Pharmacy Technician Salary

What can you expect to earn annually as a pharmacy technician? With any job, salaries will vary according to a few key factors. Your schooling background comes into play, your experience, and your geographic location. No doubt, straight out of college, you will be forced to start at the bottom and work your way to the top. This is not something that is done quickly, and can often take upwards of 20 years to reach your full potential in wages as a pharmacy tech.

How much should salary and wages affect your career choices? Obviously money plays a large role in what career you pursue, but should money be the sole reason that you choose one job over another? As an individual this is a choice you must make on your own, however there are a few things you might want to consider before diving into a technical training program. Money is great, but it is not everything. You must consider the longevity of the job you are chasing, along with the demand for employees. Truly research the entire job description of your career choice, this does not mean simply reading reviews you may find on the web or in books. To truly research your career, take the time to physically talk to people in the field, along with college professors who teach the courses needed to graduate. Doing this will give you a more accurate knowledge of what you going to be doing for possibly the rest of your life, and is worth the little effort it takes to make sure you will be happy with your final decision.

Education and Schooling

When you are applying for a job to be a pharmacist assistant, you can be sure that your employer will check into your schooling. Not only are they interested in your grades, but they will take a big interest in the school or schools that you attended to get your degree or pharmacy technician certification. For this reason, it is vital that you choose to attend a college or technical school that is accredited. Community colleges are great for their convenience, but before signing up for classes, research them to ensure that they are an accredited school.

How Experience Affects your Wages

How does experience affect your pharmacy technician salary? As a pharmacy tech with less than a years experience, you can expect to earn on average, less than $11.00/hour, but will average closer to $9-10.00 per hour. With less than 5 years experience, your annual income will increase some but not much.  You can really expect to see your salary increase after you have closer to 10 years experience. Once you hit your 10 year mark you can expect an increase of up to 5 dollars more per hour. Closing in on the 20 year mark you will find yourself earning close to 20.00 per hour. On a national average, the average technician salary ranges between $20,000 and $32,000 per year.

Location

Location is pretty much self explanatory. Salary wages differ in different parts of the country for just about any job market. As you find the cost of living to fluctuate in different parts of the country, so will the average annual salary for a pharmacy technician. One living in Los Angeles California should never expect to earn the same amount of money as someone who lives in Houston Texas, Miami Florida or someone living in New York. This is because California has shown that pharmacy techs living there on average earn the highest Pharmacy Technician salaries.

Along with your geographic location playing a role in your annual pharmacy technician salary, your job location will play a big role in how much you can earn as well. Pharmacy Techs who are contracted employees have shown to earn the most money. Another competitive field for good tech wages are that of government jobs and hospitals. For the most part, as a pharmacy technician you will likely find jobs in pharmacies, drug stores and other retail stores that offer a pharmacy like Walmart, CVS and Walgreens for example.

The demand for pharmacy technicians is up right now, this means that salary and wages will go up as well. The field is a challenging and exciting one that can pay off, if you take it seriously and stick to it. As long as people are getting sick, there will always be a need for Pharmacy Techs. This should leave you assured that there will be a need for techs for some time to come.