Pharmacists Are Moderately Satisfied With Compensation, Slightly Less With Overall Job, Survey Shows (Part 2)

Pharmacists are moderately happy with both their compensation and jobs, according to the results of the 2022 Pharmacy Times® Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey. The first article in this 3-part series covered a general overview of the survey and its respondents. In this article, we will explore the questions and answers regarding compensation.

When the respondents were asked to rank how satisfied they were with their current annual total compensation on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being “not at all” and 7 being “extremely”), the average response of the 150 responding pharmacists was 4.15. These results show a slight decrease in satisfaction compared with the 2021 survey, which found an average response of 4.41.

Of 149 respondents, 53.7% said they had received additional compensation, such as bonuses or profit sharing in the past year, compared with 45.6% who said they had not. By comparison, just 28.9% of respondents said they had received bonuses or profit sharing during their first year after graduating from pharmacy school. When participants were asked to rank their satisfaction with their compensation during their first year after pharmacy school on a scale of 1 to 7, the average response was 4.22.

Compensation is also a significant driver of job satisfaction. Interestingly, 11.2% of respondents chose compensation as a significant driver of dissatisfaction in their job. Other choices for dissatisfaction included workload (35.3%), struggle of balancing work and personal life (24.7%), and management at their workplace (11.8%). However, other respondents said their compensation is 1 of the top 3 reasons they are satisfied with their work. When asked to choose their top 3 drivers of job satisfaction, 16.3% chose compensation. Other significant drivers included pride in what they do (16.3%), autonomy (12.0%), and colleagues (10.2%).

Next month, in part 3 of this series, we will explore how survey respondents view their job satisfaction.