Salary
Average Salary: $116,670
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $4,871,000
Pretty good for your average Joe, but not so great considering all the years of school it takes you to get there. Around $110,000-$120,000 a year (source). Possibly not that much if you just work in a retail pharmacy filling prescriptions, but maybe more if you're involved in drug research. Don't forget, however, that you'll likely be spending a few years (ten to fifteen) paying off loans for all those years of tuition, so you may be in debt for a while. Welcome to America.
Be prepared to work for that money, however. Pharmacists often have to work late hours, as well as weekends and holidays. So just because you're not a general physician with a specific list of patients or an E.R. surgeon who has to deal with a constant, unpredictable flow of emergencies doesn't mean you get to clock in at 8:00AM, clock out at 5:00PM, and pick up your paycheck at the end of the week.
Depending on what region of the country you work in, whether urban or rural, and whether you are in retail or involved in planning drug therapy programs, you could be making as little as $75,000 or as much as $140,000 or more. You could sell drugs illegally on the side and make even more bank, but we wouldn't recommend it. You don't want to spend more years in prison than you did in medical school.
Despite what you may have heard, you will not be doing the Jailhouse Rock.