The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7252 p792
7 June 2003

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  SGM
  New Charter
  CD prescribing
  Asthma
  CFC-free inhaling
  Remuneration
  Branding
  Pharmacy closures
  Yellow cards
  Patient packs
  Penicillin
  The Society

Letters to the Editor

Remuneration

Pharmacists are so timid

From Mr M. Samson, MRPharmS

To anybody who cares to peruse the appointments pages of any national newspaper, it would be clear that a salary of £50,000 per annum is commonplace among the professional classes. Solicitors, accountants, dentists, doctors and so many others whose qualifications are in the same category as those of pharmacists enjoy an income commensurate with their qualifications. They are not embarrassed by their incomes and neither should any professional be who has studied so hard to qualify. It therefore seems strange to me that only pharmacists are content to accept far less than their due, encouraged, of course, by multinational companies whose directors are answerable to nobody when it comes to salary and share options. They pay themselves what they like and ignore their shareholders. To earn £1,000 a week saving lives is, of course, hardly comparable to the £10,000 a week an international footballer earns, but it is in fact an average pay packet for our peers. This translates as £25 an hour assuming a 40-hour week. Why therefore do so many locums accept £17 to £18.50 an hour? Are they so browbeaten and timid, that they are not worth their salt? Employers need them even more than they need employers. They are essential to their viability.

Michael Samson
Worthing, West Sussex

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