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What Is the Average Salary of a Pharmacist?
The average annual salary for pharmacists as of May 2019 was $125,510, or about $60 an hour.
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Teddy is a former student loans writer with NerdWallet, where she covered topics around managing money before, during and after college. Her work has been featured by The Associated Press, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and Reuters.
Des Toups was a lead assigning editor who supported the student loans and auto loans teams. He had decades of experience in personal finance journalism, exploring everything from car insurance to bankruptcy to couponing to side hustles.
Lead Assigning Editor
The average salary of a pharmacist was $125,510 as of May 2019, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pharmacists make roughly $60 an hour,
Average pharmacist salaries don't vary greatly, whether you work at a nonprofit hospital or a chain drugstore, like CVS or Walgreens. But earning a six-figure pharmacy salary doesn’t come cheap; pharmacy school graduates face high student debt balances.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
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NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
5.0
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
4.5
NerdWallet rating
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
How much you'll make as a pharmacist depends on where you work, but salaries don't differ much by setting. Here's the average pharmacist salary by industry based on the latest BLS data:
Industry
Average Pharmacist Hourly Salary
Average Pharmacist Annual Salary
Health and Personal Care Stores
$59.43
$123,620
General Medicine and Surgical Hospitals
$61.24
$127,370
Food and Beverage Stores
$61.00
$126,870
General Merchandise Stores
$62.04
$129,040
Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods
$59.21
$123,150
Most pharmacists work at health and personal care stores, which include chain pharmacies and drugstores
If you opt to do a one-year or two-year post-graduate residency, you'll make far less during that time. The average salary for pharmacy residents is around $42,500 annually, according to the job site PayScale.
The average pharmacist student loan debt among 2020 pharmacy school graduates with student debt was $179,514 — more than the annual salary for a typical pharmacist.
If your income is too low to afford monthly payments: Whether you’re doing a pharmacy residency or earning less than you’d like in your full-time job, an income-driven repayment plan can help make monthly federal student loan payments more manageable. These plans cap monthly payments at 10% to 20% of your income and offer taxable loan forgiveness after you make payments for 20 or 25 years, depending on the plan.
If you’re working for the government or a nonprofit: You may be eligible for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which offers tax-free loan forgiveness after you make 10 years’ worth of student loan payments while working for a qualifying employer. To maximize forgiveness, make qualifying payments on an income-driven plan.
If you have good credit and are aggressively paying down student debt:Student loan refinancing through a private lender may save you money and help you get out of debt faster. To qualify for a lower rate, you need a credit score at least in the high 600s and a relatively low debt-to-income ratio — 50% or less — indicating that you have enough income to afford loan payments. When you refinance student loans, you lose access to federal programs including income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
