Average Pharmacy Tech Salary Continues to Increase
Pharmacy technician salary depends on a number of factors including the type of industry in which the pharmacy is located and the geographic location in which they work. The mean annual pharmacy technician salary in 2010 was $29,330, and the mean hourly wage the same year was $14.10.
This is just an average and in 2010 pharmacy technician pay ranged from $9.57 per hour (the bottom 10%) to $19.57 per hour (the top 10%). This equated to a pharmacy technician salary that ranged from $19,840 to $40,710 annually.
Pharmacy Technician Pay: The Impact of Industry
According to the BLS, There are around 333,500 pharmacy technicians employed in the U.S. and they work in a huge range of industries including grocery stores, health stores, hospitals, and mail-order or online stores. The average pharmacy technician salary varies depending on which industry they work in.
One of the largest employers of pharmacy technicians are health and personal care stores. These employ around 180,000 pharmacy technicians nationwide. The average pharmacy technician pay in these stores is slightly less than the overall average at $13.42 per hour, equating to $27,910 annually. One of the lowest paying industries for a pharmacy technician to work is department stores, where the average pay is $12.62 per hour, or $26,250 annually.
Working in a general medical or surgical hospital is a little more profitable, and the 5,650 pharmacy technicians that work in these earn an average of $15.94 per hour, or $33,160 annually, which is above the overall national average. However the industries with the highest rates of pharmacy technician pay are the Federal Executive Branch, colleges, universities and professional schools, management companies, and specialty hospitals. Unfortunately these positions can be hard to find as less than 3% of pharmacy technicians work in all of these industries combined.
Pharmacy Technician Salary: The Impact of Geographic Location
The State and area in which you work can have a huge impact on your salary expectations. One factor is the number of jobs available for pharmacy technicians. The States with the highest levels of employment for pharmacy technicians are California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio, with the highest average being received for pharmacy technician salary California ($17.92 per hour) and the lowest received in Ohio ($12.57 per hour).
The five top paying States for pharmacy technicians are Alaska, Washington, California, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. However, with the exception of California and Washington, these States each employ fewer than 1000 pharmacy technicians. In general (again with the exception of Washington and the New York area) pharmacy technician pay appears to be higher on the west side of the U.S. than on the east.
Other factors that may affect pharmacy technician salary levels are experience and qualifications. It seems that certified pharmacy technicians can earn a higher wage than uncertified pharmacy technicians, and your pay should increase as you gain experience.
Job Prospects for Pharmacy Technicians
There’s good news for students researching how to become a pharmacy technician, as employment looks set to rise in this sector by 31% between 2008 and 2018. This is much faster than other occupations and can be explained by the shift in the composition of the population to older people who are likely to use more pharmaceutical drugs.
Pharmacy technicians will also see an expansion in their role as they become more involved in patient care. Pharmacy technicians with formal training and certification should find plenty of job opportunities.