Hospital Pharmacist Pay

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Hope48

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How much is the average pay as a hospital pharmacist? I work in an orthopedic hospital and the pay is $41/hour. The job is not stressful but wondering if the pay is too low.
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$60 for hospital? I don't know anyone that makes that in hospital, well, I do know someone that makes 150k, but hes an outlier. $48-55 seems standard from what I've seen, Lower end for more saturated/desirable locales. Maybe I just don't know my worth either 🙁
 
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zelman said:
Varies quite a bit by region. You are underpaid for New England and overpaid for Florida.
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$41 overpaid for Florida? I was started at $44 about five years ago and we had raised starting pay while I was still there.
 
My hospital starts around $52/hr and the range goes all the way into the 70's. Union hospital so people get guaranteed raises every year.
 
zelman said:
Yes
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That's pretty rough, but the job posting is almost phrased like joining a start-up. Anyone with sense would make wage growth and ownership a part of the job negotiation.. but because we are talking about pharmacists, they will smile and happily take the job.
 
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I just started recently no experience and make 55$/hr in a saturated market. $41 seems low but the question is if it’s low for your region.
 
you need to give us more info to truly justify - I make $67, started at $43 - but like was stated, location is more important - I know someone who (15 years ago) made $70 in small town midwest where you could buy the nicest home (and all the meth you could do) for 135k.
 
2018 not so scientific salary guide for the SF Bay Area:

Starting hourly rate for hospital ~ $75/hr
2-3 years experience and/or clin spec can expect $80-$90/hr

Most of my colleagues in the area are between $85-$95/hr ($177k-$197k)

But do note that the median household income is around $107k in San Jose, that means $197k is still considered middle-class (up to 200% of median household income), and that leaves you unable to afford median home prices (of $1.1-$1.2M, you would need to be making $216k/yr for that home to be considered "affordable")

So marry another pharmacist or a physician, and you're good to go.
 
Los Angele area, for profit organization, for hospital staff pay is high 60 to mid 70 per hour starting. Is this norm in southern CA??
How much is pharmacy director make? I can't see they make more than 200k?
 
nasacort24hr said:
Los Angele area, for profit organization, for hospital staff pay is high 60 to mid 70 per hour starting. Is this norm in southern CA??
How much is pharmacy director make? I can't see they make more than 200k?
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Where did you get that starting pay number from? I haven’t seen that anywhere for a new grad.
 
msweph said:
I know you’re Californian and everything is hella expensive but God damn that sounds like a lot of money
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hospital pay in CA seems very high in my personal experience, it is comparable or even higher than retail, even for new grad. How's everyone's knowledge of CA hospital pay? My experience maybe limited.
 
Those CA salary figures are not high when you consider CoL. For example, an equivalent hourly rate for me in SF would be $120/hr.** I'd never make anything close to that. Would I rather live in the Bay Area (home) than where I live now? Absolutely, but I’m not willing to home-share and/or save less aggressively for retirement.

**ballpark figure from two online calculators
 
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msweph said:
I know you’re Californian and everything is hella expensive but God damn that sounds like a lot of money
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It is. Sometimes, I have trouble reconciling my lifestyle come tax time when I’ve cleared $200k in a year and I “see” it for the first time on my W-2. I lead a pretty normal life - I grew up middle class, so anyone making $200k was someone who would be wearing fur coats and riding around in a limo, lol.


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If someone wants to dig, I did a pretty detailed comparison a few years ago between $75/hr in SF vs $40/hr in Pittsburg, PA.


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nasacort24hr said:
lol personal quote from job offer
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Are you a new grad or do you have experience already? I know the pay scale for 3 hospital systems in Southern California, with one of them being one of the biggest in this area and none of them offer that rate for a new grad. Your rate sounds like some one with at least 6 years of experience.
 
Rockinacoustic said:
We start new grads* at ~$65/hr

*New grads = PGY-1 trained and expectation to obtain BCPS within 2 years
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Oh are you talking about clinical unicorn position or inpatient staffing? And this is southern California we are talking about?
 
wucool33 said:
Oh are you talking about clinical unicorn position or inpatient staffing? And this is southern California we are talking about?
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Correct SoCal.

We have a blended staffing model of centralized/decentralized responsibilities for said job (which is 90% of our staff)-more thoroughbreds than unicorns here.
 
Wow, lots of people here make more than I do. Maybe I should jump ship when my loan repayment program is done. Then again my cost of living is fairly low as well (just a bit over $100k for my condo plus HOA, but our taxes are insane).
 
I work 7 on 7 off nights. I only work 65 hours per pay period and I get paid for 80. I make 114K which is less than retail but having every other week off is amazing. I get 4 weeks vacation so each time i take off is really 3 weeks off. Cant beat it
 
JST416 said:
I get 4 weeks vacation so each time i take off is really 3 weeks off. Cant beat it
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I call BS. You say you get "4 weeks" of vacation but surely you have to use 65 hours in order to get that week off? So you get three weeks off in a row but you use 65 hours to get that.

At least that was how it worked when I did overnights. If you really get 4 weeks of vacation (and only have to use one week to get three weeks off) that is amazing.
 
owlegrad said:
I call BS. You say you get "4 weeks" of vacation but surely you have to use 65 hours in order to get that week off? So you get three weeks off in a row but you use 65 hours to get that.

At least that was how it worked when I did overnights. If you really get 4 weeks of vacation (and only have to use one week to get three weeks off) that is amazing.
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Correct, unless he’s mentally counting 1 week = 65 hours (reasonable given their schedule), therefore they get 260 hours of vacation per year (also reasonable, this is how much I get). Or put another way, their day shifters get 6.5 weeks of vacation per year.

My other math shows his workplace pays $54.80/hr, but night shift makes the equivalent of $67.45/hr considering the whole “work 65 hrs/get paid 80 hrs” thing.


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I should have added that I started working there as a tech, then intern, and now pharmacist. There is no BS in my post, my hospital gives an additional amount of paid time off based on time worked. I can take two weeks and its really 6 weeks off but thats the max for back to back time off.
 
For 7 0n 7 off they take 10 hours per day for paid time off. I can roll 80 and earn 6.5 per pay period. I get an extra 32 hours on my anniversary (This is based on years full time, I was prn while in school so that didnt count. it goes up 8 hours each year). I am stating my absolute max, I usually take a week and sell the rest back. I work with pharmacists who have been there since the early 80s. They could probably take half the year off.
 
Why would they dock you for time off if its your off week? Whats the point of working 7 on 7 off at that point?
 
In general, expect it to be $15,000 lower than whatever the retail chains in your area are paying. You should get more vacation days, as well as shift differentials, than chains. If you are a brand new pharmacist, expect your starting pay to be less than the $15,000 lower average. CA is the one exception to this rule.
 
BidingMyTime said:
In general, expect it to be $15,000 lower than whatever the retail chains in your area are paying. You should get more vacation days, as well as shift differentials, than chains. If you are a brand new pharmacist, expect your starting pay to be less than the $15,000 lower average. CA is the one exception to this rule.
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I'm starting to think this rule won't hold true for many people. At least a hospital job will give you 40 hours/week.
 
gwarm01 said:
I'm starting to think this rule won't hold true for many people. At least a hospital job will give you 40 hours/week.
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For now...I wouldn't count on that staying the same. Lots of residency trained pharmacists who are working retail because they can't get hospital jobs, it wouldn't be that hard for hospitals to decide to start cutting back hours.
 
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