Average Salary

• During its national occupation survey of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated that the average annual salary for pharmaceutical technicians working in the United States was $28,940. This was calculated from wage data submitted by 331,890 technicians. It tallies roughly with figures produced by two salary comparison websites in 2011. PayScale.com put the average salary at between $16,775 and $34,489, dependent upon bonuses, while MySalary.com put the average at $32,277.
  
  

Salary by Industry

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics also gathered information on wage levels for pharmacy technicians across different sectors of the healthcare industry. The two sectors employing the largest numbers of technicians were health and personal care stores -- pharmacies -- and general medical and surgical hospitals. The average salaries for these were $27,590 and $32,710, respectively. Technicians working in grocery stores received an average of $28,610 while those in department stores earned $25,660. Positions within federal government agencies paid the highest rates -- $39,040.
  
  

Salary by Location

• A second factor influencing pharmaceutical technician pay is location. Pay analysis website SalaryExpert.com found that working in large cities was comparatively lucrative, with Boston -- $43,066 -- and New York -- $41,148 -- particularly so. The BLS listed Alaska, California and Washington as the states in which, across all industry sectors, a technician was likely to achieve the best pay rates, with averages of $37,090, $36,770 and $36,670, respectively. In contrast, the average salary in West Virginia was $23,760.
  
  

Prospects

• Estimates published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics put the growth rate for employment opportunities for pharmaceutical technicians at around 31 percent during the decade from 2008 to 2018. This far exceeds the national growth expected across all professions, predicted to be between 7 and 13 percent over the same period. Pharmacies are likely to become more involved in patient care, and technicians will take on more responsibilities. This, combined with an expanding, aging population needing more medical prescriptions, should mean that wage levels for the occupation will remain attractive.