Women Represent the Majority of Working Pharmacists, but They Earn Less Than Their Male Peers

The United States Census Bureau has released a new report tracking the state of the pharmacist workforce in the United States over the past five years. According to their findings, women represent the large majority of all pharmacists in the country. But women pharmacists on average earn less than their male peers.

From 2018 to 2023, the number of pharmacists in the United States increased by 17.8 percent, and their share of the overall American workforce grew from 0.22 percent to 0.26 percent. During this time period, women represented between 60 and 62 percent of the pharmacist workforce. Despite their overrepresentation, women pharmacists still tended to earn less than male pharmacists.

The average earnings of all pharmacists in the United States has decreased since 2018. For men, their average annual salaries decreased from $153,800 in 2018 to $136,200 in 2023. For women, their average annual earnings decreased from $147,800 to $130,500. Additionally, the median earnings of women pharmacists remained consistently lower than their male peers. Since 2018, the median salary of women pharmacists slightly rose from $54,940 to $55,730, while men’s median salary increased from $67,570 to $68,070.

In 2023, women pharmacists earned 96 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers. While this is a notably smaller gender pay gap than American workforce as a whole, the average pay for working women pharmacists compared to their male peers is yet another example of the ongoing gender inequities that persist in the United States.