How much do good pharmacists earn?

v2006

I want to apply to the top 6 unis for pharmacy and wondered the starting salary in london for a pharmacist who got a first?

Scroll to see replies

i would love to know

There will be a massive difference in pay in term of working in London, and somewhere like Edinburgh, in almost every job.

Reply 3

giggsy

wont all pharmacists be generally be paid a lot if they get a degree from an accredited place

Reply 4

jennyflake

Dont go expecting loads, but Its definitely in the reasonable level. I dont know for London but for outside of London, working for a company like Tesco, you can expect aroun £17,000 p/a for pre-reg, then around the £30,000 level for being a second pharmacist.

Reply 5

giggsy

what about if you work in a hospital thats more yea

Reply 6

BeesKnees

^^Unfortunately. I think it's less to begin with if you work in hospital but you can work your way up to the big bucks which is good.

Reply 7

Gemma1725

It will make no difference to pay whether you graduate from an uncredited uni or an accredited uni. There difference may be whether you get a first or a 2.2. But at the moment there is a shortage of Pharmacists so grades are not even looked at!

Reply 8

Random.Girl

Gemma1725

There difference may be whether you get a first or a 2.2.

I've heard it doesn't matter. And it doesn't really matter where you got your degree from either. Once you're qualified you're qualified and it's your experience and personal qualities that count.

Reply 9

Gemma1725

^^ No it doesnt make any difference but it may one day when there is more Pharmacists than jobs but that wont be for years yet as there is a shortage of pharmacists.

Reply 10

londonguy

certain jobs like Speech therapists, pharmacists etc they dont even look at the grade as long you are qualified. 4 years of working for a Masters of pharmacy, despite getting a 2:2 is good enough for most people.

As for salary, I dont know.

Reply 11

jennyflake

Don't pay attention to grades too much. I found out the other day that the locum pharmacist who we have all commented on at work, cos shes so good, in fact only got a third. From what I've heard shes been manager of one place, second pharmacist elsewhere, and is now a very in-demand locum. Basically theres more to being a pharmacist than getting a good degree!

Reply 12

welsh_will

I'm not sure about in London but in wales a community pharmacist's starting salary is £19-23k, progressing to £40-46k after 20+years. I've read about locums getting £80-100k +expenses for travelling etc, but then you're employed by a specifc agency who loan you out to places all over the country. I'm not sure how much it'll vary in London. You could check jobsites/Pharmaceutical Journal (in the back; job section)

Reply 13

BeesKnees

^^You sure about the 19-23k? Seems abit low.

Reply 14

giggsy

yer its too low ive heard pharmacsits get about 40k

Reply 15

Phb60333

After Uninversity, you have to do one year of training in a pharmacy (Pre-registration) before qualifying as a pharmacist. the training year salary is between 18K-23k. But the salary is considerably higher once you are fully qualified (35-45K) in community, depending on experience ect.

Reply 16

pharmgirl

I'm amazed that after so many threads on this subject people are still getting it so wrong. In answer to the OP's question- a good pharmacist gets paid pretty much the same as a crap one upon qualifying, which is about £40-50K in community, and in my experience a good pharmacist is just as likely to have a 2/2 as a first, which you tend to get if you spend 24 hours a day revising and says nothing whatsoever about your ability to communicate with patients. If I took on a PhD student, I'd want someone with a first, but a practising community/hospital pharmacist, totally irrelevant. If we ever get to the stage where there are more pharmacists than jobs (unlikely thanks to 100 hour pharmacies) I can gurantee that there are 101 different attributes more important to an employer than what degree class a pharmacist got before they even did their pre-reg, which is is where you really learn the job.

Reply 17

Caponester

£20,700 for your pre-registration year in Scotland and then £39,500 per year working as a full time pharmacist (37.5 hours per week) working for Lloyds. With additional benefits such as retention fees and private healthcare tossed in you're looking at an overall package of £45,000 per year before tax with four weeks holiday.

It's a good wage that'll allow you to live very comfortably - especially when you're newly qualified!

Reply 18

Jimmocrates

I'm a good Pharmacist! :rolleyes:

Just to give you an idea for hospital...

I finished uni at Manchester in 2006. Did my pre-reg in hosp 2006-07. Earnt somewhere in region of £19k for that. Thats as band 5.
Then stayed on at same (general) hospital as a band 6 pharmacist. That starts at about £25.5k/year including on call and rises about £1k per year thereafter. They sent me on a clinical diploma which is alright, back to manchester university 1 day each week with some coursework and exams at end of each semester (explains why i'm on this now) and I got a job at another (teaching) hospital as a band 7 rotational in medicine. Pay for that is roughly £30+2k for on call.

So thats where i am nearly 4 years post graduation. I have no doubt that people who went down a ommunity/locumming route will earn tens of thousands more than that, but i enjoy my job which is important to me.

Others who qualified at same time are band 8a's in hosp by going down a specialist route quite early. eg. Aseptics/oncology. They'd be earning £40k+ now, but aspetics doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.

oh, and i scraped a 2:1. But degree class is really irrelevant.