Pharmacists
Dispense drugs prescribed by physicians and other health practitioners and provide information to patients about medications and their use. May advise physicians and other health practitioners on the selection, dosage, interactions, and side effects of medications.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Pharmacists. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $99,290 | $47.73 |
| 25th | $129,380 | $62.20 |
| 50th · Median | $140,910 | $67.75 |
| 75th | $161,840 | $77.81 |
| 90th | $174,230 | $83.77 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (7)
Typical tasks
- Review prescriptions to assure accuracy, to ascertain the needed ingredients, and to evaluate their suitability.
- Collaborate with other health care professionals to plan, monitor, review, or evaluate the quality or effectiveness of drugs or drug regimens, providing advice on drug applications or characteristics.
- Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
- Provide information and advice regarding drug interactions, side effects, dosage, and proper medication storage.
- Provide specialized services to help patients manage conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, smoking cessation, or high blood pressure.
- Analyze prescribing trends to monitor patient compliance and to prevent excessive usage or harmful interactions.
Expand more tasks (15)
- Maintain records, such as pharmacy files, patient profiles, charge system files, inventories, control records for radioactive nuclei, or registries of poisons, narcotics, or controlled drugs.
- Prepare sterile solutions or infusions for use in surgical procedures, emergency rooms, or patients' homes.
- Compound and dispense medications as prescribed by doctors and dentists, by calculating, weighing, measuring, and mixing ingredients, or oversee these activities.
- Assess the identity, strength, or purity of medications.
- Plan, implement, or maintain procedures for mixing, packaging, or labeling pharmaceuticals, according to policy and legal requirements, to ensure quality, security, and proper disposal.
- Teach pharmacy students serving as interns in preparation for their graduation or licensure.
- Refer patients to other health professionals or agencies when appropriate.
- Order and purchase pharmaceutical supplies, medical supplies, or drugs, maintaining stock and storing and handling it properly.
- Manage pharmacy operations, hiring or supervising staff, performing administrative duties, or buying or selling non-pharmaceutical merchandise.
- Publish educational information for other pharmacists, doctors, or patients.
- Advise customers on the selection of medication brands, medical equipment, or healthcare supplies.
- Assay radiopharmaceuticals, verify rates of disintegration, and calculate the volume required to produce the desired results, to ensure proper dosages.
- Offer health promotion or prevention activities, such as training people to use blood pressure devices or diabetes monitors.
- Update or troubleshoot pharmacy information databases.
- Contact insurance companies to resolve billing issues.
Skills used in this work
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Expand more skills (29)
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
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