Pharmacist Salary Thread

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Your mom is an MD and making only 75k? Wow that doesn't sound right. My dad works in a small town in Oklahoma. Actually he's no longer an OB/GYN and is now just doing general practice, bc the insurance and malpractice fees were just getting ridiculous! I'm pretty sure he was still in the 300k range the last couple years, however that of course doesn't include the insurance and clinic/employee fees for his practice. Where does your mom work? I'm hoping the 75k figure you mentioned is after taxes/insurance?
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djbacklash said:
Sure it's all relative but do you have any idea how much doctors have to pay for malpractice insurance and other expenses if they have their own practices? Deduct all that and the average doctor who's making $180-200k really isn't making that much more (maybe even less) than a pharmacist pulling $100k.

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Most of the doctor's salaries reported is after expenses (including malpractice). Running your own practice also allows you to take all kinds of deductions for the business. The reality is if a docs reported income is 200k and he is running is own practice- he actually probably grossed 500k and ran through all kinds of expenses through his corporation- cars, meals, vacations (cough I mean CMEs), retirement.
 
oh, your dad is an OB/GYN doctor, my mom is an OB/GYN nurse midwife. sorry for the confusion.
 
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djbacklash said:
Sure it's all relative but do you have any idea how much doctors have to pay for malpractice insurance and other expenses if they have their own practices? Deduct all that and the average doctor who's making $180-200k really isn't making that much more (maybe even less) than a pharmacist pulling $100k.
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You want to talk money?
Don't forget that a doctor must do more years of school plus residency. We (pharmacists) will be out in the real world making 90k a year for 4 years while docs are still in school and doing residencies. Then, on top of that, a doc must establish for a few years, then after 5 years or so he/she will start bringing in the bigger money. So, we will have made almost a million dollars while doctor friend is just starting to make a living. I think we have it in the bag!! Then to put icing on the cake for pharmacists, we go to work for 40 hours a week and come home to play with our children :). On weekends we can go to the lake if we want to because WE are not on call (unless you CHOOSE a job where you have call). I think pharmacy is great. Can't wait to get this show on the road! :thumbup:
 
pharmel said:
I think we have it in the bag!! Then to put icing on the cake for pharmacists, we go to work for 40 hours a week and come home to play with our children :). On weekends we can go to the lake if we want to because WE are not on call (unless you CHOOSE a job where you have call). I think pharmacy is great. Can't wait to get this show on the road! :thumbup:
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You've really hit the nail on the head. Like dent, we're not slaves to our work lives. Sure, it would be nice to own a porsche turbo like an invasive cardiac surgeon, but if the porsche just sits in the doctor's parking lot for 18 hours a day, is it really worth it? :thumbup:
 
That being said, I still admire the good MDs a whole lot. They really deserve every penny they make. But the bad ones...don't even get me started!

Here's just some numbers for you guys to munch on for the SE:
Hospital Rphs - $75-80k
Retail Rphs - $85-95k
Clinical Rphs - $85-90k
 
Everybody keeps telling me that if I go to work in a hospital instead of retail I will "make considerably less". Does anyone have a realistic guess at what considerably less is? I know that the local retails are paying about 84K out of school. What would you guess the hospital is paying, maybe between 70 and 75? Still nothing to sneeze at, just curious. I do not plan on making my decision until after my intern rounds.
 
In Florida, a hospital job pays about 70K and retail around 85K. If you work for a grocery store like Publix, you also get stock options and hefty profit sharing bonuses added to your salary. At Kash & Karry, your Christmas bonus is equal to one week's pay. Not too shabby.

When I graduate, I'll be 50. That made my decision to chose pharmacy over med school a no brainer. Could you imagine me on call when I'm 60 years old? Neither could I. I'll be able to work for 15 years pay off my mortgage and save for retirement.
 
jemc2000 said:
Everybody keeps telling me that if I go to work in a hospital instead of retail I will "make considerably less". Does anyone have a realistic guess at what considerably less is?
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A former pharmacist of mine really enjoyed her time at a local hospital. We were working at Rite Aid, and she had a part time job at a hospital. She said that after having her first child, she would like to work in the hospital only, but she would be settling for 65% of her current pay. I don't think that it's usually that much of a difference, but she would have been going from 85k to about 57k. :thumbdown:
 
I still stand by my comment that the average doctor (internal med/general practice) making $150-180k will, after insurance/malpractice deductions, make barely more, if not less, than a pharmacist making 100k. Plus you're right about the more "family-oriented" work schedule of a pharm and the fact that pharm grads will be able to work a lot sooner than a med who must first go through 3-4yrs residency and then possibly another couple years for fellowship. Oh and I also gotta say, the whole hospital bureaucracy (sp?) situation sucks lol!

Money obviously shouldn't be a main factor if you truly want to be an MD. I have nothing but the utmost respect for those in that profession bc I know the sacrifices they must make (my dad never took a vacation for 20+ yrs, and it wasn't until my mother died when he started to lessen his workload and switch to general practice). I just question those who do it for the wrong reasons.
 
jdpharmd? said:
A former pharmacist of mine really enjoyed her time at a local hospital. We were working at Rite Aid, and she had a part time job at a hospital. She said that after having her first child, she would like to work in the hospital only, but she would be settling for 65% of her current pay. I don't think that it's usually that much of a difference, but she would have been going from 85k to about 57k. :thumbdown:
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Wow in her case, I think I'd probably go the retail route, especially having a new child to support!
 
Well I definately can say that I will enjoy the compensation, however, it was not a determining factor for me. I wanted a job where I could have a family and still have a decent paying job. I had 3 different people tell me about pharmacy in one week and it just seemed like a sign for me. I looked into it and have been gung ho about the career since. I always said, if I won the lotto tomorrow, I would still be going to pharmacy school, i'd just be living a little easier :) I don't want to just get out and work retail though, I've shadowed in a local hospital and have decided that clinical pharmacy is for me. I hope to specialize in infectious disease, as this interests me the most. So, I have another 6 years of school, on top of the 4 years that I've already done. I can tell you this is because it's my passion, many people ask why I'm not going to med school and I can't tell them enough: because that's not what I want. I love biochemistry, microbiology and immunology. For me, there's no other choice but pharmacy!

~Pam
 
djbacklash]I still stand by my comment that the average doctor (internal med/general practice) making $150-180k will, after insurance/malpractice deductions, make barely more, if not less, than a pharmacist making 100k. Plus you're right about the more "family-oriented" work schedule of a pharm and the fact that pharm grads will be able to work a lot sooner than a med who must first go through 3-4yrs residency and then possibly another couple years for fellowship. Oh and I also gotta say, the whole hospital bureaucracy (sp?) situation sucks lol!
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Well after taxes 100k as an employee is about 70k take home pay. I still don't think that you understand that Internist pay is not gross, it is net after expenses including malpractice. Most American med students don't go into Family Practice/ General Internal Medicine these days. In fact I would say it is distinct minority. Most go into specialties were the pay is 2-3 times what you get in family practice. For example in my class we had less than 10% go into family practice. Those that go into Internal medicine generally end up goin into Cardiology/GI where the pay is much higher.

But as you say money is not everything. :)
 
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Don't forget... Rphs are going to make more in some areas than the doctors (i.e. peds).
At home (in VA) rite aid is paying $125,000 for a Rph
 
Whoa, 125k...that' is ridicuously awesome.... where do I sign up?
Does anyone know about Texas? What are the average salaries there? I've heard rumors that Clinical Pharmacist makes lesser than Hospital or Retail..is that true? Is it possible to do clinical and retail at the same time? Does anyone know pharmDs who do that? Just wondering...
 
UT-Frank said:
Whoa, 125k...that' is ridicuously awesome.... where do I sign up?
Does anyone know about Texas? What are the average salaries there? I've heard rumors that Clinical Pharmacist makes lesser than Hospital or Retail..is that true? Is it possible to do clinical and retail at the same time? Does anyone know pharmDs who do that? Just wondering...
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As a matter of fact, I know a PharmD who DID that. The pharmacist I know used to work part time at both clinic and retail. But, two weeks ago she quit the retail job. She told me that retail sucks. It is obvious that she loves the clinical work more, where she meets with patients, do drug monitoring, councelling, and smoking cessation.
I didn't ask the reason why she quit her retail job, but I assume she didn't like it.
 
pharmd-08 said:
It is obvious that she loves the clinical work more, where she meets with patients, do drug monitoring, councelling, and smoking cessation.
I didn't ask the reason why she quit her retail job, but I assume she didn't like it.
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I work at a patient care pharmacy, which is retail. There is a pharmacist who does nothing but meet with patients, monitor their therapy, counsel them on diabetes management, etc. She travels to all the patient care pharmacies in her area, so she is at a different store each day of the week. She's at my store on Tuesday. People make appointments with her and she will also travel to the patient's home. There is a 4th year UF student on rotation with her right now. I get to pick her brain when we're not busy.

It was my understanding (from talking with pharmacists at work and doing hospital shadowing) that clinical pharmacy was mainly monitoring drug therapy and reading charts, but having little to no patient contact. I didn't care for the way that doctors looked down at the pharmacists at the two hospitals where I shadowed. Even when the doctor could have chosen a better antibiotic from the MIC chart, the pharmacist wasn't allowed to mention it. Maybe I'll find it to be different at another hospital once I start rotations, but right now it doesn't appeal to me at all. I like working with people.
 
dgroulx said:
I work at a patient care pharmacy, which is retail. There is a pharmacist who does nothing but meet with patients, monitor their therapy, counsel them on diabetes management, etc. She travels to all the patient care pharmacies in her area, so she is at a different store each day of the week. She's at my store on Tuesday. People make appointments with her and she will also travel to the patient's home. There is a 4th year UF student on rotation with her right now. I get to pick her brain when we're not busy.

It was my understanding (from talking with pharmacists at work and doing hospital shadowing) that clinical pharmacy was mainly monitoring drug therapy and reading charts, but having little to no patient contact. I didn't care for the way that doctors looked down at the pharmacists at the two hospitals where I shadowed. Even when the doctor could have chosen a better antibiotic from the MIC chart, the pharmacist wasn't allowed to mention it. Maybe I'll find it to be different at another hospital once I start rotations, but right now it doesn't appeal to me at all. I like working with people.
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I shadowed for a week at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. The director of Pharmacy was nice enough to let me come in and follow around with a different person each day. My favorite was the clinical pharmacist who specialized in Infectious Disease (in fact this is what I want to do a residency/fellowship in). The doctor's specifically called him when someone was found with a nosocomial infection. He also wrote in journals and travelled talking to other pharmacists/doctors about different diseases and how to avoid them. The doctors definately respected him and he loved his job. Also, the clinical pharmacists in the MICU spoke with the doctors and suggested different drugs all the time. Certain doctors were more open to the opinions while others were a little more stubborn. They said that for the most part, the doctors were really nice and appreciative to them. It's one of those professions where you really have to prove yourself and earn the respect. It's the same thing with med students when they first get out. You have to show that you really know what you're doing in order to get the respect.


~Pam
 
UT-Frank said:
Whoa, 125k...that' is ridicuously awesome.... where do I sign up?
Does anyone know about Texas? What are the average salaries there? I've heard rumors that Clinical Pharmacist makes lesser than Hospital or Retail..is that true? Is it possible to do clinical and retail at the same time? Does anyone know pharmDs who do that? Just wondering...
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a couple of years ago walgreens in san antonio was paying a lot with up to $25 for a sign on bonus
 
Starting salary for retail in Houston metro area is around $85-90k. I've heard that it's around $90k+ in north and south Texas.
 
gdk420 said:
http://www.princetonreview.com/grad/research/programProfiles/salariescareers.asp?programID=76
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My mom is a high school counselor so I've heard about the princeton review and all of those other books that are supposed to help high schoolers know about possible career choices. I think a lot of their information is inaccurate and completely misleading. What's an M.S. in pharmacy? How come they don't mention anything about the PharmD (or prior BS) being the degree necessary to work as a pharmacist.

"Pharm.D. are likely to enter a directorship position at a hospital pharmacy or a high level position in the pharmaceutical industry.
How likely is it for a PharmD grad to do this rather than working in an actual pharmacy.

The last time I went to my mom's work I looked up pharmacy in her 2003 edition of the Princeton Review. It said the average salary was something like $50k (but the internet version says $100k???). Sorry gdk, IMHO I don't think this is a valuable/reliable reference.

EDIT: It actually says the starting salary for pharmacists is $27,000......hmm when was that figure correct?? 20 years ago? :rolleyes: http://www.princetonreview.com/cte/profiles/facts.asp?CareerID=111
 
Actually, this one grad student at my school has an MS in pharmacy too. I never heard of it before but I guess it does exist. From what I can tell, it is only accurate in terms of some salary talk for california pharmacists. All the pharmacist out here have been telling me that the starting pay is in the high 90's with some starting 100K more more. My cousin got a job with an HMO hospital in LA and her starting pay was 97K. Either way, no matter what we make as pharamcist anywhere in America, it will still be way above the average salary. :)
 
The salary for pharmacists provided by salary.com indicated that the median salary for pharmacists nationally is $90912 dollars. However, the other sources such as the government site for occupations shows that the median salary is around $77050. (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos079.htm#outlook) The date for the data collection from salary.com is Nov. 2004 while the government site was 2002. Why is there such a difference in salary? Some other sources showed even lowered median salary for pharmacists. Did the salary really went up $13000 for just 2 years? i think 13000 is quite a difference... What is really the salary of a pharmacist...?
 
$90,000 is more accurate for retail pharmacist. 70k could be more accurate for Hospital Pharmacist. Why don't you email the authors of both sites with your questions and report back what you find?
 
J Lucas said:
$90,000 is more accurate for retail pharmacist. 70k could be more accurate for Hospital Pharmacist. Why don't you email the authors of both sites with your questions and report back what you find?
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In Florida working night shift for Walgreens I was making $39/hour.
Currently at Rite Aid I am making $45/hr. Local WAGS pharmacists make
somewhat less. I know a Walgreesn pharmacist that pulled down a twenty
grand bonus by moving to Albertsons. I got about the same in moving relocation expenses. They even bought my home in Florida and paid my closing costs in return for a one year contract

Overtime is abundant if you want it.

Is that blunt enough?
 
Here in SC, CVS starts with $42/hr for 42 hrs per week. Eckerd starts with $44/hr plus $10,000 bonus.
 
FutureRxGal said:
Starting salaries for pharmacists at the hospital where I work in FL are $38/hour - $45/hour, with OT available. :D
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The only positions I've seen have the same salaries for starting pharmacists as for pharmacists that have been there 40 years. All pharmacists make the same at a given location. I thought this was the norm...?
 
GravyRPH said:
The only positions I've seen have the same salaries for starting pharmacists as for pharmacists that have been there 40 years. All pharmacists make the same at a given location. I thought this was the norm...?
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It really stinks when you are nice and comfy in your position only to find that
a new grad has hired in at a higher rate than you make. It is not in your
best interest to keep salaries hush hush.
 
Hi!

To be a Director of Pharmacy is MBA required?
 
Hey gang!! I am new to this site but have been reading posts and there is some good information. Wondering if anyone could help me out here:

I am currently enrolled in a Master's of Clinical Research Program and the PharmD program. With my undergraduate degree debt I will total about 150K in debt (undergraduate and PharmD/Masters both are private colleges). My question is, I am begining to worry about the re-payment aspect of these loans. I know retail pharmacist make good money (100K+), but am not sure what kind of money is involved in working Clinical Research, such as working for Glaxo, Merch, or a CRO (clinical research organization) with a PharmD/MSCR degree. If anyone could shed some light on this subject or maybe ease my worries about this loan re-payment that would be great. I just see that payments a month with 150K debt could be 1,000-1500 bucks!!!
Thanks!!
 
hi,

for those interested in pursuing research with a company, companies like Amgen here in california hire people with your qualifications. they pay anywhere from low 90s to 100k.

check out website at www.amgen.com and go to career section. type in pharmacist as search. it is very competitive to get into this company but it is a great place to work.

pete
 
I am not that familiar with clinical research positions, but it would seem to me that those positions would pay by seniority, meaning the longer you've worked there and the quality of your work can definitely raise your overall salary. However, I would imagine that when you first start out you would be around the 70-80K range unless you have a lot of experience already? I am just throwing out my assumptions, hopefully someone more familiar with it can better answer the question.
 
Yeah I assume that the field itself is very dependent upon experience and quality of work. 70-80K, and of course 100K for retail is very good, but do you think that a debt of upwards of 150K+ is going to make it uncomfortable to pay off with a salary of say 90K. I dont know, maybe that it wouldnt be, any thoughts or people you know who have had that much debt and payed it off easily? Or not so easily??
 
you can take out a loan for 15 years- 20 years. I will have about $140,000 to pay back (MS and PharmD)- at 90,000- heck even 80,000 you should be fine. If you take out a loan for 20 years that should be less than 800 a month.
 
What can pharmds expect as an entry level salary, say in retail? I was estimating $70,000, but someone told me it was only around 50,000. Which is more accurate? (I think this person was going on information from the 1990s, but I want to make sure. Most of what I have seen is higher.). Anyway, I can't afford that much debt at this point in my life if my salary is 50,000. I am planning on living/working in Arkansas or Oklahoma. If anyone has any input I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
 
Thanks, yes it helps. :)
I am afraid to go to school for four more years so I can end up with a salary that does not pay enough to offset the loan payments. Right now I am a public school teacher, and 50K minus say 12K a year for loan payment would leave me 38K. Right now I make about 34K (but have horrible health "insurance" etc.)
 
teachtopharm? said:
Thanks, yes it helps. :)
I am afraid to go to school for four more years so I can end up with a salary that does not pay enough to offset the loan payments. Right now I am a public school teacher, and 50K minus say 12K a year for loan payment would leave me 38K. Right now I make about 34K (but have horrible health "insurance" etc.)
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I go to a private pharm school but most in my class have loans around $120,000
Some jobs will pay off loans for you if you commit to work for them for a certain amount of time..

good luck
 
teachtopharm? said:
What can pharmds expect as an entry level salary, say in retail? I was estimating $70,000, but someone told me it was only around 50,000. Which is more accurate? (I think this person was going on information from the 1990s, but I want to make sure. Most of what I have seen is higher.). Anyway, I can't afford that much debt at this point in my life if my salary is 50,000. I am planning on living/working in Arkansas or Oklahoma. If anyone has any input I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
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I'm not sure what it is in Arkansas or Oklahoma. In the Tampa, Florida area starting salaries at CVS and Walgreens are over 100K. It was 84K when I started two years ago. If they keep going up, it's fine with me.
 
Right now it's about $43-49/hr, +$20,000 sign on, +maybe $10,000 in tuition assistance. So, 1st year out of school could be $125,000 including bonuses (with a regular 40 hour week). :thumbup:
 
teachtopharm? said:
Anyway, I can't afford that much debt at this point in my life if my salary is 50,000. I am planning on living/working in Arkansas or Oklahoma. If anyone has any input I would appreciate it.

Thanks!
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You won't make 50,000. It'll be more than that.

I went to www.salary.com for you and found the average "ballpark" salaries for Ft. Smith, Arkansas and Tulsa, OK (not sure where you are looking in these states, but those two are closest to each other). In Ft. Smith, the median salary is $82,848. In Tulsa, it's $89,150. Now, this doesn't distinguish from retail or hospital or whatever else, since I just chose "pharmacist" as my search keyword. Hope this helps.
 
I don't know about OK or Ark, but I am going to guess that the cost of living, houses, etc. are pretty cheap back there. Here is Phoenix, I know that pharmacists are starting at $45 an hour with usually all the overtime you want to sign up for. I know pharmacists that work plenty of overtime and make 150K. I am starting to hear rumors of the salary level going a couple bucks higher, and I am betting it will be around 50 an hour once I am done with school here in a couple more years. Phoenix just has the demand to keep pushing it.

I think your 70,000 guess is low, probably by at least 10,000.

What type of debt will school get you into in OK or Ark? Here, most of my classmates will all have between 100 to 150K out by the time we are done. I don't know to many that are sweating the payments, since if you want to, you can drag them out over 20 years. With the overtime available, it is not hard to knock that debt out over a few years, especially if you are lucky and have a spouse that works somewhere.

Good luck in whatever you decide.
 
jdpharmd? said:
Right now it's about $43-49/hr, +$20,000 sign on, +maybe $10,000 in tuition assistance. So, 1st year out of school could be $125,000 including bonuses (with a regular 40 hour week). :thumbup:
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Whoa... $20,000 sign on bonus and $10,000 in tuition assistance? Where do you live and what chain is that?
 
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