A pharmacy technician is someone who helps a pharmacist fill prescriptions. They are overseen by a pharmacist as they perform tasks that relate to accepting and filling prescriptions. While their job is similar to a pharmacist, the pharmacist technician salary is no where near as high as that of a pharmacist.
Many people think that all a pharmacist technician does is count pills. This isn’t true. The job of a pharmacy technician actually involves many more tasks. That’s why a pharmacy technician is required to complete training program. They also must pass a test, the National Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam.
To retain their certificate a pharmacy technician has to get recertified every two years. A certain amount of training hours must be completed in order to get recertified.
There aren’t any standard training procedures for pharmacy technicians. In fact, there are few state laws and no federal laws requiring a pharmacy technician to be certified or trained in any special way.
However, almost all pharmacies favor hiring technicians who are certified to be a technician. With the possibility of a law suit from a misfiled prescription always looming, it would make sense that pharmacies would always want their technicians to be trained properly.
It takes years of hard work and education to be a pharmacist. They are rewarded with a very good salary. It takes much less work and far fewer years to become a pharmacist and their salary is much lower than a pharmacist’s salary.
A pharmacy technician’s salary is actually dependent on a number of factors including the state worked in, the amount of experience, and the specific pharmacy where the technician is employed. On average pharmacy technician makes between $20,000 and $35,000 per year. While it varies, a pharmacy technician can expect to make around $20,000 when first starting out.
So a pharmacy technician salary isn’t too bad especially with relatively small amount of education and training that’s required to become a pharmacy technician. There are certainly many lower paying jobs that have worse conditions. Working in a pharmacy provides a clean work environment and decent working hours usually. Most pharmacies aren’t open overnight and most pharmacies work shorter hours on the weekend.
In the future the salary for a pharmacy technician is expected to slowly but surely rise. Any career in or related to the healthcare field is a good career and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. The demand in the healthcare field is high while supply (the amount of people working in the field) remains relatively low. Therefore, the salary for pharmacy technicians will continue to rise. However, the relatively little education and training that it takes to be a pharmacy technician will probably keep the rise relatively modest.
A pharmacy technician salary is decent but not great. A pharmacy technician is not required to have any specific type of education or training but almost all pharmacies require their pharmacy technicians to be certified. It doesn’t take too much education or training to become certified and the working conditions for a pharmacy technician are favorable. These are two reasons why a pharmacy technician salary is relatively low.
Pharmacy technicians work closely with pharmacists to provide medication and healthcare products to patients. Online training from Penn Foster Career School will prepare you for a career as a pharmacy technician. Learn more about Penn Foster | Request free info
With a diploma from Penn Foster Career School you can become a pharmacy technician and begin a rewarding career in healthcare. With online classes at Penn Foster Career School, you can learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.
