How Much Do Pharmacists Make?

The average salary earned by a pharmacist in the United States in 2018 was $95,865, for female pharmacists, and $113,194, for male pharmacists. On the whole, the average salary was $102,847. There is a lot of detailed information underneath those three figures, including the fact that female pharmacists are more common, though younger than their male counterparts. Pharmacists come from a diverse range of educational backgrounds and work in a wide variety of professional environments, all of which affect their earning power.

By way of context, incomes earned by pharmacists compare closely to wages earned by information security analysts, electrical engineers, electronics engineers, and computer network architects.

How Many People Are Employed as Pharmacists? And Who Are They?

There were, as of 2018, approximately 318,599 people employed as pharmacists in the United States. That was an increase of roughly 8.14% over 2017 when about 294,628 people worked as pharmacists. Nearly 60% (59.7%) of pharmacists are female. On average, female pharmacists (39.9 years) are younger than male pharmacists (44.4 years).

The most commonly held bachelor’s degree among people employed as pharmacists is a Health degree, representing nearly 75% of pharmacists. That said, pharmacists hold a diverse range of undergraduate degrees. The 10 degrees most frequently held by pharmacists in the United States are set out in the following table.

Undergraduate Bachelor’s Degree Most Commonly Held by Pharmacists
Degree	Percentage	Number
Health	73.8%	63,111
Biology	8.12%	6,939
Business	5.12%	4,377
Physical Sciences	2.5%	2,138
Social Sciences	2.16%	1,848
Engineering	1.7%	1,457
Psychology	1.43%	1,224
Interdisciplinary Studies	1.22%	1,039
Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services	1.11%	949
Education	1.09%	928

 

Where Do Pharmacists Work? And What Do They Get Paid?

A significant majority of pharmacists (56.7%) of pharmacists work, perhaps predictably, in pharmacies and drug stores, while just under one-third work in hospitals. The distribution of the remaining pharmacists is quite broad, however. Here are the top seven environments in which pharmacists worked in 2018, and their average salaries in each setting.

Top Settings in Which Pharmacists Worked and What They Were Paid
Setting	Percentage of Pharmacists	Average Salary
Pharmacies	56.7%	$100,208
General medical and surgical hospitals and specialty hospitals (excluding psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals)	30.1%	$106,103
Supermarkets and grocery stores	3.25%	$103,503
General merchandise stores (including warehouse stores)	1.67%	$93,201
Outpatient care centers	1.13%	$93,982
Offices of physicians	0.85%	$114,091
Colleges, universities, and professional schools	0.71%	$115,158

 

Keck Graduate Institute’s School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences offers programs including:

• Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD)
• Master of Science in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling
• Master of Science in Human Genetics and Genomic Data Analytics
• Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies
• Occupational Therapy Doctorate

If you’re interested in a career as a pharmacist, get in touch with KGI about its PharmD program.