Pharmacist Salary Thread

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MRSA Sucks said:
california-high-speed-rail-project.jpg

Image: cahighspeedrail.ca.gov


Bet you I can get to work faster in this. 😀
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Yes, but are there enough cup holders?
 
Passion4Sci said:
At least it's a new Ford!
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My current Taurus is a 2007.

Oh, holy crap. Some reason, I thought PA (You work in PA don't you?) was milder than southern states. Go figure.. yeah, it definitely does not hit 90% in Dallas, maybe a couple times a year. The worst I ever experienced it personally was 75%, during a field training exercise nonetheless.
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Well, right now it's only 87% humidity in Morgantown according to weather.com. Woo, dry heat!

Feel your pain. I have this horrible inkling that mine is going to drag my ass all the way back to Mass. for her school and I'm going to be fucked because I didn't apply to Worcester or Boston.
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Well. At least you have...uh...chowder...yeah...New England is lame...no offense...
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
My current Taurus is a 2007.
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I must've misunderstood then. The way the Big Kids forum talks about your car, I thought it was a 1995 year model or something with well over 100k on the ticker.

Well, right now it's only 87% humidity in Morgantown according to weather.com. Woo, dry heat!
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About as dry as Jessica Biel's vagina at night.


Well. At least you have...uh...chowder...yeah...New England is lame...no offense...
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Cool accents... at least? Maybe? And cool weather... until it snows. Then I'm completely screwed. But at least she'll be happy... and if she's happy, I'm happy... usually.
 
If your going into Pharmacy for the money... in a few years you may be very disappointed and wishing you did medicine or investment banking.

In the next years coming up, there is going to be a saturation of new pharmacist. And over time, more, and more in the pharmD's because the number of new pharmacy schools opening is uncontrolled. YUP!!

Every year since USN...that's been a bunch of new pharmacy schools and this is not going to stop anytime soon. NOPE!

Hence, the laws of supply and demand, supply > demand, its evitable that wages will be lowered. Retail pays the most and are the largest employers of pharmD's but many retailers are not expanding or are already full. In fact!, some pharmacist have lost their jobs and many new grads this year do not have jobs. So there are no new jobs except in places where people don't want to go.....

Guess who gets to go to places where people don't want to go....the new grads.....then what happens when that's full?

bingo....the newer grads that just got their pharmd will say I'll work for less money....

bingo.... salaries drop.

Hey! Welcome to pharmacy!
Can't I take your order =)
 
I'm not deterred in the least lol

I can always cocktail waitress on the weekends at the casino until I pay off my loans haha. Yessss game plan

Anyway... I didn't think anything could get worse than 100% humidity during hurricane season BUT I deal with it... I'd probably try to have fun in a ditch if that's where the opportunities are.lol I was in Westchester Co, NY and New Haven, CT a few weeks ago and the humidity was fierce. Almost worst than Miami... So I can def. vouch for those who live up north

BustyPharmD said:
If your going into Pharmacy for the money... in a few years you may be very disappointed and wishing you did medicine or investment banking.

In the next years coming up, there is going to be a saturation of new pharmacist. And over time, more, and more in the pharmD's because the number of new pharmacy schools opening is uncontrolled. YUP!!

Every year since USN...that's been a bunch of new pharmacy schools and this is not going to stop anytime soon. NOPE!

Hence, the laws of supply and demand, supply > demand, its evitable that wages will be lowered. Retail pays the most and are the largest employers of pharmD's but many retailers are not expanding or are already full. In fact!, some pharmacist have lost their jobs and many new grads this year do not have jobs. So there are no new jobs except in places where people don't want to go.....


Guess who gets to go to places where people don't want to go....the new grads.....then what happens when that's full?

bingo....the newer grads that just got their pharmd will say I'll work for less money....

bingo.... salaries drop.

Hey! Welcome to pharmacy!
Can't I take your order =)
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I like all the frappacinos... Even the nasty holiday edition creations they come up with! Haha. I have developed an extreme caffiene addiction though so I usually cheap out and go for the dunkin doughnuts turbo or some cuban coffee stand in the middle of little havana lol
 
Tinkerbell22 said:
I like all the frappacinos... Even the nasty holiday edition creations they come up with! Haha. I have developed an extreme caffiene addiction though so I usually cheap out and go for the dunkin doughnuts turbo or some cuban coffee stand in the middle of little havana lol
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You know, the only physiological addiction created via caffeine is the withdrawal symptoms, and the median extinction of those is on the third day (assuming a general blood serum content of 250mg/day or thereabouts) so if you can go 2 or 3 days with the migraine/throbbing headaches and stuff, you can break the caffeine 'addiction' - But who wants to do that!?
 
I tried to wean myself off using such high amounts, and it kind of worked over the summer, but now that I'm working late at night, going to class in the mornings, and practicing somewhere in between all that mess I've been relapsing back to the bad stuff like energy drinks. lol Excedrin is the best because it has just enough caffeine to help me with the headaches, but it doesn't keep me awake enough to make it through the day. I'm scared they're going to come out with studies like they did with tobacco and nicotine later on in my life that outlines all of the horrible effects that red bull caused in our generation. lmao

I'm so paranoid that I usually just brew some Cafe Bustelo in my coffee pot at home, but the acidity really hurts my stomach and teeth so I asked my mom for one of those cold press things and I'm going to see if that helps.
 
I think "energy drinks" are dangerous and might have long-term kidney and liver effects that we, as of now, do not fully understand. There's a lot of garbage in those drinks, and aside from the garbage, there's a lot of water-soluble B-vitamins that just get excreted as useless waste when there's an excess. The only real way to get a caffeine fix properly and inexpensively in a cup of joe. ~200mg in one 8-oz go of it. Those energy drinks are too big, cost too much, and are just too damn trendy.

I wouldn't be surprised if Red Bull, NOS, Monster and all that other garbage do eventually show some long term harm some day. Just stick to coffee.
 
Passion4Sci said:
You know, the only physiological addiction created via caffeine is the withdrawal symptoms, and the median extinction of those is on the third day (assuming a general blood serum content of 250mg/day or thereabouts) so if you can go 2 or 3 days with the migraine/throbbing headaches and stuff, you can break the caffeine 'addiction' - But who wants to do that!?
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Ah the perils of making of the cuff remarks relating to health/drugs/addiction/anything in the pharmacy forum. :laugh:
 
Passion4Sci said:
Java Chip... thank you very much!
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....I just tried that for the first time last week. I'm going to stay far away from Starbucks. I bought a cookie and a small one of those java chip frappchinoes and dropped about $4-$5. If you factor 5 days for a whole month that's $100 a month. More than twice what you pay for internet. That's $12,000 [whoops that should be $1,200 😛] a year. Sheeshee. It's mostly just water and I mostly just enjoyed the whipcream!
 
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Zrchrn said:
If you factor 5 days for a whole month that's $100 a month. More than twice what you pay for internet. That's $12,000 a year. Sheeshee. It's mostly just water and I mostly just enjoyed the whipcream!
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Heh, you're right, that is expensive! 😉
 
Bartenders and bar backs can make even more depending on the establishment!

It's a big misconception that you need to be in perfect shape or be super young to make good money... some of those women at the Hard Rock where I live at are well into their 30's maybe even 40's and they're still making major money.

Yeah I'm not going to lie that it sometimes help to look overly young because there are a lot of -let's be nice and say "creepy" old men out there, but the most important thing is being FAST and GOOD at what you do. Most people don't give a crap if you are a 60 year old man serving them a drink as long as it's cold, tastes strong, and you get it there when they want it. haha I have a good memory and I can run fast through a big crowd so I think that's why the job works out well. Plus I'm not a big drinker and I'm stone cold sober unlike a lot of the people who work in hospitality so that helps.
 
jawnly211 said:
my offers.....grant it, they were over a year ago (2007-2008)

socal

cvs: 56/hr graveyard
wags: 55/hr float
wmt: 61/hr hard to hire area
target: 56/hr float
longs: 53/hr float
ralphs: 52/hr float
savon: 53/hr float
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Any idea about Rite Aid benifit package ?
 
Zrchrn said:
....I just tried that for the first time last week. I'm going to stay far away from Starbucks. I bought a cookie and a small one of those java chip frappchinoes and dropped about $4-$5. If you factor 5 days for a whole month that's $100 a month. More than twice what you pay for internet. That's $12,000 a year. Sheeshee. It's mostly just water and I mostly just enjoyed the whipcream!
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Well, there's a difference between getting one as a treat every couple of weeks and making a habit out of it, LOL.

My habit is 400 to 500mg of caffeine a day with regular coffee, and even at Starbucks, which I do try to avoid most of the time, it's only a buck fifty. Then I keep the cup, and refill it at home and take it on-the-go for a few times. Good deal, IMO.

Once anything like that becomes habitual, it can get pricey. I mean, consider cigarettes, right?

Marlboro regulars. $4.33 a pack, @ 2 packs a day for 30 days: $129 a month... which is a conservative estimate, since 2 packs a day is pretty low for most of the long-term smokers I treat in smoking cessation.

$1,548 a year to kill yourself and expose the delicate internal organs to nail polish remover, chromium, and a host of other chemicals. WOOT!

You also should be good at math when you're posting in a pharmacy forum, Zrch. Last I checked, 100x12 is 1200, not 12000. =]

More than twice what you pay for internet. That's $12,000 a year.
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type b pharmD said:
it is incredibly rare for nominal salaries to decrease in any field. it almost never happens. read up on some economics
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This is correct.

The more likely thing that will happen is that a ranking system will need to be established, much like how it is in law, and graduates from the top ranked schools will have the best career opportunities, while those graduates from a lower-ranked CoP will have fewer.
 
BustyPharmD said:
If your going into Pharmacy for the money... in a few years you may be very disappointed and wishing you did medicine or investment banking.

In the next years coming up, there is going to be a saturation of new pharmacist. And over time, more, and more in the pharmD's because the number of new pharmacy schools opening is uncontrolled. YUP!!

Every year since USN...that's been a bunch of new pharmacy schools and this is not going to stop anytime soon. NOPE!

Hence, the laws of supply and demand, supply > demand, its evitable that wages will be lowered. Retail pays the most and are the largest employers of pharmD's but many retailers are not expanding or are already full. In fact!, some pharmacist have lost their jobs and many new grads this year do not have jobs. So there are no new jobs except in places where people don't want to go.....

Guess who gets to go to places where people don't want to go....the new grads.....then what happens when that's full?

bingo....the newer grads that just got their pharmd will say I'll work for less money....

bingo.... salaries drop.

Hey! Welcome to pharmacy!
Can't I take your order =)
Click to expand...
I wasn't going into it for the money...I'm just asking for everyones opinion on this subject.

Hey, I will definitely keep medicine open as an option if I get rejected from Pharm School though 🙂
 
PonderingChoice said:
Sure, but if wages don't keep up with cost of living increases, not much difference, right?
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I think there's a large functional difference between a drop in salary and a lack of COLA increase.

Example:

Salary for Pharmacist in 2004: 105,000$
Cost of Living set to "0" for example.

a. Salary for Pharmacist in 2009: 105,000$
Cost of Living increased to "5"

compared to

b. Salary for Pharmacist in 2009: 85,000$ (with decrease d/t sat.)
Cost of Living increased to "5"

While a. is not ideal, that is, no salary increase but no salary decrease, and a COL increase, b is far inferior, with a drop in salary compounding a COL increase.

So, while COL might very well increase in X amt. of time, if salary Y does not decrease also, but rather stays steady (and then increases for raises, differential, other IVs) then we're in a much, much better place.

That's the important thing.
 
rphfan2009 said:
I wasn't going into it for the money...I'm just asking for everyones opinion on this subject.

Hey, I will definitely keep medicine open as an option if I get rejected from Pharm School though 🙂
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How about dentistry? there is someone on here that is applying to all three schools at the same time. :laugh:
 
BustyPharmD said:
If your going into Pharmacy for the money... in a few years you may be very disappointed and wishing you did medicine or investment banking.

In the next years coming up, there is going to be a saturation of new pharmacist. And over time, more, and more in the pharmD's because the number of new pharmacy schools opening is uncontrolled. YUP!!

Every year since USN...that's been a bunch of new pharmacy schools and this is not going to stop anytime soon. NOPE!

Hence, the laws of supply and demand, supply > demand, its evitable that wages will be lowered. Retail pays the most and are the largest employers of pharmD's but many retailers are not expanding or are already full. In fact!, some pharmacist have lost their jobs and many new grads this year do not have jobs. So there are no new jobs except in places where people don't want to go.....

Guess who gets to go to places where people don't want to go....the new grads.....then what happens when that's full?

bingo....the newer grads that just got their pharmd will say I'll work for less money....

bingo.... salaries drop.

Hey! Welcome to pharmacy!
Can't I take your order =)
Click to expand...

Since u are a pharmacy student, you should have taken an economics class. Were u paying attention in it? Salaries almost NEVER DECREASE in any field of work. New grads just wont get hired, not get paid less.

Also, if you look at the job outlook it is actually great for the coming years. Almost everyone in this forum and pre-pharmers yet to come should be good.

What everyone FAILS to realize is that Pharmacy is one of the more STABLE and SECURE job fields. And that my friend is a FACT!
 
Well Spoken 👍

THE MTL said:
Since u are a pharmacy student, you should have taken an economics class. Were u paying attention in it? Salaries almost NEVER DECREASE in any field of work. New grads just wont get hired, not get paid less.

Also, if you look at the job outlook it is actually great for the coming years. Almost everyone in this forum and pre-pharmers yet to come should be good.

What everyone FAILS to realize is that Pharmacy is one of the more STABLE and SECURE job fields. And that my friend is a FACT!
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intern for now ... waiting until i get licensed. But that is the offer on the table for a staff position (no rotation)
 
I'm hoping to train all pharmacists to add extra zeros. That way, when I get to work I'll be sure to get a job that pays 9000,000 I could use the extra bucks! 😛


haha, yeah I typed that up pretty quick! 😛 When you've got real school work to get it, double checking your orders of mag. on a forum is not a top priority.:laugh:
 
Zrchrn said:
I'm hoping to train all pharmacists to add extra zeros. That way, when I get to work I'll be sure to get a job that pays 9000,000 I could use the extra bucks! 😛


haha, yeah I typed that up pretty quick! 😛 When you've got real school work to get it, double checking your orders of mag. on a forum is not a top priority.:laugh:
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"real" school work - Surely a jab at my super hard semester of German I ahead of me, right? 😉

😛
 
Zrchrn said:
I'm hoping to train all pharmacists to add extra zeros. That way, when I get to work I'll be sure to get a job that pays 9000,000 I could use the extra bucks! 😛


haha, yeah I typed that up pretty quick! 😛 When you've got real school work to get it, double checking your orders of mag. on a forum is not a top priority.:laugh:
Click to expand...


Zrchrn said:
Ah the perils of making of the cuff remarks relating to health/drugs/addiction/anything in the pharmacy forum. :laugh:
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Indeed!😛😉
 
Passion4Sci said:
"real" school work - Surely a jab at my super hard semester of German I ahead of me, right? 😉

😛
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I was actually talking about the "work" of calculating the cost of Starbucks as I did not know you were taking German. Now that I do know that, I'll change the intent to encompass your German classes as well. ( German words are just English words spelled backwards no? 😛)
 
Zrchrn said:
I was actually talking about the "work" of calculating the cost of Starbucks as I did not know you were taking German. Now that I do know that, I'll change the intent to encompass your German classes as well. ( German words are just English words spelled backwards no? 😛)
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Ah I thought you might've visited the "What classes are you taking this fall?" where I bragged about my amazingly, super strenuous German semester! LOL. =]

Actually German words are basically jumbled up English words with some oomlauts and coughs mixed in! (my wife would kill me if she read that).
 
Just poking in to say that not all pharmacy schools require an Economics course as a pre-req. Only 1 of the 4 schools I'm applying to requires it.

Regardless of taking a course or not, they should know that POWER is going to kill the profession altogether. :meanie:

THE MTL said:
Since u are a pharmacy student, you should have taken an economics class. Were u paying attention in it? Salaries almost NEVER DECREASE in any field of work. New grads just wont get hired, not get paid less.

Also, if you look at the job outlook it is actually great for the coming years. Almost everyone in this forum and pre-pharmers yet to come should be good.

What everyone FAILS to realize is that Pharmacy is one of the more STABLE and SECURE job fields. And that my friend is a FACT!
Click to expand...
 
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wow, when target pays that much $, what is the point of working for 20k less in a hospital or university, or 40k less for the government?
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again.... at my last job I made less than $50k and thought I was living like a king. As long as I can do the same here, I'm cool with it.

As far as saturation, it certainly feels like it's coming. I sit in my prereq classes daily and it seems that every fourth or fifth person is pre-pharm.

WVUPharm2007 said:
I'm gonna get a Taurus SHO.
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Good call. 👍 Be sure to report back to us.
 
So I'm sitting through a White Coat ceremony with 204 other people at a smaller U in PA and thinking...

204 other people, which will graduate in 2013.

600 more pharmacists will be released from this same U into the world eager to dispense, compound, MTM, etc before I (and 204 others of my class) ever walk across the stage receiving an actual degree.

Now, thats just one University. Lets multiply that by say 114 other academic institutions that will be helping society solve the "severe" shortage and maybe our profession's blessed accrediting body can drum up another 15 institutions to apply for pre-candidate status in the next 3 years.

I can think of no feasible way that starting salaries will be in the 90's unless you're practicing in the outback or in a war zone with spray painted symbols such as "BK" along your pharmacy's walls.

In some of the more saturated areas, starting salaries are in the $35-45 per hour range, as already mentioned by some of our more experienced posters.

By the time graduation comes along in 2013, I could very easily see starting salaries being in the 70-80K range. I'm fine with it, as long as I'm doing something enjoyable and portable.

100k salaries for new grads should be fairy tales by 2013. And I do hope more experienced pharmacists are not shafted by the flooding of fresh cattle and employers recognize the value of a pharmacist with experience. I've seem plenty of bachelor degree pharmacists utterly put PharmD grads to shame.

As a side note, for all you 1 class economic wizards, here is a small bit of info for you. All things being equal, a pharmacist is nothing more then a healthcare laborer. Dispense, review, compound, and educate. A flood of laborers allow employers to have a sizable pool of potential employee candidates to choose from while being able to offer less from a total compensation package (wages & benefits such as retirement/insurance/healthcare). The focus of any business is to run as efficiently as possible with low overhead, operating, fixed, and variable costs. More (dare I say excess) workers, all with the minimum PharmD needed to legally perform a job function, leads to an eventual decline of starting wage salaries.
 
To Passion4Sci's point, not all students nor all schools are created equal.

I meet a lot of P4s during their rotations, from a variety of schools (and variety of caliber-of-school). I always ask: "So what do you want to do after graduation?" I think I have asked this question at least 50 times, to 50 different P4s.

*Twice* I have gotten a real answer, like "I want to do a residency and go into blah blah blah" or "I have an MBA already, so my next step is to blah blah blah." Coincidentally or not, these students have been from two of the top-rated schools.

The other ~48 times, the answer has been something like: "Hmmm I am not sure. Maybe retail? I'll decide later." (Later?! Dude it's spring of your P4 year, you have $150k in student loans knocking at your door, and you'll decide "later?")

Point is: most people in life - in pharmacy or out of pharmacy - are like canoes. They float where the current takes them, and have no real plan of action to get from Point A to Point B. The fact that so many of these students are so young and have never had a real career compounds their naivete.

Go to a good school, have a plan (preferably before your P4 year), make and keep contacts, explore residencies and dual degrees, and you will be fine. Don't do this, and then maybe you will have a problem.
 
and the award for advice of the day goes to... lol

I actually see evidence for what Passion4Sci is saying about pharmacy not having a ranking system like law, because I hear a lot of anecdotal stories about people who get similar jobs regardless of whether they're from a highly prestigious school or a recently accredited school. But with things changing a bit from how they used to be... I think a lot of younger people who have never felt the pressure of a competitive job market or really HAD to work and get a job are going to have more catching up to do. I think a lot of students caught on to the whole "become a pharmacist because there is a shortage and employers will fight over you" thing, so they went into it with these high hopes of acing their prereqs, doing well on the PCAT and plugging their way through pharmacy school expecting to have a job lined up before they pass the NAPLEX. Unfortunately, I don't think that will necessarily be the case in a few years down the road, but I don't really think it's all that abysmally horrible either.

Those people who recognize the value of networking, making contacts, gaining special skills outside of your core pharmacy classes, and basically making yourself competitive and stand out against all the other recent graduates will be better off I think. Perhaps employers will start looking towards the school rankings to determine whether or not a graduate will be more prepared than another. I don't know, but it can't hurt to aim high right?


Jetninjin said:
Go to a good school, have a plan (preferably before your P4 year), make and keep contacts, explore residencies and dual degrees, and you will be fine. Don't do this, and then maybe you will have a problem.
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