the pharmacists I know locally held a DOP for 5 yrs at a specialty hospital, got fired a few months back due to downsizing, and just recently found a PRN job with CVS at one of their BFE stores. They took it because they have no other options for making money, at least by practicing as a pharmacist.

That's why, even if I was offered a job, I honestly don't think I'd take it. I would rather take a low-paying software dev job as my first CS job and then transition into a better-paying position 6-12 months down the line, which is a relatively common career trajectory for new software devs to take. The thought of taking a retail pharmacy job would at least be somewhat palatable if it was accompanied by a high likelihood of being able to move on to something better in a year or so, but it seems to be the case that there is no longer any sort of defined/established career trajectory in the field anymore.
 
I was at the same retail store for 16 years till they decided I was too old to continue. After I left, they've had an endless stream of new grads filling the same slot. I think the longest one was there a couple of months. The shortest a matter of days. The new grads simply don't have the work ethic and tolerance for that environment. They were all sold the idea that you "will be a doctor and be respected." By whom? The public? Management? This particular store (and the chain in general) always talked down to pharmacy. It was known and accepted and if you couldn't take it, you quit. You have to have a thick skin to deal with that daily. You can't take anything personally, and learn to be satisfied by basking in the failures of both management and the chain itself. If that doesn't work for you, the job is intolerable. I suspect their days of having anyone there for 16 years are over.
 
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Yeah the best you can hope for anymore is to become a district manager. You know, the a**hole who enforces those metrics. Who wants to even do that job? And even then, the pay is now only what they used to pay a staffer. And, of course, they take your soul and ethics the day they give you your name tag...
 
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