Compared with the local labor market
Pharmacist I pay vs. California
Across all employers in California, the median wage for Pharmacists — about 34,030 people — is $164,610. Veterans Affairs pays a median base salary of $157,873 for this role, 4% below that figure — about the 44th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Veterans Affairs sits in the local pay range
$90,560
$138,360
$164,610
$197,860
$213,820
Veterans Affairs median · $157,873
The bar is the range of annual wages for Pharmacists across every employer in California, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Veterans Affairs’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Pharmacists — about 321,970 people — is $140,910. Veterans Affairs’s median base salary is 12% above that national figure, about the 70th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
$99,290
$129,380
$140,910
$161,840
$174,230
Veterans Affairs median · $157,873
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the California range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Veterans Affairs is $162,741, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
Pharmacist beyond California
This role is reported in 16 jurisdictions. In California, the median of $162,947 ranks #6 of 16. See Pharmacist across all of California →
Highest-paying jurisdictions for this role
Median total compensation for comparable Pharmacistroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.