COVER STORY

UP, UP, and AWAY

Pharmacist shortages send salaries soaring around the country, new national survey finds

Come on, fess up, pharmacists. Did you ever think you'd see the day when the average base salaries of employee pharmacists that Drug Topics and Hospital Pharmacist Report track every two years would jump by more than $10,000 to break the $70,000 barrier? Did you ever think you'd see the day when nearly 40% of our respondents would say the boss gave them a bigger raise than they expected just to keep them on the job? Did you ever think you'd see the day when the new kids on the bench would earn an average hourly pay of $32.11? Can you say pharmacist shortage?

Employee pharmacists have begun to resemble baseball free agents—well, not quite. And employers desperate to keep pharmacies churning out nearly three billion prescriptions annually have opened the company coffers for anyone with a pharmacy degree. For example, the average base salary of a chain drugstore pharmacist went from $62,831 in our 1999 survey to $74,154 this time around, a jump of $11,323 in just two years. Feeling the hot breath of corporate pharmacy recruiters eager to steal their staff R.Ph.s, hospitals have been forced to fork over even more money to stay in the game; the average hospital base wage of $59,491 in 1999 rose to $72,452 this time around, up an astounding $12,961.

Pharmacists who are paid by the hour averaged $34.91 per 60 minutes, up from $32.23 the previous year. The hourly rate ranged from a high of $36.55 among mass-merchandisers and $36.22 among chains to $31.79 among independents. In keeping with the westward trend, chain pharmacists paid by the hour on the Left Coast there earned the most, $39.18. Southern independent employee R.Ph.s lagged behind, earning an average of $30.86 per hour.

New pharmacists continued to ride the crest of the shortage, as starting base salaries across all practice settings shot up $12,500 during the past two years. Since our survey in 1997, starting wages have gone from an average of $51,010 to the current $67,824. That's only $3,854 less than the average base wage of all pharmacists across all settings.

New hires at independent pharmacies scored the biggest jump in starting base pay. They averaged $62,040, a $12,407 hike from our 1999 survey. Beginning base wages at supermarkets were up $12,343, mass-merchandisers paid $12,218 more, and chains coughed up an additional $11,725 to bring on board a rookie pharmacist. Hospitals got away with paying a mere $10,840 more this time around. The current hikes come on top of jumps of $4,000 to $6,000 between our 1997 and 1999 surveys, so that in the past five years starting salaries have skyrocketed $14,000 to $18,000. Not exactly chump change.

While the rising manpower shortage floats all boats, some pharmacists are cruising along in first class while others are berthed on the tourist tier. For example, Midwestern independent employee pharmacists had to make do with a base salary of $62,595, while chain pharmacists in the West were racking up an average base pay of $84,803.

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