$79,208 per year before taxes

[ldiot]

Just to let you know, this is the new rate for CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. I have almost 10 years experience in pharmacy and this is what I was offered. Full time 32 hours a week at $47 dollars per hour at Walgreens. CVS is only offering part time floater jobs and Walmart isn't even hiring anymore.

$47 dollars per hour at 32 hours a week is $79,208 per year. Not quite the $120,000 we were all hoping for, but those days are long gone.

We all took out student loans. I always dreamed of paying mine off ASAP and being debt free in 3-4 years, but it's mathematically impossible.

This is the reality of our profession, and it's not even the worst part. Go spend some time on the front lines and see how great being a pharmacist is. Customers yelling, phones ringing, no technician help, people wanting vaccines, people waiting for their 120 Percocet. You may wear a white coat but you work in the service industry in the eyes of the public. You are a vending machine expected to have the charm of a waitress at a 5 star restaurant. Your boss is texting you pushing numbers, and the state board is just waiting for you to make a mistake.

Nobody is your friend. You are as disposable as a piece of toilet paper to your boss. The state board isn't your friend, their job is to protect the public. And customers don't respect you, they just want their pills FAST and CHEAP. You are also supposed to be a secretary and an insurance rep for all the lazy and entitled people out there. And the worst part is that you can't quit, you owe the government $200,000. You took the bait and now you are trapped in retail hell.

But hey don't take my advice. You want to be a pharmacist to help people! You are going to do a residency and work in the hospital! You are going to pay off your loans early! Ask any real pharmacist how many times they have heard that

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[Xenophylia]

Nobody is your friend

And that, my friends, is pharmacy in a nutshell.....

 

[ValeRx]

No I'm gonna be a CLINICAL pharmacist!!!!111111

 

[PSOP Student]

But hey don't take my advice. You want to be a pharmacist to help people! You are going to do a residency and work in the hospital! You are going to pay off your loans early! Ask any real pharmacist how many times they have heard that

Yeah, but all of these bottom of the barrel pharmacy students have PASSION and that puts food on the table! Hopes and dreams also pumps gas into cars and so does begging mommy and daddy.

$230,000 in loans and a empty stomach means nothing when you have passion and live on ramen!

 

[Xenophylia]

I still say "passion" and "pharmacy" shouldn't EVER be in the same sentence.....

 

[deleted480308]

No I'm gonna be a CLINICAL pharmacist!!!!111111

While there absolutely aren’t enough jobs for all the hopefuls, and I don’t know much about the life satisfaction of a clinical pharmacist....as a doc, I can tell you a good clinical pharmacist is freaking gold to the team. I’m gonna guess the hospital doesn’t monetize that gold to you in return though

 

[Marzapan]

I still say "passion" and "pharmacy" shouldn't EVER be in the same sentence.....

There is nobody that has a "passion" for "pharmacy."

There. I used it in a sentence.

 

[Marzapan]

While there absolutely aren’t enough jobs for all the hopefuls, and I don’t know much about the life satisfaction of a clinical pharmacist....as a doc, I can tell you a good clinical pharmacist is freaking gold to the team. I’m gonna guess the hospital doesn’t monetize that gold to you in return though

The problem is that a pharmacist's "skillset" cannot be monetized and therefore it's difficult to justify being there.

It's like saying that if you were a professor trying to teach a class, could you use 3 TAs, 2 tutors, an AV guy, a security guard, an admin assistant/secretary etc? Sure, they can all "enhance" the quality of instruction but let's be realistic, money doesn't grow on trees so nobody's going to hire a huge staff just to teach a class. There is theorizing and there is reality.

 

[NorthTexasPharmacist]

Just to let you know, this is the new rate for CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. I have almost 10 years experience in pharmacy and this is what I was offered. Full time 32 hours a week at $47 dollars per hour at Walgreens. CVS is only offering part time floater jobs and Walmart isn't even hiring anymore.

$47 dollars per hour at 32 hours a week is $79,208 per year. Not quite the $120,000 we were all hoping for, but those days are long gone.

We all took out student loans. I always dreamed of paying mine off ASAP and being debt free in 3-4 years, but it's mathematically impossible.

This is the reality of our profession, and it's not even the worst part. Go spend some time on the front lines and see how great being a pharmacist is. Customers yelling, phones ringing, no technician help, people wanting vaccines, people waiting for their 120 Percocet. You may wear a white coat but you work in the service industry in the eyes of the public. You are a vending machine expected to have the charm of a waitress at a 5 star restaurant. Your boss is texting you pushing numbers, and the state board is just waiting for you to make a mistake.

Nobody is your friend. You are as disposable as a piece of toilet paper to your boss. The state board isn't your friend, their job is to protect the public. And customers don't respect you, they just want their pills FAST and CHEAP. You are also supposed to be a secretary and an insurance rep for all the lazy and entitled people out there. And the worst part is that you can't quit, you owe the government $200,000. You took the bait and now you are trapped in retail hell.

But hey don't take my advice. You want to be a pharmacist to help people! You are going to do a residency and work in the hospital! You are going to pay off your loans early! Ask any real pharmacist how many times they have heard that

OP which part of country are you at?

Also, kids, this is very true about 70% of the time. If you're working for cvs, walgreens, walmart and other chains retails, you will not enjoy your work or your life.

I will say the other 30%, which comprises of independent, hospital, longterm care, industry, research and academia, isn't that bad. The only problem is that 30% is shrinking slowly. If you're just now starting school, by the time you get out, it could well be down to 25%. Considering that job market for pharmacy is shrinking in general, 5% decrease in 4 years wouldn't be surprising. Obviously those numbers aren't exact but you get the idea.

 

[Sine Cura]

Every additional day working in retail reinforces my desire for an eschatological reckoning where all trash are left wanting.

 

[PharmtoCS]

You could very well be earning $0 if you end up unemployed.

 

[BelowTheMean]

What exactly is pharmacy passion? Passion to pick up ringing phones in less than 10 seconds or else complaint that you're ignoring it? Passion to find missing medications and solve everything for lazy ass nurses that make equivalent if not more than you on a 2 year or undergrad degree that you couldve played ps4 or whatever and slept and still aced the program? Passion to be the gatekeeper of drug addicts and tell them no cuz providers couldnt? Passion to be the babysitter of all the healthcare staff to make sure they do their jobs so you can finally do your job of the process? Passion to be the scapegoat of every freaking thing that goes wrong if they can somehow link it remotely somehow in their minds to pharmacy? Man i'd give up this so called passion in a heartbeat if i am able to find another career.

 

[Marzapan]

What exactly is pharmacy passion? Passion to pick up ringing phones in less than 10 seconds or else complaint that you're ignoring it? Passion to find missing medications and solve everything for lazy ass nurses that make equivalent if not more than you on a 2 year or undergrad degree that you couldve played ps4 or whatever and slept and still aced the program? Passion to be the gatekeeper of drug addicts and tell them no cuz providers couldnt? Passion to be the babysitter of all the healthcare staff to make sure they do their jobs so you can finally do your job of the process? Passion to be the scapegoat of every freaking thing that goes wrong if they can somehow link it remotely somehow in their minds to pharmacy? Man i'd give up this so called passion in a heartbeat if i am able to find another career.

"Passion" in pharmacy is not about having passion in above things, but it is about having the passion to have passion in above things.

 

[mentos]

What exactly is pharmacy passion? Passion to pick up ringing phones in less than 10 seconds or else complaint that you're ignoring it? Passion to find missing medications and solve everything for lazy ass nurses that make equivalent if not more than you on a 2 year or undergrad degree that you couldve played ps4 or whatever and slept and still aced the program? Passion to be the gatekeeper of drug addicts and tell them no cuz providers couldnt? Passion to be the babysitter of all the healthcare staff to make sure they do their jobs so you can finally do your job of the process? Passion to be the scapegoat of every freaking thing that goes wrong if they can somehow link it remotely somehow in their minds to pharmacy? Man i'd give up this so called passion in a heartbeat if i am able to find another career.

"Passion" is BS for "I want to make 6 figures" but that is no longer a reality. But pre-pharms see the median salary on BLS and assume they will get the same in 4 years cause the market will "correct itself" or cause they're all better than everyone else.

 

[mentos]

While there absolutely aren’t enough jobs for all the hopefuls, and I don’t know much about the life satisfaction of a clinical pharmacist....as a doc, I can tell you a good clinical pharmacist is freaking gold to the team. I’m gonna guess the hospital doesn’t monetize that gold to you in return though

We aren't disparaging the role of a clinical pharmacist. We're just making fun of the fact that nearly every pre-pharm thinks they will have a unicorn job, when in reality there's a 95% chance they'll end up miserable at CVS or unemployed.

 

[sfachine]

We do not know the actual unemployment or underemployment rates of pharmacists.
Not all CVS Walgreens etc pharmacists are miserable.Just the ones here.

 

[casprph]

We do not know the actual unemployment or underemployment rates of pharmacists.
Not all CVS Walgreens etc pharmacists are miserable.Just the ones here.

I think it’s important to get the word out that there is such a place like this, I’m sure plenty of pharmacists don’t even know about this forum.

 

[VA77]

Here's your passion

 

[researchpharma]

Here's your passion

What? If you’re passionate about something, you would clearly find yourself spending much of your time devoting to that. [insert Jacki Chan wtf image]

 

[TerryTerry]

I did some indeed search lately and saw
CVS offering $43/hr for staff position and hospital pharmacy director being offered $45/hr.

Also saw numerous independent positions starting at $60000/year for a full time staff position while the manager positions start at $80000/year.

Probably not quite what prepharms and current students are expecting.
Don`t forget that those jobs are extremely competitive with 50~60 applicants each at least.

 

[deleted562805]

What? If you’re passionate about something, you would clearly find yourself spending much of your time devoting to that. [insert Jacki Chan wtf image]

If you are good at something, you will put more effort. Mark is good at selling a product and he is passionate about basketball, so he combined the two things to become owner of the Dallas Mavericks

 

[Marzapan]

If you are good at something, you will put more effort. Mark is good at selling a product and he is passionate about basketball, so he combined the two things to become owner of the Dallas Mavericks

If you are good at "helping people" and are passionate about pharmacy, then in theory you should be happy about being a pharmacist uber driver.

 

[deleted562805]

Just to let you know, this is the new rate for CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. I have almost 10 years experience in pharmacy and this is what I was offered. Full time 32 hours a week at $47 dollars per hour at Walgreens. CVS is only offering part time floater jobs and Walmart isn't even hiring anymore.

$47 dollars per hour at 32 hours a week is $79,208 per year. Not quite the $120,000 we were all hoping for, but those days are long gone.

We all took out student loans. I always dreamed of paying mine off ASAP and being debt free in 3-4 years, but it's mathematically impossible.

This is the reality of our profession, and it's not even the worst part. Go spend some time on the front lines and see how great being a pharmacist is. Customers yelling, phones ringing, no technician help, people wanting vaccines, people waiting for their 120 Percocet. You may wear a white coat but you work in the service industry in the eyes of the public. You are a vending machine expected to have the charm of a waitress at a 5 star restaurant. Your boss is texting you pushing numbers, and the state board is just waiting for you to make a mistake.

Nobody is your friend. You are as disposable as a piece of toilet paper to your boss. The state board isn't your friend, their job is to protect the public. And customers don't respect you, they just want their pills FAST and CHEAP. You are also supposed to be a secretary and an insurance rep for all the lazy and entitled people out there. And the worst part is that you can't quit, you owe the government $200,000. You took the bait and now you are trapped in retail hell.

But hey don't take my advice. You want to be a pharmacist to help people! You are going to do a residency and work in the hospital! You are going to pay off your loans early! Ask any real pharmacist how many times they have heard that

If student loan did not exist, 79,208 is not bad.

 

[ldiot]

If student loan did not exist, 79,208 is not bad.

Even with 0 student loans the opportunity cost of 6-8 years in school is huge

 

[deleted562805]

Even with 0 student loans the opportunity cost of 6-8 years in school is huge

True, from financial standpoint it is terrible even with zero loans., but with loans makes it a living nightmare

 

[PharmtoCS]

You could become a computer programmer, engineer, accountant, plumber, electrician, etc. for $80k/year with little or no debt. Your quality of life would be far better than that of the average pharmacist.

 

[FoodstampPharmacist]

Just to let you know, this is the new rate for CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. I have almost 10 years experience in pharmacy and this is what I was offered. Full time 32 hours a week at $47 dollars per hour at Walgreens. CVS is only offering part time floater jobs and Walmart isn't even hiring anymore.

$47 dollars per hour at 32 hours a week is $79,208 per year. Not quite the $120,000 we were all hoping for, but those days are long gone.

We all took out student loans. I always dreamed of paying mine off ASAP and being debt free in 3-4 years, but it's mathematically impossible.

This is the reality of our profession, and it's not even the worst part. Go spend some time on the front lines and see how great being a pharmacist is. Customers yelling, phones ringing, no technician help, people wanting vaccines, people waiting for their 120 Percocet. You may wear a white coat but you work in the service industry in the eyes of the public. You are a vending machine expected to have the charm of a waitress at a 5 star restaurant. Your boss is texting you pushing numbers, and the state board is just waiting for you to make a mistake.

Nobody is your friend. You are as disposable as a piece of toilet paper to your boss. The state board isn't your friend, their job is to protect the public. And customers don't respect you, they just want their pills FAST and CHEAP. You are also supposed to be a secretary and an insurance rep for all the lazy and entitled people out there. And the worst part is that you can't quit, you owe the government $200,000. You took the bait and now you are trapped in retail hell.

But hey don't take my advice. You want to be a pharmacist to help people! You are going to do a residency and work in the hospital! You are going to pay off your loans early! Ask any real pharmacist how many times they have heard that

" $79,208 per year " is only the beginning. This time in five years new grads will be lucky to be earning 42,000 USD a year and rightfully so given the massive supply and low demand for pharmacist. Pharmacy hasn't been a financially sustainable major for at least ten years now.

 

[APN-59 rph]

" $79,208 per year " is only the beginning. This time in five years new grads will be lucky to be earning 42,000 USD a year and rightfully so given the massive supply and low demand for pharmacist. Pharmacy hasn't been a financially sustainable major for at least ten years now.

The scary part is that even without a big student loan burden..it may not work for most...I'm not gonna run the numbers...since no one seems to know where they will settle..

 

[drducky.]

As a med student, I feel for you guys. How does a nurse with a bachelors earn more than a 4 year doctorate? Something is wrong here. I’m guessing the schools are to blame for graduating too many pharmacists?

 

[APN-59 rph]

As a med student, I feel for you guys. How does a nurse with a bachelors earn more than a 4 year doctorate? Something is wrong here. I’m guessing the schools are to blame for graduating too many pharmacist

Business types smelled big money and jumped into the pharmacy school business.....they then cooked up whatever persuasive jabbering they thought could snag studs...Referenced studs smelled big paychecks and bought into the jabbering....The lucky early ones passed on words about the amazing pay..more studs bought in until the law of supply and demand (which was ..is...carefully ignored) took effect. Executives of all stripes have taken notice...The supply and demand law will be followed. I suppose that there is blame to go around...BUT..as the pharmacist role is basically (at least in the stores...I know nothing about hospital) that of high rent delivery personnel..I will narrow it down to one word.......money...

 

[mentos]

As a med student, I feel for you guys. How does a nurse with a bachelors earn more than a 4 year doctorate? Something is wrong here. I’m guessing the schools are to blame for graduating too many pharmacists?

Just look at what happened during the covid peak. Nurses and doctors were needed on the front lines. They worked overtime and got hazard pay. Meanwhile pharmacists had their hours cut, got furloughed or repositioned to different roles so they could find work to do.

 

[Mad Jack]

The problem is that a pharmacist's "skillset" cannot be monetized and therefore it's difficult to justify being there.

It's like saying that if you were a professor trying to teach a class, could you use 3 TAs, 2 tutors, an AV guy, a security guard, an admin assistant/secretary etc? Sure, they can all "enhance" the quality of instruction but let's be realistic, money doesn't grow on trees so nobody's going to hire a huge staff just to teach a class. There is theorizing and there is reality.

I would argue that they often pay for themselves by preventing significant medication errors several times per year. But admins aren't the type to see that

 

[NITRAS]

As a med student, I feel for you guys. How does a nurse with a bachelors earn more than a 4 year doctorate? Something is wrong here. I’m guessing the schools are to blame for graduating too many pharmacists?

Think about how compensation happens.

All employees need to make a company money/save a company money. Otherwise the company shouldn't hire you. This sets the max compensation. Then you factor in the supply and demand for the job. The more people chasing jobs will cause the pay to go down.

 

[sloh]

As a med student, I feel for you guys. How does a nurse with a bachelors earn more than a 4 year doctorate? Something is wrong here. I’m guessing the schools are to blame for graduating too many pharmacists?

For the same reason a PhD in gender studies or psychology doesn't mean much from a financial perspective. Degree inflation

 

[DH1987]

At least I can say that I was fortunate enough to be able to pay my student loan debt off. Now I'm just stacking money like hell until the day comes that they let me go, which I'm sure they will once they can get new grads at half my price.

As for anyone entering the profession, I have no idea how they will pay off $300k of student loans on $80k a year. Only reason I did it so quickly is because I was averaging around $110k/year, my debt was only around $180k, and I also lived like a hermit.

 

[quickpic007]

At least I can say that I was fortunate enough to be able to pay my student loan debt off. Now I'm just stacking money like hell until the day comes that they let me go, which I'm sure they will once they can get new grads at half my price.

As for anyone entering the profession, I have no idea how they will pay off $300k of student loans on $80k a year. Only reason I did it so quickly is because I was averaging around $110k/year, my debt was only around $180k, and I also lived like a hermit.

It has been well documented on here, the solution is to discharge on PSLF. If a student has 100% federal, just tack on more loans for
CS , nursing, PA etc. rack it up past 400K, it wont matter, get it discharged. max 403b, ira, hsa... by the time its discharged they will have a decent bankroll.

 

[DH1987]

It has been well documented on here, the solution is to discharge on PSLF. If a student has 100% federal, just tack on more loans for
CS , nursing, PA etc. rack it up past 400K, it wont matter, get it discharged. max 403b, ira, hsa... by the time its discharged they will have a decent bankroll.

Yikes. Time to invest in gold.

 

[PharmtoCS]

It has been well documented on here, the solution is to discharge on PSLF. If a student has 100% federal, just tack on more loans for
CS , nursing, PA etc. rack it up past 400K, it wont matter, get it discharged. max 403b, ira, hsa... by the time its discharged they will have a decent bankroll.

I've known some who took public service jobs, i.e. teaching to get their loans discharged via PSLF. They have never used and will most likely never use their PharmD but at least they will be debt free after 10 years.

 

[BidingMyTime]

What exactly is pharmacy passion? Passion to pick up ringing phones in less than 10 seconds or else complaint that you're ignoring it? Passion to find missing medications and solve everything for lazy ass nurses that make equivalent if not more than you on a 2 year or undergrad degree that you couldve played ps4 or whatever and slept and still aced the program? Passion to be the gatekeeper of drug addicts and tell them no cuz providers couldnt? Passion to be the babysitter of all the healthcare staff to make sure they do their jobs so you can finally do your job of the process? Passion to be the scapegoat of every freaking thing that goes wrong if they can somehow link it remotely somehow in their minds to pharmacy? Man i'd give up this so called passion in a heartbeat if i am able to find another career.

Obsessive-compulsiveness in doing things correctly may be mistaken as "passion" for pharmacy. Certainly it can be a good trait to have in pharmacy, but would be better utilized as an accountant.

 

[Hels2007]

That's about what the full-time pay was when I started pharmacy school back in 2003. Roughly $70-75K per year. But! even private school tuition was about $20K per year (state school was $8K/year), there were new positions opening every day, there were less than half the current number of pharmacy graduates per year, and salaries were growing fast. That made it a very different $75K...

 

[tlh908]

As a med student, I feel for you guys. How does a nurse with a bachelors earn more than a 4 year doctorate? Something is wrong here. I’m guessing the schools are to blame for graduating too many pharmacists?

This is untrue. My wife has a 2 year RN degree and makes more than pharmacy new grads per hour. During the COVID peak there were shifts she was making more 100 per hour. If you want money then be a nurse.

 

[mentos]

That's about what the full-time pay was when I started pharmacy school back in 2003. Roughly $70-75K per year. But! even private school tuition was about $20K per year (state school was $8K/year), there were new positions opening every day, there were less than half the current number of pharmacy graduates per year, and salaries were growing fast. That made it a very different $75K...

Don't forget inflation.

75k in 2003 is worth $106,171 in 2021.

Or conversely, $79,208 in 2021 is worth $55,952 in 2003.

 

[APN-59 rph]

That's about what the full-time pay was when I started pharmacy school back in 2003. Roughly $70-75K per year. But! even private school tuition was about $20K per year (state school was $8K/year), there were new positions opening every day, there were less than half the current number of pharmacy graduates per year, and salaries were growing fast. That made it a very different $75K...

For me it was a boring..piece work job. I got in because the schools were screaming for students and I needed a job besides being a GI. It was an interesting and fairly difficult course....AND was not considered grad school..pre-pharm-D..Just a BS....No one knew what a Pharm-D was. Employers were screaming for help at the same time so up went the pay....Sooo we had boring piece work job...pay jumps regularly...work when and where you want...no huge school loans. A fairly reasonable professional type job for your basic worker bee like moi. NOW..can anyone look at todays pharmacist gig and explain to me WHY anyone would want a job as a "doctor of pharmacy"? If you can I say go for it and best of luck..

 

[Sine Cura]

I can only speak for my area as I don't care about other areas, but house prices today are about 3x what they were in 2003. Pharmacy salaries certainly haven't tripled across the board.

 

[mentos]

I can only speak for my area as I don't care about other areas, but house prices today are about 3x what they were in 2003. Pharmacy salaries certainly haven't tripled across the board.

You can say that about any profession. Salaries are not supposed to triple just because real estate does.