PHARMACISTS working in general merchandising stores are the profession's top-earners US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook reveals.
Pay data, published last month, revealed the median annual wages for pharmacists working in US nontraditional pharmacies was US$131,460, with hospital pharmacists earning US$127,330, while those working in pharmacies and drug stores took home an average salary of US$124,760.
The US figures contrasted with Australian pharmacists' earnings, highlighted in Pharmacy Daily's annual salary survey for 2019 (PD 06 May), which found the average community pharmacist earns $80,550 for their work in a retail pharmacy setting, described as "embarrassingly low" by one respondent.
Last month the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) launched its Pharmacists in 2023: Roles and Remuneration report, which set out a target to increase pharmacist pay in Australia with the goal that newly registered pharmacists will earn a minimum of $80,000 by 2023 (PD 29 Jul).
A spokesperson for Professional Pharmacists Australia told Pharmacy Daily that the union was committed to fighting for better pay rates, noting that pharmacist remuneration had increased over the last three years.
"Overall the problem of wages is a concentration of bargaining power in large employer groups against diffuse employee pharmacists," the spokesperson said.
"The only remedy is greater organisation of pharmacists to balance out that power."
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