Labor supply functions of working male and female pharmacists: In search of the backward bend

The impact of increased pharmacy schools on pharmacists' income: is it still an attractive profession?

BACKGROUND

Pharmacy education in South Korea transitioned from a 4-year to a 6-year program in 2011, alongside an increase in the number of pharmacy schools and students. The change in pharmacy education may have reduced the attractiveness of the profession, particularly in terms of income. This study aimed to assess the impact of the increasing number of pharmacy students on the income levels and distribution among owner pharmacists, staff pharmacists, and hospital pharmacists.

METHODS

This retrospective observational study used data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare to track pharmacists' annual income from 2010 to 2020. The income was categorized by sector, region, and gender. An interrupted time series analysis was conducted to estimate the effect of the increasing number of pharmacy students on pharmacists' income.

RESULTS

The income levels of pharmacists increased from 2010 to 2020, even after adjusting for inflation. By 2020, the income levels for owner pharmacists, staff pharmacists, hospital pharmacists reached 110 million, 58 million, and 51 million Korean won, respectively. The impact of increased pharmacy schools on the income of pharmacists varied by sector. The expansion led to a substantial increase in the income of owner pharmacists, while the incomes of staff pharmacists and hospital pharmacists showed no significant changes.

CONCLUSION

Despite the increase in the number of pharmacists, the profession remains attractive in terms of both income level and its distribution, particularly for female pharmacists. However, this increase has had a more favorable impact on the income growth of owner pharmacists compared to staff and hospital pharmacists.

Gender and Age Variations in Pharmacists' Job Satisfaction in the United States

While several studies have attested the presence of systematic gender and age variations in pharmacists’ satisfaction with their jobs, only a few of them have considered both classifications simultaneously. None have done so while systematically examining multiple facets of practitioners’ work. This article estimated U.S. pharmacists’ satisfaction levels with various facets of their work, compared them simultaneously between genders and among age groups, and tested for the presence of gender–age interaction effects. The study was based on self-reported survey data collected from 701 pharmacists (31.0% response rate). Mean and standard deviation values for 18 indices related to pharmacists’ work were calculated. When age groups were controlled, female pharmacists expressed overall higher levels of satisfaction with their job than male pharmacists; they also expressed greater satisfaction with multiple specific facets and with the profession, as well as greater workload and stress than male pharmacists. The findings revealed few significant differences among age groups and a limited gender–age interaction effect for pharmacists’ satisfaction with key facets of their work. These findings should contribute to the development and refinement of rational criteria for increasing sources of satisfaction in pharmacy settings.

Gender differences in the measurement of pharmacists' job satisfaction

BACKGROUND

Men and women choose different levels of commitment in their careers and at home. Compared to men, women value the significance of tasks performed and social relations more and earnings less. The objective of this study was to explore whether male and female pharmacists show the same levels of satisfaction overall and with key facets of their job, whether overall satisfaction is associated with satisfaction with 12 key facets of pharmacists' jobs, and whether this association is similar for men and women.

METHODS

The study used self-reported survey data collected from a random sample of licensed pharmacists practicing throughout the United States. The sample consisted of 436 males and 300 females. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the association between overall job satisfaction and its key components. The 13 job satisfaction indices and the Pearson correlation coefficient values were compared by gender.

RESULTS

Women were consistently more satisfied than men. Variations in overall job satisfaction were at best accompanied by moderate variations in the 12 job satisfaction facets, raising concerns about the validity of configuring a composite index from multiple indices of satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study can be used by healthcare managers and policymakers to facilitate communication, enhance teamwork, and promote a better allocation of scarce resources. Since men and women responded differently to various facets of their jobs, a constant set of rewards and stimulants may not be equally effective for both genders as employers transform the workplace to more adequately meet practitioners' needs and increase their productivity.

Shifting perspectives - Planning for the future of the pharmacy profession taking current labor market trends into consideration

The future of the pharmacy profession and concerns about professional identity have been popular and recurring themes in professional journals and at international pharmacy conferences for more than 30 years. The aim of this paper is to contribute to realistic and viable visions for the future of the pharmacy profession via insights through labor market and work organization theories. These insights provide an understanding of contemporary work patterns and what they mean for the future role of community pharmacists. It appears that an important and influential contemporary trend in work organization today is precarious work, i.e. non-standard employment that promotes and relies on a flexible and fluid work force. Contrary to permanent employment, precarious work is often poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and in many cases cannot support a household. The growth of precarious work among professionals, including pharmacists has been documented in many countries. In the early 21st century a major concern in the UK was the growth in the number of pharmacists who choose to be self-employed "locums" as opposed to seeking permanent employment. With the spread of precarious work a new, involuntary form of employment appeared a decade later with the spread of "zero-hour contracts" and "exclusivity agreements". Particularly affected by these flexible, precarious work conditions are the highly-educated young health professionals such as pharmacists. The profession needs to be proactive in order to stay abreast of economic/workforce and organizational trends. The way forward is a commitment to a dynamic, knowledge-based vision that includes an ongoing analysis of the outside world. The core role of pharmacists in the future includes: 1. engagement in interprofessional education with other healthcare professionals; 2. an acceptance of the contribution that lay knowledge provides to the understanding of health and medicines, and 3.keeping ajour with new and revolutionary treatments, both pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological.

Pharmacists' wages and salaries: The part-time versus full-time dichotomy

BACKGROUND

Recent years have seen significant growth in part-time work among pharmacy personnel. If preferences and outlooks of part-time and full-time workers differ, job-related incentives may not have the same effect on both groups; different management practices may be necessary to cope with rapidly evolving workforces.

OBJECTIVE

To compare wage-and-salary responses to the number of hours worked, human-capital stock, and job-related preferences between full-time and part-time pharmacists. The analysis focused on the pharmacist workforce because, unlike other professions, remuneration is fairly linear with respect to the amount of time worked.

METHODS

Data were collected from a self-reported survey of licensed pharmacists in southern Florida (U.S. State). The sample consisted of 979 full-time and 254 part-time respondents. Using ordinary least squares, a model estimated, separately for full-time and part-time pharmacists, annual wage-and-salary earnings as functions of average workweek, human-capital stock, and job-related preferences.

RESULTS

Practitioners working less than 36 h/week were driven almost exclusively by pay, whereas practitioners working 36 h or more exhibited a more comprehensive approach to their work experience that included variables beyond monetary remuneration.

CONCLUSION

Managing part-time pharmacists calls for emphasis on wage-and-salary issues. Job-security and gender- and children-related concerns, such as flexibility, should be oriented toward full-time practitioners.

Inequalities in the distribution of pharmacists' wage-and-salary earnings: indicators and their development

BACKGROUND

Disparities in wages and salaries can be viewed as the dispersion of a statistical distribution that responds to observed and unobserved characteristics, and reflects socioeconomic phenomena such as the interplay of supply and demand, availability of information, and efficiency of markets in their search for equilibrium.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to explore the nature of inequality in the distribution of pharmacists' wage-and-salary earnings and establish the extent to which inequality primarily occurred because of variation between/among groups or within groups of pharmacists in several classifications of human-capital and job-related preference variables.

METHODS

Data were collected through the use of a survey questionnaire mailed to registered pharmacists in South Florida, USA. Five indicators of inequality (the log earnings variance, the coefficient of variation, the lower median share, the 90-10 decile ratio, and the Gini coefficient) were estimated for eight human-capital classifications and eight job-related classifications. A one-way ANOVA model was applied to the groups in each classification to compare variation between/among versus within pharmacy groups.

RESULTS

Pharmacists' wage-and-salary earnings were more evenly distributed than most income distributions discussed in the literature. They were more equitably distributed for full-time pharmacists than for all pharmacists in the data set. All five-inequality indicators behaved similarly. Notable differences were observed between/among groups within the gender, age group, marital status, number of children, academic degree, and type of primary pharmacy activity classifications.

CONCLUSION

Inequalities in wages and salaries have been identified both between/among and within pharmacist groups in several classifications using five commonly accepted indicators.

Pharmacists' earnings determinants: differences by ethnic group

Objectives

The purpose of this paper was to explore the behaviour of wage-and-salary earnings of non-Hispanic white, black and Hispanic pharmacists.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted based on the responses to a survey questionnaire. The survey was administered to licensed pharmacists in South Florida between September 2006 and March 2007. The main outcome measures of the study were the response of pharmacists' wage-and-salary earnings to the number of hours worked, human-capital stock and job-related preferences.

Key findings

The earnings responses of non-Hispanic white and Hispanic pharmacists largely conformed to patterns reported in the literature, but the earnings of black pharmacists did not. Significant ethnic differences in the effect of the explanatory variables were detected.

Conclusions

The earnings-determination model developed here was suitable for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic pharmacists, but not for black pharmacists. Pharmacists' earnings-determination processes must address ethnicity-related issues.