I am trying to find some benchmarking data for salaries for pharmacy purchasing positions to supply to our HR dept. In our area, pharmacy buyer data isn't benchmarked, and HR wants benchmark data in order to move our payscale. Does anyone have a resource they can provide?

Name of Facility: Delnor-Community Hospital /128

City, State: Community

Years as a Buyer: Director

I checked with our HR department, I know you're in a different state, but our scale is $11.49-19.39/hr for Pharmacy buyer. They didn't really know of any resources or know where they got that information though.

Name of Facility: Catawba Valley Medical Center - 270 beds

City, State: Teaching

Years as a Buyer: Less than 1!!!

We published wage and task results from a survey of 136 responding pharmacy purchasing agents in the March, April and May 2004 editions of Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook. I am not sure what benchmark data is, but this survey, when reporting wage data, lists job title, state, beds, years as a pharmacy buyer, male or female designation, and salary range in increments of $5,000. 26.98% or 34 responding buyers had a salary range of $30,000 to $34,999. Most of the salaries reported were as of the end of 2003 or the beginning of 2004. So wage levels have likely increased 3 times since that report was issued.

This report can be purchased from Summerdale Enterprises, Inc., 9235 Activity Road Suite 101, San Diego, CA 92126-4440 at a cost of $19.95. Request the report called Pharmacy Buyer Survey Results or Salary and Task Survey. You may also call Jennifer at our office to request this report at 858-578-4218.

We do expect to conduct another such survey in 2007, but the survey mentioned is the latest one we have published.

Name of Facility: Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook Editor-In-Chief

Years as a Buyer: 5yrs Buyer/14yrs Pharmacy Contracts for GPO/12yrs writer

I guess it depends on the cost of living of the state that you work in. The pay for the buyers in my institute ranges from $66k/yr-$95k/yr salary ($32/hr-$44/hr).I hear HR is in the process of re-evaluating that payscale for technicians and pharmacists which may bump the pay buyers also. Currently, there are 4 levels of pharmacy technicians. Staff tech ($12/hr-$16/hr), Attending tech ($16/hr-$19/hr), Senior Attending tech ($19-$24), Lead tech ($25-$28). Although, we require to have 2.5 pharmacy buyers/inventory coord. and 2-3 inventory technicians, each person has their own resposibility. It's a very tough and challenging business to manage day to day, I feel that we should only be compensated accordingly!

Name of Facility: Massachusetts General Hospital / 1000+ beds

Years as a Buyer: 8