2019 Pharmacist Salaries

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Sparda29 said:
I'm not gonna be happy until I get what was promised.

$75/hour + $100k sign on bonus + BMW M3 to just verify and watch Netflix.
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M3, pfft. Give me an //////M5.
Members don't see this ad.
 
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If only I had read Rich Dad Poor Dad sooner
 
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Slackers. Gimme that B7 Alpina sign on bonus.

But on an unrelated note, I’m surprised this is still hanging out in the main forum and hasn’t been moved to the Job Subforum.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I got a 4% raise to $67 - southeast large (ish) metro area
 
projektreverb said:
Slackers. Gimme that B7 Alpina sign on bonus.

But on an unrelated note, I’m surprised this is still hanging out in the main forum and hasn’t been moved to the Job Subforum.
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Apparently the mods here don't realize a thread is about the job market unless it has the words "Job" and "Market" in the title.
 
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GypsyHummus said:
All the doom and gloom the Pharmacy forum talks about, yet every salary site has PharmD clocking in at 110-120k/year. 120k seems pretty good to a 22-24 year old kid who just graduated with a worthless bio degree making 12$/hour at a lab.
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120k a year would be a decent salary regardless of what age haha
 
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lane one said:
Spend a year in the salt mines of CVS and you'll understand the "Mentality on the Pharmacy forum". I used to think the same thing when I was in school. I thought that people complaining were just lazy and that people who worked hard would thrive. Wrongo.
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I used to get so annoyed when I had to wait 20 mins for a transfer but now having worked at that hell hole for a year, when i call cvs, i tell everyone at my pharmacy that im calling cvs and would be on hold for at least 30 mins. I just out the phone on speaker and let everyone listen to that awful music lol
 
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sb.tnh said:
My SO is trying to make the biggest decision of her life: whether to attend pharm school or not (she’s been accepted). According to her school’s website, their graduates’ average salary is 120k, which in my opinion is a very good number. Yet here on SDN everybody is advising against going to pharm school and that pharmacy is all gloom and doom. How can you explain the average salary provided by the pharm school? Is that number simply inaccurate or what?
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so i am pharmacist salaries are correct but imagine doing the workload of 3-5people at same time... and brutal study schedule of pharmacy school its really not alot of money for workload. my best friend is a nurse and during nursing school i did 3times more homework and i dont even make twice as much!
 
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So one of my buddies just got offered 64$ an hour, 60 hours guaranteed biweekly.... In San Francisco.... yikes.
 
sb.tnh said:
My SO is trying to make the biggest decision of her life: whether to attend pharm school or not (she’s been accepted). According to her school’s website, their graduates’ average salary is 120k, which in my opinion is a very good number. Yet here on SDN everybody is advising against going to pharm school and that pharmacy is all gloom and doom. How can you explain the average salary provided by the pharm school? Is that number simply inaccurate or what?
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Keep in mind that “average salary” means the average of the salaries of all new grads + all pharmacists that have been working for the last 30 years. In other words, for all you know new grads are likely making $70-$90k but that number is pulled way up/inflated because the grandpa pharmacists are making $150k+ and refusing to retire, thus skewing overall average salaries.
 
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Pharmacy is a Scam said:
Keep in mind that “average salary” means the average of the salaries of all new grads + all pharmacists that have been working for the last 30 years. In other words, for all you know new grads are likely making $70-$90k but that number is pulled way up/inflated because the grandpa pharmacists are making $150k+ and refusing to retire, thus skewing overall average salaries.
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Exactly, I would hope pharmacists would understand this...
 
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Members don't see this ad :)
They’ll be pushing the grandpas out. The more senior pharmacists are expensive and it’s an effective cost saving measure to replace 20 yr worker with a pgy3 BCPS bcccp
 
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Which area are you working? The rate is getting lower for new grads. In SoCal, my area new grad $60/hr.
 
So many people on this website are complaining about the salary of a pharmacist. Currently I spend around $600 a month for rent/food/etc so it doesn't matter how low our salary will go I will survive lol. I actually can get more money in interest from my investments and I don't even have to work again. I returned back to work just because it is fun and it makes time go by really fast.
 
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dmd20000 said:
So many people on this website are complaining about the salary of a pharmacist. Currently I spend around $600 a month for rent/food/etc so it doesn't matter how low our salary will go I will survive lol. I actually can get more money in interest from my investments and I don't even have to work again. I returned back to work just because it is fun and it makes time go by really fast.
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$600 rent and food and etc? Where the heck do you like? Definitely jealous - I grew up in a VERY LOW cost of living area, but am impressed - I admire ya, but can't even imagine - my mortgage is $1000 and I have the cheapest mortgage of every RPh I work with
 
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dmd20000 said:
So many people on this website are complaining about the salary of a pharmacist. Currently I spend around $600 a month for rent/food/etc so it doesn't matter how low our salary will go I will survive lol. I actually can get more money in interest from my investments and I don't even have to work again. I returned back to work just because it is fun and it makes time go by really fast.
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Do you plan on living there forever? Getting married, having kids? Your rent will go up eventually but pharmacist salaries won't.
 
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dmd20000 said:
So many people on this website are complaining about the salary of a pharmacist. Currently I spend around $600 a month for rent/food/etc so it doesn't matter how low our salary will go I will survive lol. I actually can get more money in interest from my investments and I don't even have to work again. I returned back to work just because it is fun and it makes time go by really fast.
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I thought I was doing good renting my shack in the woods for $700 a month.....hell, my rent is still cheaper per month than what any of my techs pay.
 
Only things I can think of is he either shares rent with someone or lives in a mobile home that requires no mortgage/rent.
Or paid off his house, but I don't think so.
 
It might be wise to stand by on the financials and start to realize that it is LIKELY that MOST of you are dooming yourselves to a work career best described as "high speed drudgery". A career choice that is teetering on the edge of "disaster" (for lack of a better word)....THAT is what you want to spend your working lives doing??!
 
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APN-59 rph said:
It might be wise to stand by on the financials and start to realize that it is LIKELY that MOST of you are dooming yourselves to a work career best described as "high speed drudgery". A career choice that is teetering on the edge of "disaster" (for lack of a better word)....THAT is what you want to spend your working lives doing??!
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I would disagree to a certain degree. Yes, pharmacy in general is going down hill to put it mildly... realistically, its a ****show lol BUT there are still good pharmacies that are working very hard to walk the right path. Path of patient care and safety. I think it is important for us pharmacist to resist and make sure not just for us right now but also for future pharmacists to have a hopeful future.

That being said, dont ever be a pharmacist lol
 
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My parents had a $200/mo mortgage for a house they got around 2007 or so. It wasn't nice but was technically livable. There are plenty of places like that in the deep, dark rural extremes. That's one of my last resort, **** has hit the fan options.
 
what is it...like a 85% chance you will get into a pharmacy program somewhere? Seriously if you are listening to the recruiters at the schools then you get what you deserve. Plus I have some oceanfront property in AZ if you are interested
 
mentos said:
Do you plan on living there forever? Getting married, having kids? Your rent will go up eventually but pharmacist salaries won't.
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I am weird. I never been in a relationship and I do not plan to get married or have kids so my bills are very small. I could actually go and live with my family and cut my costs to $150 a month so I do not really have to work. I live with roommates now so it is a new experience for me and I get to see people at work everyday so I enjoy that. I was born in a poor country and lived there half my life so I am not used to spend a lot of money and I actually never thought we pharmacists make over 100k a year when I was in pharmacy school. I thought if this salary is true I can work few days a month and go on vacations but when I started working I barely had time off lol.
 
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dmd20000 said:
I am weird. I never been in a relationship and I do not plan to get married or have kids so my bills are very small. I could actually go and live with my family and cut my costs to $150 a month so I do not really have to work. I live with roommates now so it is a new experience for me and I get to see people at work everyday so I enjoy that. I was born in a poor country and lived there half my life so I am not used to spend a lot of money and I actually never thought we pharmacists make over 100k a year when I was in pharmacy school. I thought if this salary is true I can work few days a month and go on vacations but when I started working I barely had time off lol.
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I mean do you plan on ever owning a home? How will you retire? I guess you could get a cheap house in BFE for a similar price as your rent. But the older you get the more awkward living with parents/roommates becomes. You don't see many 40+ year olds living with young roommates.
 
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I would trust a real pharmacist over a salary website any day. The question isn't about the average salary of a pharmacist. It's about how many are fully employed, under employed, and unemployed. If all those factors of reality are taken into account, then the average salary of a pharmacist is much lower.
On a side note, even jobs are drying up in rural California. What else do you expect when there are 13 pharmacy schools in California as opposed to 7 schools when I was a pharmacy student? CVS and Walgreens have been closing locations. Gone are the days of $30,000 sign-on bonuses.
I truly wish all pre-pharms would do their research and talk to real working pharmacists and avoid new pharmacy school recruiters like the flu. Back in my day, the term pre-pharm didn't even exist.
 
AM77 said:
Gone are the days of $30,000 sign-on bonuses.
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Damn I miss those days....The most I ever saw was Kroger offering 45k, unfortunately I had already taken 25k from a competitor
 
Dred Pirate said:
Damn I miss those days....The most I ever saw was Kroger offering 45k, unfortunately I had already taken 25k from a competitor
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I got 30k sign on. When I first got it, I thought YAY but then I scrolled down and saw how much taxes were taken out of it... a good 40% gone lol
 
GypsyHummus said:
All the doom and gloom the Pharmacy forum talks about, yet every salary site has PharmD clocking in at 110-120k/year. 120k seems pretty good to a 22-24 year old kid who just graduated with a worthless bio degree making 12$/hour at a lab.
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EVEN 30 USD PER AN HOUR WOULD LOOK GOOD TO INDIVIDUALS YOU HAVE DESCRIBED. THAT IS WHY PPL WILL CONTINUE GOING TO PHARM SCHOOL.
 
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mentos said:
I mean do you plan on ever owning a home? How will you retire? I guess you could get a cheap house in BFE for a similar price as your rent. But the older you get the more awkward living with parents/roommates becomes. You don't see many 40+ year olds living with young roommates.
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Owning a home is not expensive. 40-50k is enough to buy a small home with a low property tax. I found apartments much cheaper overseas if I want to stay there but I am currently living close to my family so I don't know what I want to do for my future. I was retired but I went back to work because I wanted to stay close to my family and because I got bored watching movies and playing video games everyday lol.
 
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sb.tnh said:
Ok I agree that pharmacy is not as great as most schools wanted us to believe. But if a PharmD grad is able to pull 100-120k a year they will be able to pay off their 200k loan. It’s not like other professions have it better - I am in dental school and by the time I get my DDS I’ll be $300k in debt.
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You can work rural and get your loans paid off.
 
projektreverb said:
Sidetrack but did modest anteater get banned?
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Yes. I'm guessing cause of his post about having to choose between being a mother vs a pharmacist.
 
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3% raise this year. Still keeping up with inflation. More importantly: NP's and PA's earn about the same as us with cheaper tuition - much better deal!
 
rxkrafted said:
When I graduated 4 years ago, I thought everyone on this forum was overreacting but I noticed that job opening were drastically disappearing around my area and the pay was definitely going down... I am comfortable where I am with my job and am stable but just observing the job market around me and how my friends graduating after my year could not find jobs until almost a year after graduation. There are at least two different companies near me that are actually offering pharmacist positions for 25-50 dollars/hour, stated in the job posting
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"Comfortable" and "stable" are not words usually associated with pharmacy.
 
bacillus1 said:
At least dentists have time to have lunch and use the restroom at work.
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Honestly, out of my 8 hour work day.... I'm actually drilling/filling hunched over maybe 2-3 hours. Alot of things are delegated to staff to do. The other times I'm just checking hygiene checks which takes 2-3 min of my time and mostly is socialization.

So what do I do in my free time in the office? Lots of tvs, books, and watching CNBC marketwatch stuff...
 
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sosoo and modest were entertaining.
 
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^agreed. Part of me is sad we lost entertainment. On the other hand, I’m surprised modest lasted this long.
 
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Rainee said:
Honestly, out of my 8 hour work day.... I'm actually drilling/filling hunched over maybe 2-3 hours. Alot of things are delegated to staff to do. The other times I'm just checking hygiene checks which takes 2-3 min of my time and mostly is socialization.

So what do I do in my free time in the office? Lots of tvs, books, and watching CNBC marketwatch stuff...
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I actually timed my dentist last time I was in - he spent less than 1 minute looking at my teeth (two commercials on the TV) - he was in and out of the room in 3 minutes. I am not complaining, I had no issues, the hygienist did a great job I feel. Just made me think how profitable it can be if done right, although I never really considered being a dentist, it was about the only healthcare professional I didn't consider!
 
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