“The eighth highest paid occupation for men in the United States is also the third highest for women among more than 460 detailed occupations. It is a profession that was once dominated by men working in independent practice, many of whom owned their own businesses. But for the past three decades more than 60 percent of new hires in this occupation have been women and most have been hired by large corporations, the government, and hospitals. Few work long hours and part-time employment is common, particularly among women. The educational requirement to enter this field was until recently a five-year undergraduate degree; in the past decade it changed to a six-year combined BS and doctoral program. Does a highly paid, relatively short-hour, moderately high education, majority-female occupation sound too good to be true? It is true and the field is pharmacy.”
The above excerpt is from a recently published paper from two Harvard University economists on the gender wage gap in the U.S. In the article, it states that “pharmacy has become a female-majority profession that is highly remunerated with a small gender earnings gap and low earnings dispersion relative to other occupations. We sketch a labor market framework based on the theory of equalizing differences to integrate and interpret our empirical findings on earnings, hours of work, and the part-time work wage penalty for pharmacists“.
They conclude by saying that “the changing nature of pharmacy employment with the growth of large national pharmacy chains and hospitals and the related decline of independent pharmacies played key roles in the creation of a more family-friendly, female-friendly pharmacy profession. The position of pharmacist is probably the most egalitarian of all U.S. professions today.”
For those of you new to the blog, I am a pharmacist by training, which is why I also believe that pharmacy is a pathway to the 1 percent. Unlike going into medicine, which is a fine profession that will almost guarantee you being in the 1 percent, pharmacists don’t always meet the 1 percent threshold, but it is possible. Most pharmacists will likely not reach the 1 percent. In order to reach the 1 percent in pharmacy, you need to climb up the proverbial ladder of corporate America. That’s not to say it’s not attainable, but you must have an appetite for it. There are some careers in pharmacy that will get you there faster than others, and this website outlines all your options.
So if you’re interesting in learning more about the pharmacy profession, click here to visit an excellent resource online that discusses the myriad of career options for pharmacists as well as what it takes to become a pharmacist.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome article of your about “Woman: If You Want Equal Pay AND Want To Be In The 1 Percent, Consider This Profession”. I like your post very much because its importance. Also I agree with you about your thought. Thanks a lot for your excellent topic.
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My uncle made a very successful life for himself starting out with pharmacy qualifications. He had a state university job, which he retired from with a state pension, and now works full time working on developing drugs. Never got into the details of his finances, but he’s always easily been the highest earner on that side of the family and is only accelerating after his “retirement” in his late 40′s/early 50′s.
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The only danger in the end is getting an overload of pharmacists. As long as enrollment numbers are controlled, that should not be a problem.
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I think the real danger is that regulations change so that pharmacists are no longer needed to dispense pills. Based on discussions with physician relatives, they see pharmacists as glorified “pill counters” (their words not mine), and it seems like very few pharmacies do compounding anymore. What if someone were to setup a massive system like amazon/zappos and undercut existing pharmacies to the point of driving them out of business?
For the very same reason people don’t trust diagnosing themselves through WebMD and would rather talked to a trained professional, most people will not trust a robot to ask questions about their health. For example, people come into pharmacies all the time and ask questions to the pharmacist around diagnosis. Pharmacists are clinically trained and can recommend over the counter medicines for ailments such as constipation, cough, cold, migraine, acid reflux, etc. The pill counting part can certainly be outsourced, but the counseling cannot. If there are 2 pharmacies in a neighborhood (1 with a live pharmacist, 1 without), most people will go to the one with the live pharmacist. The removal of a pharmcist is not much of a cost savings to a pharmacy.
Thanks for this post. I would like to share this thought with a medical professional who hasn’t continued with his medical internship. Provided that his years in medicine will be accredited to a course in pharmacy, it just might interest him to pursue this field in lieu of being a doctor.
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