The Datum Report

Occupation 3212 · Associate professional occupations

Pharmaceutical technicians

Half of full-time pharmaceutical technicians in the UK earn more than £31,044 a year, and half earn less.

Pharmaceutical technicians work in hospitals or in the community and assist pharmacists in the preparation and dispensing of drugs and medicines.

How people enter it

Entrants to training usually possess GCSEs/S grades or the equivalent. Training is typically a combination of practical experience and study at a college or by open learning towards vocational qualifications. An approved competency and an approved knowledge based qualification and two years’ experience is required to register as a pharmacy technician with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).

What the work involves

• checks received prescriptions for legality and accuracy
• prepares drugs and medicines under the supervision of pharmacist
• prepares specialised, tailor-made drugs for intravenous administration by hospital medical staff
• labels and checks items prior to dispensing
• maintains records of prescriptions received and drugs issued
• advises patients or customers on the use of drugs prescribed or medication purchased over the counter
• checks stock levels, orders new stock from pharmaceutical companies and ensures that drugs are stored appropriately

Also called

Dispensing technician · Pharmaceutical technician · Pharmacy technician

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for pharmaceutical technicians, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 10 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Complementary health associate professionals · Dispensing opticians · Health associate professionals n.e.c. · Medical and dental technicians