Pharmacy Technician
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Pharmacy Technician occupation series (code 0661), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
Pharmacy Technician is a mid-sized federal occupation: 7,658 employees (0.4% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family. At an average salary of $70,794 it pays below the federal average, and headcount edged up from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- +0.3%
- Pay change
- +0.0%
- Avg tenure
- 9.5 yrs
- Rank in family
- #10 of 45
FedScope read on Pharmacy Technician (dense series)
On pay, the move between reporting periods was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career. Headcount moved up versus the prior period, a useful gauge for job seekers on USAJOBS trying to assess whether this role is expanding government-wide or contracting under hiring freezes and attrition.
Code 06, the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family, is where the federal government classifies Pharmacy Technician alongside 44 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Pharmacy Technician postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family. The Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family totals 339,162 employees, and Pharmacy Technician accounts for 2.3% of them. Its average salary ranks in the bottom half (22nd percentile) of pay among Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group occupations.
Salary context · lean-pay series
How Pharmacy Technician pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$70,794
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-39.7%
Where Pharmacy Technician ranks on lean federal pay
Pharmacy Technician earns more on average than 27% of federal occupation series (146 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Pharmacy Technician sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Pharmacy Technician.
Related Occupations in Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nurse | 106,218 | $132,267 | 10.2 yrs |
| Medical Support Assistance | 39,856 | $58,279 | 8.2 yrs |
| Medical Officer | 34,687 | $301,569 | 11.6 yrs |
| General Health Science | 17,434 | $133,765 | 11.9 yrs |
| Practical Nurse | 16,755 | $75,898 | 10.4 yrs |
| Pharmacist | 14,529 | $167,390 | 11.1 yrs |
| Nursing Assistant | 14,498 | $55,851 | 7.8 yrs |
| Health Aid and Technician | 12,490 | $61,276 | 10.8 yrs |
| Health System Specialist | 7,966 | $110,534 | 15.9 yrs |
| Medical Technologist | 6,123 | $117,456 | 12.2 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for Pharmacy Technician outside the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar dense headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (7,658 here).
Similar lean average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($70,794 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Pharmacy Technician pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Medical, Hospital, Dental, and Public Health Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Pharmacy Technician postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.