Pharmacy Headlines

Today’s Insights

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TL;DR - The Pharmacist Compensation data contained noticeable changes after the retail walkout of 2023.

The first ever Pharmacist Compensation newsletter was dedicated to retail pharmacy. It was around the time (Oct 2023) a brave group of CVS pharmacists in Kansas city made national news with an organized pharmacy walkout. That moment was supposed to be the beginning of impactful changes coming to retail pharmacy.

In 2023 and 2024, Pharmacist Compensation collected data from 1,824 retail pharmacists across the United States. Most of the data was collected from floater pharmacists, staff pharmacists, and pharmacy managers. However, data was also captured from various other positions including executive leadership and pharmacy owners.

Among many other data points, the participants in the Pharmacist Compensation survey report their total annual wages. You might need to thank a CVS pharmacist because the median annual wages increased ~3.7% from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024.

However, the median hourly wage did not experience the same increase. The trendline is relatively flat with pharmacists reporting a median hourly rate of $66.00 in 2023 versus $66.62 in 2024.

Analyzing the four most common retail positions, there was a slight increase for most positions when comparing Q4 2023 to Q1 2024. Staff Pharmacists reported a ~3.5% increase from $125,500 to $130,000. Another reminder to thank those CVS pharmacists.

Now solely focusing on 2024, there was variation in compensation between the different retail settings. Retail pharmacists consistently report higher compensation in the Outpatient practice settings.

Pharmacists in the Outpatient and Other practice settings also reported higher job satisfaction compared to their peers. The Chain setting was the only practice area to consistently report less than 6 out of 10 job satisfaction the entire year.

The Pharmacist Compensation data contained noticeable changes after the retail walkout of 2023. While no single event explains the shift, it is hard to ignore that (some) change followed that moment. If you’re in retail pharmacy, continue to advocate for yourself. When people come together to demand more, change has a way of following.

Quick side note - If you participated in the survey and selected Other, please reach out to Pharmacist Compensation to have your practice setting added to the survey. Thanks!

_{Pharmacist Compensation provided the data displayed in the above charts. Join thousands of pharmacists and take the anonymous survey. All participants receive access to an interactive dashboard that can be filtered by Job Title, Company, Area of Pharmacy, and more.}

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