by Paul Carvalho | Last updated: Mar. 7, 2017
In 2016, the median Pharmacist Salary in Canada is between $80,862 and $99,840 Canadian dollars per year. The most popular data providers we found are in the table below:
Pharmacist Salary in Canada:
Annual CAD$
| Source | Salary: |
|---|---|
 Job Bank: |
$97,487 |
 Glassdoor: |
$103,926 |
 Payscale: |
$80,972 |
 Canadian Business: |
$99,840 |
There’s lots of reasons for that. For starters, Canada is a huge country spread across many different regions. So the estimates above lump together the salaries of some different groups.
It doesn’t make much sense to compare the salary of a hospital pharmacist in Vancouver with the salary of a retail pharmacist in Toronto.
That’s why we looked at the numbers a little closer. We found a bunch of factors that influence a pharmacist’s salary. We then grouped the salary numbers in a way that provides some better context.
Three Factors that Influence a Pharmacist’s Salary in Canada
We found three major factors that influence pharmacist salaries in Canada:
Location
Field
Experience
2. Field of Pharmacy: Your field of pharmacy also has a major impact on salaries. Most pharmacists in Canada are employed either in hospital or retail pharmacy.
3. Experience: Your years of experience also has an impact on your salary, but not as big as the first two factors. Historically, pharmacists tended to receive a large salary earlier, followed by small raises each year.
Location:
When we look at pharmacist salaries by province, we start to see some regional differences. Each region is unique when it comes to the number of pharmacists in the area, demographics, the types of employers etc.
All these factors have an influence on the supply and demand for pharmacists and the salaries they can command.
Pharmacist Salaries Across Provinces and Territories
The table below provides the median salary from its data, and also provides a low and a high salary estimate.
It’s important to note that several pharmacist job titles are included in this data: clinical pharmacist, community pharmacist, druggist, hospital pharmacist, industrial pharmacist, pharmacist, retail pharmacist are all lumped in together.
Pharmacist Salary by Province:
All pharmacists. CAD$ per year
[table colalign=”left|right|right|right”]Location,Low,Median,HighCANADA, “49,975”,”97,487″,”140,977″
British Columbia, “60,129”,”95,455″,”128,235″
Alberta, “50,586”,”99,308″,”129,457″
Saskatchewan, “49,443”,”96,435″,”131,052″
Manitoba, “62,440”,”104,579″,”145,053″
Ontario, “48,361”,”99,374″,”148,365″
Quebec,”40,205″,”95,482″,”156,139″
New Brunswick,”55,912″,”93,834″,”138,403″
Prince Edward Island,”57,782″,”85,692″,”134,954″
Nova Scotia,”70,324″,”92,893″,”127,786″
Newfoundland and Labrador,”21,225″,”87,532″,”117,306″[/table]
Source: Job Bank, Government of Canada
Field:
Your field of pharmacy also has a major influence on your salary. According to the Job Bank, 76% of pharmacists are employed in retail or community pharmacy.
The remaining 24% of pharmacists are employed in hospital pharmacy, social assistance and professional services.
Retail Pharmacist Salary in Canada
Retail pharmacy is by far the largest employer of pharmacists in Canada. Over three quarters of registered pharmacists in Canada are employed in community or retail pharmacy.
Most retail pharmacists are paid an hourly wage, so most of the data we found was based in dollars per hour.
The best data we found on retail pharmacist salary in Canada came from websites Glassdoor and Payscale. Both sites provide average hourly wages, along with a range of wages.
Retail Pharmacist Hourly Wage:
CAD$ per hour
[table colalign=”left|right|right”]Employer,Glassdoor,PayscaleShoppers Drug Mart, “$38.00 – $60.00″,”$36.08 – $50.85”
Loblaws, “$44.00 – $61.00″,”$34.22 – $55.50”
Rexall, “$38.00 – $53.00″,”$35.75 – $54.99”
Safeway, “$40.00 – $48.00″,”$35.99 – $58.28”
Walmart, “$42.00 – $46.00″,”$39.91 – $56.26”
Pharmasave, “$38.00 – $41.00”, “$32.87 – $48.62” [/table]
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale (2016)
It’s difficult to get a sense of where hourly wages are just by looking at the ranges (i.e. some of the ranges are big). But when we combine the information from the two sites in a modified candle graph (below), we start to see things more clearly.
Retail Pharmacist Hourly Wage:
CAD$ per hour
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale (2016)
By combining the data, we can see where the two range overlap. For example, the bulk of Loblaws wages fall between $45 and $55 dollars per hour, the highest range in the combined group. Rexall has a wide range between $40 and $52 dollars and hour, while Pharmasave has a narrow range of $38 to $42 dollars per hour.
Hospital Pharmacist Salary in Canada
Hospital or clinical pharmacists typically work in a health care facility and focus on delivering inpatient and outpatient pharmacy services.
A hospital’s demographics has an influence on pharmacist salaries. For example, the hospital type (i.e. adult or pediatric), bed size (from 50 to 200 beds, to over 500 beds), and teaching status (teaching vs. non-teaching) all have an influence on clinical pharmacists salaries.
The Hospital Pharmacy in Canada Editorial Board publishes reports that provides information on hospital pharmacist salaries in Canada. The data provides a starting salary and a top salaries for hospital pharmacists in Canada.
Hospital Pharmacist Salary:
Staff Pharmacist. CAD$ per year
[table colalign=”left|right|right”]Province, Start $,Top $British Columbia, “75,967”,”96,596″
Alberta, “102,096”,”118,751″
Saskatchewan, “87,770”,”98,222″
Manitoba, “90,048”,”102,830″
Ontario, “78,976”,”99,955″
Quebec, “82,428”,”104,119″
NB/PEI, “82,856”,”90,231″
NS/NL, “74,638”,”90,748″[/table]
Source: Hospital Pharmacy in Canada Editorial Board (2014)
Starting Salary for Hospital Pharmacists:
Staff Pharmacist. Canadian dollars per year
Source: Hospital Pharmacy in Canada Editorial Board
Top Salary for Hospital Pharmacists:
Staff Pharmacist. CAD$ per year
Source: Hospital Pharmacy in Canada Editorial Board
Sources for Pharmacist Salary Canada information
The Government of Canada Job Bank provides great information on salaries, job opportunities, educational requirements, main duties, wage rates and salaries, current employment trends, and outlooks.
Glassdoor data comes from website visitors who anonymously share their employer information. Collecting data anonymously is a great way around the sometimes secretive topic of salaries. However, the approach relies on the number and quality of those responses.
Payscale is another popular source for salary information. This US based website also collects anonymous data from users. Payscale also relies on the number and quality of its responses.
Canadian Business: CB magazine is another popular source for pharmacist salary in Canada information. The publication produces an annual ranking of the top jobs in Canada. In 2016, pharmacists ranked number three on the list of Canada’s Best Jobs – a pretty big jump from 34th place in 2015.
The Best Pharmacist Salary Reports. All in One Place!
