Pharmacy pay rates up 3.5%

A NATIONAL wage case decision handed down on Fri by the Fair Work Commission has seen a 3.5% increase in pharmacy award minimum pay rates.

The new national minimum wage is $18.93 per hour effective from 01 Jul, equating to a weekly figure of $719.20 as a result.

Rates under the pharmacy award have also been boosted due to the ruling, with the weekly minimum for a Pharmacist Manager being $1,290.90 or $33.97 per hour.

Pharmacists in Charge will have a minimum wage of $30.48 per hour or $1,158.40 per week, while the rate for the Experienced Pharmacist classification becomes $1,131.80 weekly or $29.78 per hour.

There are also revised rates across other classifications including Pharmacy Student - Year 1,2,3 and 4, Pharmacy Intern in the first and second half of training, and the Pharmacist grade which will now have a minimum hourly rate of $27.19 or $1,033.40 per week.

Geoff March, president of union group Professional Pharmacists Australia (PPA), welcomed the review as a “step in the right direction for pharmacist pay”.

He noted that the Fair Work Commission had not yet ruled on the organisation’s recent case which proposes increasing the pay of community pharmacists by as much as 30% (PD 21 Aug 2017).

Hearings in the long-running “work value” case wrapped up last month, with March saying “PPA believes passionately in the value of pharmacists and wants to see their pay fairly reflect it”.