How much do pharmacy technicians make?

Pharmacy Technician salary 2026 · BLS occupation: Pharmacy Technicians (SOC 29-2052) · Updated October 28, 2026

Answer

Pharmacy technicians in the US earned a median of $45,750 a year ($22.00 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned $37,850 to $49,990.

Median annual pay: $45,750; Mean $46,620
Median hourly pay: $22.00; Mean $22.41
Typical range (10th–90th): $36.0K–$61.0K; $36,020 to $61,040
US jobs: 471,680; +6.4% projected, 2025–35

BLS OEWS, May 2025, released April 30, 2026. Wages include tips, commissions and production bonuses but not overtime premiums, shift differentials, other bonuses or benefits; self-employed workers are not included. Methodology

How to become a pharmacy technician: steps, years and cost · Best-paying state after cost of living: Washington

Pharmacy Technician pay range

Annual wages, May 2025

10th percentile$36,020
25th percentile$37,850
Median$45,750
75th percentile$49,990
90th percentile$61,040

Half of all pharmacy technicians earned more than $45,750 and half earned less. The lowest-paid 10% made under $36,020; the top 10% made over $61,040. The middle 50%, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, ran from $37,850 to $49,990.

These percentiles describe everyone in the occupation at one time. They are not pay steps by years of experience: they mix new and senior workers, different states, employers and hours. Pay generally rises with experience, credentials and specialization, but BLS does not publish pay by experience.

Percentile	Annual	Hourly	Monthly
10th	$36,020	$17.32	$3,002
25th	$37,850	$18.20	$3,154
Median (50th)	$45,750	$22.00	$3,813
75th	$49,990	$24.04	$4,166
90th	$61,040	$29.35	$5,087
Mean (average)	$46,620	$22.41	$3,885

Pharmacy Technician salary by state

Median annual pay; cost of living from BEA regional price parities 2024

Median annual pay for pharmacy technicians by state. Darker tiles pay more.

Highest-paying states

1. Washington $58,900
2. California $55,110
3. Oregon $54,900
4. Alaska $52,640
5. Colorado $49,970

Lowest-paying states

51. West Virginia $38,210
50. Arkansas $38,680
49. Alabama $39,030
48. Mississippi $39,040
47. Kentucky $39,200

Best after cost of living: Washington. Its median of $58,900 is worth about $55,040 at national-average prices.


Alabama	$39,030	49	$43,941	38	$18.77	8,510	4.03
Alaska	$52,640	4	$51,427	8	$25.31	800	2.44
Arizona	$47,640	12	$47,320	22	$22.90	12,970	4.00
Arkansas	$38,680	50	$44,492	35	$18.60	4,560	3.50
California	$55,110	2	$49,774	12	$26.50	39,860	2.19
Colorado	$49,970	5	$48,490	18	$24.02	6,010	2.09
Connecticut	$47,050	16	$45,411	32	$22.62	5,200	3.07
Delaware	$46,430	22	$46,519	27	$22.32	1,480	3.06
District of Columbia	$47,410	14	$43,139	44	$22.79	1,130	1.61
Florida	$43,590	37	$42,151	48	$20.96	38,460	3.87
Georgia	$41,910	41	$43,523	41	$20.15	14,680	3.00
Hawaii	$46,760	17	$42,528	47	$22.48	1,540	2.45
Idaho	$46,420	23	$48,610	17	$22.32	2,950	3.44
Illinois	$46,650	18	$46,670	26	$22.43	21,340	3.50
Indiana	$44,560	31	$47,745	21	$21.42	10,790	3.37
Iowa	$44,860	29	$51,116	9	$21.57	4,630	2.97
Kansas	$43,310	38	$48,086	19	$20.82	4,270	2.97
Kentucky	$39,200	47	$43,479	42	$18.84	8,870	4.43
Louisiana	$44,410	33	$50,347	11	$21.35	6,700	3.46
Maine	$45,400	27	$46,780	25	$21.83	2,070	3.23
Maryland	$45,120	28	$42,988	45	$21.69	7,990	2.89
Massachusetts	$46,470	21	$43,940	39	$22.34	10,150	2.79
Michigan	$44,340	35	$46,083	29	$21.32	14,240	3.23
Minnesota	$48,300	7	$48,975	13	$23.22	7,340	2.49
Mississippi	$39,040	48	$44,898	34	$18.77	4,040	3.47
Missouri	$40,100	44	$44,155	36	$19.28	12,610	4.29
Montana	$49,400	6	$52,195	4	$23.75	1,340	2.62
Nebraska	$46,610	20	$51,730	7	$22.41	2,660	2.59
Nevada	$47,980	10	$47,990	20	$23.07	4,070	2.63
New Hampshire	$47,360	15	$45,466	31	$22.77	1,970	2.88
New Jersey	$39,610	46	$36,405	51	$19.04	14,020	3.27
New Mexico	$46,630	19	$50,568	10	$22.42	2,550	2.92
New York	$43,930	36	$40,706	50	$21.12	24,400	2.52
North Carolina	$44,530	32	$47,209	24	$21.41	17,260	3.49
North Dakota	$47,560	13	$53,463	2	$22.86	890	2.06
Ohio	$40,650	42	$43,816	40	$19.55	17,820	3.21
Oklahoma	$40,500	43	$46,105	28	$19.47	5,500	3.22
Oregon	$54,900	3	$53,115	3	$26.39	4,320	2.20
Pennsylvania	$40,040	45	$41,036	49	$19.25	18,880	3.11
Rhode Island	$44,380	34	$43,391	43	$21.34	1,540	3.08
South Carolina	$42,120	39	$44,928	33	$20.25	8,070	3.50
South Dakota	$46,170	24	$52,119	5	$22.20	1,230	2.68
Tennessee	$41,920	40	$45,630	30	$20.15	11,870	3.62
Texas	$45,900	26	$47,292	23	$22.07	41,740	2.97
Utah	$48,140	9	$48,693	16	$23.14	5,030	2.90
Vermont	$47,940	11	$48,939	14	$23.05	760	2.50
Virginia	$44,610	30	$44,123	37	$21.45	10,720	2.61
Washington	$58,900	1	$55,040	1	$28.32	8,150	2.29
West Virginia	$38,210	51	$42,694	46	$18.37	3,560	5.08
Wisconsin	$45,970	25	$48,855	15	$22.10	9,540	3.24
Wyoming	$48,260	8	$52,065	6	$23.20	600	2.15

BLS OEWS, May 2025, state estimates. Adjusted pay = median ÷ (state price level ÷ 100), using BEA regional price parities for 2024; it ignores taxes. Figures for states with few workers in the occupation have larger survey errors and can change sharply from one year to the next. “—” means BLS did not publish the figure. State names link to each state’s highest-paying jobs.

Best-paying metro areas for pharmacy technicians

387 metro areas with published pay

Highest median pay
Metro area	Median	Adjusted	Jobs
Napa, CA	$77,360	$68,731	200
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$75,490	$68,364	1,780
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$61,800	$57,337	370
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$61,320	$55,177	4,630
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$60,550	$52,373	4,040
Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA	$59,380	$56,227	200
Vallejo, CA	$58,670	$54,084	440
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$58,590	$55,577	2,460
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	$58,470	$54,814	2,820
Longview-Kelso, WA	$58,250	$59,716	100

Most jobs
Metro area	Jobs	Median	Adjusted
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	25,420	$44,640	$39,658
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	15,830	$46,820	$45,195
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	13,130	$50,760	$44,696
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	12,000	$46,260	$44,873
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	10,610	$46,400	$47,045
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	10,310	$45,240	$39,630
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	9,780	$47,760	$46,227
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	9,030	$44,880	$43,762
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	7,930	$45,020	$44,994
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	7,370	$46,890	$43,310

BLS OEWS, May 2025, metropolitan statistical areas; adjusted with BEA metro price parities (2024).

What moves pharmacy technician pay: employers and settings

Where you work matters a lot for pharmacy tech pay. Hospitals pay a median of $50,680. Health and personal care retailers, which include most drugstores and employ about half of all techs, pay $39,240. Big-box general merchandise stores pay $48,150. Grocery store pharmacies pay $41,430. Physicians' offices pay $47,720 and drug wholesalers $46,060. Government jobs pay more; the federal government's median is $66,420.

State makes a big difference too. Washington leads at $58,900, followed by California at $55,110, Oregon at $54,900, Alaska at $52,640, and Colorado at $49,970. The lowest medians are in Alabama at $39,030, Arkansas at $38,680, and West Virginia at $38,210. Washington remains the best state even after living costs.

Nationally, the middle half of pharmacy techs earn between the 25th percentile, $37,850, and the 75th percentile, $49,990, which is a fairly narrow spread. Percentiles describe how pay is spread across all techs, not what a tech earns after a given number of years.

Where pharmacy technicians work
Industry	Share of jobs	Median pay
Health and Personal Care Retailers	52%	$39,240
General Medical and Surgical Hospitals	17.1%	$50,680
General Merchandise Retailers	9.4%	$48,150
Food and Beverage Retailers (4451 and 4452 only)	8%	$41,430
Offices of Physicians	2.2%	$47,720
Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods (4242 and 4246 only)	1.8%	$46,060

Private employers and government
Employer type	Jobs	Median pay
Private employers	446,220	$45,410
Federal government (incl. Postal Service)	7,550	$66,420
State government (incl. schools and hospitals)	7,960	$53,550
Local government (incl. schools and hospitals)	9,940	$50,340

BLS OEWS, May 2025, national industry-specific and ownership estimates (4-digit NAICS).

Pharmacy Technician pay over time

Median annual pay, 2015–2025

$45.8K $30.4K

2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025

Nominal median (dollars of each year)In May 2025 dollars (adjusted with CPI-U)

The median rose from $30,410 in 2015 to $45,750 in 2025, up 50% in nominal dollars. After inflation, the 2015 median is worth $41,108 in May 2025 dollars, so real pay grew 11% over the period.

BLS OEWS, May 2025 and earlier May releases; inflation from the CPI-U, US city average, May of each year.

What pharmacy technicians do

A pharmacy technician, or pharmacy tech, does most of the hands-on work of filling prescriptions so the pharmacist can check orders and counsel patients. In a drugstore, a pharm tech takes prescriptions from patients and doctors' offices, enters them into the computer, runs insurance claims, counts or pours the medication, prints and attaches the label, and rings up the sale. When a claim is rejected or a drug is out of stock, the tech is usually the one on the phone sorting it out.

About half of pharmacy techs, 52% in our data, work in drugstores and other health and personal care retailers. Others work in grocery and big-box store pharmacies, hospitals, physicians' offices and drug wholesalers. Hospital techs do different work: they fill automated dispensing cabinets on nursing units, prepare IV bags and syringes in clean rooms and deliver medications to floors. A pharmacist oversees the work and has to review each prescription before a patient gets it. Many pharmacies are open evenings and weekends, and some never close.

A typical day

Take new prescriptions and refill requests at the counter, by phone and electronically
Enter prescriptions and patient details into the pharmacy system and fix missing information
Submit insurance claims and work through rejections and prior-authorization problems
Count tablets, measure liquids and label containers for the pharmacist to verify
Check in deliveries, rotate stock and pull expired or recalled drugs
Answer patient questions about pickup, cost and refills, and refer medication questions to the pharmacist
In hospitals, mix IV medications in a clean room and restock dispensing cabinets

Also called: pharmacy tech, pharm tech, accredited pharmacy technician, certified pharmacy technician (cpht), chemotherapy pharmacy technician (chemo pharmacy technician), compounding technician, or pharmacy tech (operating room pharmacy tech), rpht (registered pharmacy technician).

How to become a pharmacy technician

Full guide

To become a pharmacy technician, you need a high school diploma and either on-the-job training or a short training program, usually under a year, plus registration or licensing with your state board of pharmacy where required. Some states and employers also require national certification, such as the PTCB's CPhT.

Typical time: Under 1 year; Fastest: A few months
Minimum education: High school diploma or equivalent; a pharmacy technician training program is required in some states
License: Regulated in most states (registration, license or certification); rules vary
Typical training cost: $129–$4.8K; See the guide for what it includes

Read the step-by-step guide to becoming a pharmacy technician: each step with its time and cost, education options, exams, licensing and advancement.

Is it worth it? Training cost against pay

Compare careers

Training time: Under 1 year; Typical path in our guide
Training cost: $129–$4.8K; Tuition and exam fees, before aid
Median pay: $45,750; $5,230 below the all-jobs median ($50,980)
Cost vs. one year's pay: 0–11%; Training cost as a share of a year at the median

The median for pharmacy technicians is below the median for all US jobs, so the case for training rests on the work itself, entry speed and local pay rather than a pay premium. This is a rough guide: it ignores taxes, financial aid, interest, earnings given up while training and how pay changes over a career. How we calculate ROI.

Job outlook for pharmacy technicians

BLS Employment Projections 2025–35

Projected growth: +6.4%; All occupations +3.5%
Jobs in 2025: 471,200; 501,300 projected for 2035
Openings each year: 44,700; New jobs plus replacements
Self-employed: 0.1%; Not in the pay figures above

BLS projects pharmacy technician jobs to grow 6.4% from 2025 to 2035, from 471,200 to 501,300, faster than the 3.5% expected for all occupations. About 44,700 openings are expected each year, many of them from techs moving to other jobs or leaving the workforce.

An older population and more chronic disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, mean more prescriptions to fill. BLS also expects techs to take on tasks pharmacists used to do, such as gathering patient histories, moving prescriptions between pharmacies and checking other techs' work, as pharmacists spend more time on patient care.

Related careers and their pay

Pharmacist$140,910
Medical Assistant$45,690
Vet Tech$47,380
Phlebotomist$45,230
LPN$64,400
CNA$42,260
Surgical Technician$64,650
Medical Billing and Coding Specialist$51,140

Related occupations from O*NET 31.0; median annual pay from BLS OEWS, May 2025.

Pharmacy Technician salary FAQ

How much do pharmacy technicians make an hour?

The median hourly wage for pharmacy technicians was $22.00 in May 2025. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $17.32 an hour and the highest-paid 10% more than $29.35. Hourly figures are BLS estimates for all workers in the occupation, full-time and part-time.

Which state pays pharmacy technicians the most?

Washington has the highest median pay for pharmacy technicians, $58,900 a year, followed by California ($55,110) and Oregon ($54,900). After adjusting for each state's price level, Washington comes out ahead at about $55,040 in national-average dollars.

Do pharmacy technicians make six figures?

Few do: based on the BLS percentiles, fewer than 10% of pharmacy technicians earn more than $100,000 a year. The median is $45,750, and the top 10% earn more than $61,040. Pay generally rises with experience, specialization and location.

Do hospital pharmacy techs earn more than retail techs?

Yes, in our data. General hospitals pay pharmacy techs a median of $50,680. Drugstores and other health and personal care retailers pay $39,240. Hospital techs often prepare sterile IV medications, stock automated cabinets and work with nurses. Retail pharmacies employ far more techs, so they have more openings for beginners. Techs who do hospital IV work can later add PTCB's CSPT certification.

Do government pharmacy techs earn more?

Yes. Federal government pharmacy techs have a median of $66,420. That is the highest of any employer type in our data. State government pays $53,550 and local government pays $50,340. Private employers, which hire the great majority of techs, pay $45,410. Government jobs are a small share of the field, so openings are limited.

Has pharmacy technician pay kept up with inflation?

Yes. The median rose from $30,410 in 2015 to $45,750 in 2025. In 2025 dollars, the 2015 median was worth $41,108. That means pharmacy techs earn more in real terms than they did ten years earlier, a gain of several thousand dollars after inflation.

Sources

Data updated October 28, 2026 · Text checked against its sources October 28, 2026

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, released April 30, 2026, SOC 29-2052
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–2035, released September 2026
O*NET 31.0 Database (29-2052.00), U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0; tasks rewritten by Careers and Salaries
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities by state and metro area, 2024
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average, May values
U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard field-of-study and institution data, most recent cohorts, released 2026-10-15
Pharmacy Technicians: Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · checked October 28, 2026
Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT), Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) · checked October 28, 2026
What Are the Eligibility Requirements to Take an NHA Exam?, National Healthcareer Association (NHA) · checked October 28, 2026
Certified Compounded Sterile Preparation Technician (CSPT), Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) · checked October 28, 2026
Advanced Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT-Adv), Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) · checked October 28, 2026
Health-System Pharmacy Technician Program Toolkit FAQ, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) · checked October 28, 2026
PTCB Renewal Requirements, Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) · checked October 28, 2026
License Finder, CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) · checked October 28, 2026

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