2021: Pharmacists Are Moderately Satisfied With Salary, Job Satisfaction, Survey Shows (Part 2)

Pharmacists are moderately happy with both their compensation and jobs, according to the results of the 2021 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 around compensation.

When asked how satisfied they are with their current annual total compensation on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being “not at all” and 7 being “extremely,” the average response of the 152 responding pharmacists was 4.41. These results show a slight decrease in satisfaction compared with the 2020 survey, which found an average response of 4.82.

Of the 152 respondents, 46.1% said they had received additional compensation, such as bonuses or profit sharing in the past year, compared with 52% who said they had not. By comparison, just 24.2% of respondents said they had received bonuses or profit sharing during their first year after graduating from pharmacy school. When asked on the scale of 1 to 7 to rank their satisfaction with their compensation during the first year after pharmacy school, the average response was 4.47.

Compensation is also a significant driver of job satisfaction. Interestingly, 11.3% of respondents chose compensation as a significant driver of dissatisfaction in their job. Other choices for dissatisfaction included workload (23%), management at their workplace (16.3%), and the struggle of balancing work and personal life (16.3%).

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, 17.5% chose compensation. Other significant drivers included colleagues (15.8%), autonomy (9.4%), and improving patient health (11.2%).

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