Pharmacist salary: pay by setting, state and metro

Pharmacists earned a median of $140,910 a year in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). If you are weighing an offer, a move or a switch from retail to a hospital, this guide shows where that number comes from, how much of the gap is about setting and place, and how to check the figure for your own area.

The short version: pharmacist pay sits in an unusually tight band nationally, so the choices you control (where you work and what kind of employer you work for) can matter as much as years on the job.

Quick reference

All wage figures are for SOC code 29-1051, Pharmacists, from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. They cover employees only, not self-employed owners.

What pharmacists earn nationally

Start with the median. It is the middle point: half of pharmacists earned more than $140,910 in May 2025 and half earned less. It is usually a better guide than the average because a handful of very high or very low salaries cannot drag it around.

Percentiles tell you where someone sits in the line-up. The BLS figures for May 2025, published in full on O*NET's wage page for this occupation, look like this:

In plain words: 10% of pharmacists earned less than $99,290, and 10% earned more than $174,230. The middle half of the profession, everyone between the 25th and 75th percentiles, earned between $129,380 and $161,840.

For context, the median for all US occupations was $50,980 in May 2025, and the median for the broader group of healthcare diagnosing or treating practitioners was $103,500. Even the 10th percentile for pharmacists is close to double the all-jobs median.

Why the pay range is narrower than for many occupations

Two numbers in the May 2025 national table tell the story. Pharmacists' mean hourly wage was $67.75, and their median hourly wage was also $67.75. Across all occupations, the mean hourly wage was $33.54 while the median was $24.51.

When the average sits well above the middle, a small group of very high earners is pulling it up. That is what happens across the workforce as a whole. For pharmacists, the average and the middle are the same, which means the pay distribution is compact, without a long tail of very high or very low earners.

A few features of the job explain why:

• A hard floor. Every pharmacist needs a Pharm.D. and a state license. There is no low-paid "junior pharmacist" tier with lighter credentials, so starting pay begins high.
• Similar core work. Verifying prescriptions, counseling patients and checking interactions look broadly alike from one employer to the next, which keeps employers' pay scales close together.
• A ceiling inside the job title. BLS classifies people by the work they mainly do. If you move into a role that is mostly about running a department or business, you may be counted in a management occupation rather than as a pharmacist, so those higher salaries do not stretch the pharmacist range.

What this means for you: on a wide-range job, years of experience and individual negotiating can move you a long way. On a narrow-range job like this one, the bigger levers are often setting (hospital, retail pharmacy, clinic) and location. Both are covered below.

Base salary vs total compensation

OEWS figures are base pay, and it helps to know exactly what that means. According to the BLS technical note, OEWS wages are straight-time gross pay. That covers your regular rate plus a few add-ons: tips, allowances for living costs or dangerous duties, guaranteed pay, and bonuses or commissions tied to output.

They leave out several things that matter a lot to pharmacists:

• Overtime pay. If you pick up extra shifts at time-and-a-half, that money is not in the survey figure.
• Shift differentials. Premiums for nights, weekends and holidays are excluded. Hospitals and other 24-hour facilities often schedule pharmacists for those shifts.
• Nonproduction bonuses. Sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses and year-end bonuses not tied to output are excluded.
• Benefits. Employer spending on health insurance, retirement contributions and tuition reimbursement is excluded.

BLS does not publish typical bonus or differential amounts for pharmacists in OEWS. So when you compare two offers, list each of those items separately and ask the employer for the figures in writing. A retail offer with a strong sign-on bonus and a hospital offer with a night differential can end up closer, or further apart, than their base salaries suggest.

Annual OEWS figures are also built on a standard year. BLS multiplies an hourly rate by 2,080 hours (40 hours a week for 52 weeks) to get an annual wage. If you work fewer or more hours, your real yearly pay will differ from the table.

Pay by work setting

The OEWS industry data, as summarized in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, shows clear differences by employer type in May 2025:

The job shares come from the Handbook's 2025 employment estimate of about 325,200 pharmacist jobs, which is a different count from the OEWS survey figure in the quick reference table. Use the shares as a rough guide to where pharmacists work, not as an exact match to the wage data.

A few things stand out:

• Hospitals paid the highest median of the main settings, and they employ nearly a third of pharmacists.
• Pharmacies and drug retailers paid the lowest median of the four, even though they are the single largest employer group.
• General merchandise retailers, the category that includes big stores with an in-store pharmacy, had a median well above standalone pharmacies and drug stores.
• Ambulatory healthcare services, which covers outpatient settings such as clinics and outpatient care centers, sat close to hospitals.

These are medians for whole industries. Within each one, pay varies by employer, shift, region and role, and the data cannot tell you what a particular chain or health system pays. For that, check the employer's own job postings.

If you work in retail and are considering a hospital move, remember that hospital roles more often include nights, weekends and holidays, and that clinical positions may ask for residency training. Factor in both before treating the median gap as free money.

Highest-paying states and metro areas

The May 2025 state and metro rankings for pharmacists sit in the BLS OEWS occupation profile tool. At the time of writing, the most recent occupation page with ranked state and metro tables that this article could verify was the May 2023 edition. Treat the figures below as a two-year-old snapshot that shows the pattern, not as current pay, and check the May 2025 profile before you rely on any one number.

Note that these rankings use the mean (average) annual wage, not the median.

Two patterns are worth knowing. First, the West Coast and Alaska dominated the state list, and California metros filled most of the top-paying metro slots. Second, the list was not only expensive coastal cities: Florence, South Carolina, made the top five metros, and rural areas such as the North Valley-Northern Mountains region of California ($164,740) and nonmetropolitan Alaska ($155,610) topped the nonmetro list.

Weighing pay against cost of living

A higher salary in a pricey metro does not always leave you better off. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities, which compare price levels across states and metro areas. Compare the pay gap with the price gap, not just the headline salaries.

Example: you are comparing a hospital role in a high-cost California metro with one in a mid-cost metro elsewhere. If the California salary is higher by a smaller percentage than California prices are, the "lower" offer may stretch further. More on this on our salaries by city page.

Hourly pay, part-time work and shift patterns

Many pharmacists are paid by the hour, especially in retail and in per diem (as-needed) roles. The May 2025 hourly percentiles run from $47.73 at the 10th to $83.77 at the 90th, with a median of $67.75.

To turn an hourly rate into a yearly figure, use this formula:

• Hourly rate × hours per week × weeks worked = annual base pay

BLS uses 2,080 hours for a full-time year. If you work three 10-hour shifts a week, or a 0.8 schedule, multiply by your real hours instead. Then add any differentials and overtime separately, since the survey figures leave them out.

The Handbook notes that most pharmacists work full time, and that pharmacists in hospitals and other facilities open around the clock may work nights, weekends and holidays. That has two practical effects:

• Differentials can be meaningful. Ask for the night, weekend and holiday premium as a dollar amount or percentage per hour, and ask how often you would be scheduled for those shifts.
• Part-time and per diem pay is usually hourly only. Ask whether part-time staff get the same base rate as full-time staff, and whether benefits are included or prorated. A higher per diem hourly rate can be a trade for no health insurance or paid leave.

A quick script for a part-time offer: "Before I decide, can you confirm the hourly rate, the expected hours per week, the differentials for evening and weekend shifts, and which benefits apply at this schedule?"

What moves pharmacist pay up: residency, specialty and management

BLS does not publish pay by residency status or specialty certification. What it does describe is the career path, and you can see how that path lines up with the higher-paying settings.

Licensure is the baseline. Every state requires a license. After the Pharm.D., candidates typically pass two exams and complete a state-set number of intern hours, then keep up continuing education. In most states, pharmacists must also be certified to give vaccinations. Requirements vary, so check with your state board of pharmacy.

Residency and fellowship open clinical doors. The Handbook says pharmacists who want clinical or other advanced positions may complete a residency or fellowship lasting 1 to 2 years. A two-year residency adds training in one specialty, for example heart care, internal medicine or children's health. Those clinical roles are concentrated in hospitals and outpatient settings, which had the highest medians in the setting table.

Board certification signals expertise. Professional bodies offer specialty certifications, such as in emergency care or oncology, which generally require work experience and an exam. Use these when you negotiate a move into a specialist role, but do not assume a fixed raise; ask each employer how certification affects its pay scale.

Management changes the job. Leading a pharmacy, running inventory and directing staff draw on managerial skills, which the Handbook lists as important for pharmacists who run a retail pharmacy. Some employers pay a premium for pharmacist-in-charge or manager roles. Ask what it is and whether it is part of base pay or a separate stipend.

Experience still counts, within limits. On a compact scale, moving from the 25th to the 75th percentile covered $129,380 to $161,840 in May 2025. That is a real difference, but it is smaller than the gap between some settings and some regions.

How pharmacist pay compares with related roles

Here is how pharmacists stack up against nearby healthcare jobs, using the same May 2025 OEWS national table so the measures match.

Notice the pattern. For most of these jobs, the mean annual wage sits above what the median hourly wage implies, a sign of some high earners at the top. For pharmacists the two line up exactly, and pharmacists had the highest median hourly wage in the group.

The Handbook also lists median annual pay for 2025 for a few related jobs: physicians and surgeons ($275,930), biochemists and biophysicists ($127,410) and medical scientists ($103,410).

Negotiating your pay, and what the trend shows

Recent trend

Pharmacist pay has moved up across the range. In May 2023, the OEWS median was $136,030, the 10th percentile was $89,980 and the 90th percentile was $168,650. By May 2025 those had risen to $140,910, $99,290 and $174,230. The bottom of the range rose faster than the top, so the band got even tighter.

OEWS counted 331,700 pharmacist jobs in May 2023 and 321,970 in May 2025. Looking ahead, BLS projects pharmacist employment to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 12,500 openings a year on average, many from people retiring or changing careers. For more context on raises and wage growth, see our pay trends coverage.

How to ask for more

On a narrow-range job, aim your ask at the things that vary. A few practical moves:

• Anchor on the right benchmark. If you are moving to a hospital, compare the offer with the hospital median, not the all-pharmacist median. If you are in retail, use the pharmacies and drug retailers figure, and check the May 2025 data for your state or metro.
• Negotiate the extras. Base pay may have little room, but sign-on bonuses, relocation help, shift differentials, continuing-education funds and license-renewal costs often have more.
• Price your schedule. If the role is nights or weekends, ask for the differential in writing and confirm how many such shifts you would cover.
• Use posted ranges. Several states and cities require employers to post pay ranges in job ads. If a range is posted, ask where you would sit in it and why.

Scripts you could use:

• "Thanks for the offer. Based on BLS data for hospital pharmacists and the posted range for this role, I was expecting to land closer to the middle of the range. Is there flexibility on base pay?"
• "If the base rate is fixed, could we look at a sign-on bonus or a higher night differential instead?"
• "I'm finishing a PGY1 residency. How does your pay scale recognize residency training or board certification?"

None of these guarantees a yes, but they give the employer specific ways to move. More scripts are on our negotiation page.

How to look up pharmacist pay in your area

National figures are a starting point. Here is how to find the number for where you live:

1. Go to the BLS OEWS data tables page at bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. It links to the May 2025 occupation profiles, state data and metro data.
2. Open the occupation profile for SOC 29-1051, Pharmacists. Look for the industry, state and metropolitan area views.
3. Check your state and metro. Note both the median and the mean if both are shown, and the 10th and 90th percentiles if your area has them.
4. Cross-check with O*NET. The O*NET local wages page for pharmacists shows BLS percentiles and lets you pick a state or enter a ZIP code.
5. Compare with real postings. Look at current job ads from employers in your area, especially where pay ranges must be posted.
6. Adjust for cost of living using current Regional Price Parities from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

A caution about small areas: estimates for small metros or nonmetro regions rest on fewer workers, and some cells may be suppressed. If your area's number looks odd, compare it with your state figure and nearby metros.

What to do next

• Write down the base rate, differentials, bonuses and benefits for every offer, since the survey figures leave most extras out.
• Compare each offer with the May 2025 median for that setting, not just the national figure.
• Look up your state and metro in the current OEWS profile, then adjust for local prices.
• If you are aiming for clinical work, weigh a residency against the setting you want to land in.
• If your contract, licensing or scheduling raises legal questions, talk to your state board of pharmacy, a union if you have one, or an employment lawyer.

For more pay guides by job, browse our salaries by role page.