Pharmacist Salary in Chicago, IL 2026, $140,880 Median | BLS + Market Data
Pharmacist pay across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro, home to major chain headquarters and a dense academic hospital sector that pull the published band in opposite directions.
Updated July 2026 · BLS OEWS May 2025
Compiled by GlobalCybers Labor Market Research · Reviewed by Karen Osei, RN, BSN, Clinical Recruitment Lead · See methodology & sources →
Chicago Median
$140,880
$67.73/hr BLS
P75
$163,710
$78.71/hr
Sector Peak
$171,710
Metro P90
BLS Workers
8,930
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin MSA
vs IL Median
+$1,800
+1.3% above IL
Direct Answer
How much do pharmacists make in Chicago, IL in 2026?
Chicago pharmacists earn a BLS MSA median of $140,880/yr ($67.73/hr), 1.3% above the Illinois statewide median and level with the US figure. The metro band runs $84,950 to $171,710. Chicago is unusual in hosting both a heavy retail-chain presence and a dense academic hospital sector, and the distance between those two employment models accounts for nearly all of the local spread. → Full pharmacist career guide, career path, IDFPR licence, and Chicago job placement →
Key takeaways
Chicago pharmacists earn a BLS MSA median of $140,880/yr ($67.73/hr) per BLS OEWS May 2025 (SOC 29-1051, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin MSA), with a metro P10–P90 range of $84,950 to $171,710.
Chicago pharmacists earn 1.3% above the Illinois median and level with the US figure, with a band from $84,950 to $171,710.
The metro combines a major retail-chain presence with a dense academic hospital sector, and those two models sit at opposite ends of the local band.
Illinois withholds a flat percentage of wage income, so state tax at this pay level is predictable but not trivial.
Chicago Pharmacist Pay Distribution · BLS OEWS May 2025
Source: BLS OEWS May 2025
Chicago Pay by Level · BLS OEWS May 2025
How much do Chicago pharmacists earn at each level?
BLS OEWS publishes one blended metro wage for the whole occupation and does not break pay out by credential or practice level. The levels below distribute this MSA's own published percentile range across the tiers Chicago employers actually hire at.
Level
MSA Median (BLS percentile-aligned)
New-graduate PharmD, first year
$84,950
Licensed retail pharmacist
$140,880
Health-system inpatient pharmacist
$163,710
Board-certified clinical specialist or pharmacy manager
$171,710
Level medians are aligned to this metro's own published BLS OEWS May 2025 percentiles for SOC 29-1051; BLS does not publish a wage by credential level. GlobalCybers holds no verified placement sample for Chicago pharmacists, so no verified median is shown.
Methodology & Sources
Published (BLS): BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-1051, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN MSA. No verified placement data: GlobalCybers has no placement sample for Chicago pharmacists, so every figure on this page is a published BLS estimate and no verified median is claimed. MSA sample size: an OEWS metro cell is drawn from a much smaller establishment sample than the statewide cell, so metro medians carry wider uncertainty and move more between releases. Where BLS suppresses or top-codes the metro wage for this occupation, this page reports the national figure and says so rather than asserting a Chicago median. Employer names mentioned on this page (e.g. in sector or FAQ copy) are illustrative examples of who hires in each market, not a claim of partnership. Full statewide methodology → · Full site methodology & data sources →
Full Data
How much do pharmacists make in Chicago IL in 2026?
Metric
Value
Source
BLS MSA Median (Annual)
$140,880
BLS OEWS May 2025
BLS Median Hourly
$67.73/hr
BLS OEWS May 2025
P10 (Bottom 10%)
$84,950/yr · $40.84/hr
BLS OEWS
P25
$126,050/yr · $60.60/hr
BLS OEWS
P75
$163,710/yr · $78.71/hr
BLS OEWS
P90 (Top 10%)
$171,710/yr · $82.55/hr
BLS OEWS
vs Illinois Median
+$1,800 (+1.3%)
vs $139,080 IL
vs National Median
−$30 (−0%)
vs $140,910 US
Illinois State Income Tax
4.95%
Illinois Tax Code
Licensing Authority
IDFPR (Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Board of Pharmacy)
State board
Reading this page's sources:BLS OEWS is the official published wage, sampled 1–2 years back. Market intelligence rows are directional signals from recruiter conversations and industry sources, not independently verified — treat them as a range, not a benchmark.
Chicago Sectors
Which Chicago sector pays pharmacists the most?
BLS OEWS publishes one blended wage for pharmacists across the whole Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro and does not break it out by industry. The sectors below are ranked in the order Chicago employers actually pay, with each row anchored to this metro's own published percentile ladder (BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 29-1051).
Sector
MSA Median
Notes
Academic medical centre clinical specialists
$171,710
Board-certified specialists and pharmacy managers at the metro's academic hospitals sit at the $171,710 top of the published band.
Health-system inpatient pharmacists
$163,710
Inpatient staff pharmacists across the metro's hospital systems sit around the $163,710 P75, with off-shift differentials on top.
Retail chain and ambulatory pharmacy
$140,880
The typical Chicago pharmacist in a chain retail or ambulatory setting sits at the $140,880 metro median, and this remains the largest employment segment.
Independent, relief and part-time pharmacy
$126,050
Independent neighbourhood pharmacies, relief work and part-time schedules sit near the $126,050 P25.
Real Take-Home
What is the actual take-home pay for a Chicago pharmacist?
Real Chicago scenarios, line by line. Illinois taxes wage income at a single flat rate, so a Chicago pharmacist can model state withholding precisely at any point of the band including the $140,880 median, and no separate city income tax applies. Relief and per-diem shifts taken alongside a salaried post are still Illinois-taxable and should be reserved for.
Estimates only. Pre-tax deductions (401k, health premium) reduce taxable income further. Consult a tax professional.
Chicago Pharmacist Salary, Frequently Asked Questions
How much do pharmacists make in Chicago?
Chicago pharmacists earn a BLS MSA median of $140,880/yr, or $67.73/hr, with a published metro range of $84,950 to $171,710. That is 1.3% above the Illinois statewide median. Retail chain employment dominates around the median while the academic hospital sector occupies the upper quartile.
Do pharmacists earn more in Chicago than elsewhere in Illinois?
Marginally — 1.3% above the Illinois statewide median. Retail pharmacist pay does not vary much within a state because chain structures are largely uniform, so Chicago's small premium comes from the concentration of hospital and academic roles rather than from higher retail rates.
Which Chicago pharmacy employers pay the most?
Academic medical centres pay the top of the band for board-certified clinical specialists and pharmacy managers, near $171,710. Health-system inpatient roles sit around $163,710 before differentials. Retail chains, which employ the largest share of Chicago pharmacists, cluster at the metro median.
What licence do Chicago pharmacists need?
An Illinois pharmacist licence from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation through the Board of Pharmacy. You need an ACPE-accredited PharmD, the NAPLEX and the Illinois jurisprudence examination, plus documented intern hours and continuing education at renewal.
Is Chicago a good market for new pharmacy graduates?
It has one of the deepest residency markets in the country thanks to its academic hospital density, which matters because residency is the gateway to the clinical roles at the top of the published band. Retail openings are plentiful but pay close to the metro median regardless of experience.
Why Chicago's premium is small despite its size
Retail chain pharmacy sets pay through national or regional structures rather than by metro, and it employs more Chicago pharmacists than any other setting. That anchors the median near the state and national figures. The metro's academic hospital density is genuinely unusual, but those roles are a minority of employment, so they stretch the top of the band without moving the middle.
What this figure does not capture
Retail sign-on and retention bonuses are excluded from wage estimates, as are the shift differentials that hospital pharmacists earn on evenings, nights and weekends. Residency stipends, which are how many Chicago pharmacists spend their first postgraduate year or two, are also not represented in this band.
The academic-residency mechanic
Chicago's concentration of teaching hospitals means the metro trains far more pharmacy residents than most, and those residents feed the local clinical job market. For a pharmacist deciding where to train, that density is the main argument for Chicago: the residency-to-clinical-role pipeline is shorter here than in metros with one or two academic centres, and it is the only reliable route into the top quartile of this band.
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Outlook & openings: The national EP 2024–2034 projection puts pharmacist employment growth at 4.6%; scaled to the Chicago metro's share of national employment that is roughly 390 openings a year, a pro-rated figure from the national EP total rather than a Chicago-specific projection. (2024–2034 · national BLS EP 2024–34, pro-rated to the metro)
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