pharmacy assistant
Pharmacy assistants perform general duties, such as stock management, serving at the cash desk, or performing administrative duties. They deal with the inventory within the pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist.
pharmacy assistant pharmacy assistants perform general duties, such as stock management, serving at the cash desk, or performing administrative duties. They deal with the inventory within the pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include hygiene in a health care setting, medicines, medicines for self-medication, follow procedures to control substances hazardous to health, check information on prescriptions.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £23,783 a year for Pharmacy and optical dispensing assistants (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 7114). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Technicians and associate professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only pharmacy assistant, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 3. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Administrative
- Sales and Marketing
- Law and Government
- Administration and Management
- Mathematics
- Medicine and Dentistry
What you'd actually do
- Greet customers and help them locate merchandise.
- Accept prescriptions for filling, gathering and processing necessary information.
- Operate cash register to process cash or credit sales.
- Answer telephone inquiries, referring callers to pharmacist when necessary.
- Receive, store, and inventory pharmaceutical supplies or medications, check for out-of-date medications, and notify pharmacist when inventory levels are low.
- Unpack, sort, count, and label incoming merchandise, including items requiring special handling or refrigeration.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does pharmacy assistant do?
Pharmacy assistants perform general duties, such as stock management, serving at the cash desk, or performing administrative duties. They deal with the inventory within the pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist.
What skills does pharmacy assistant need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include hygiene in a health care setting, medicines, medicines for self-medication, follow procedures to control substances hazardous to health, check information on prescriptions, respond to changing situations in health care. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace pharmacy assistant?
Our AI-durability model gives pharmacy assistant a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.