salary intelligence
The share of UK pharmacy job adverts naming an actual pay figure has risen to roughly 34% in PharmSee's latest sweep of the market, up from 29% in July. The increase is real, but it is not a broad shift toward transparency across the sector — it is concentrated almost entirely in one chain's non-pharmacist roles.
What the data shows
PharmSee tracks live vacancies across 11 UK pharmacy job sources — the major multiples, several regional chains, and NHS Jobs. On 23 September 2026, PharmSee pulled listings from all 11 sources (1,884 active vacancies in total) and classified each one as "disclosing" if the advertised salary field contained a specific pound figure, rather than "Negotiable," "Competitive," or a blank or placeholder value.
Boots, NHS Jobs and Well Pharmacy each carry more than 200 active vacancies, above PharmSee's 200-record-per-query limit, so their disclosure rates in this piece come from a 200-listing sample of each. The remaining eight sources returned fewer than 200 live listings each, so their figures are a full count, not a sample.
Applying each source's disclosure rate to its total advertised vacancy count gives a population-weighted estimate of roughly 643 of 1,884 tracked vacancies — about 34% — carrying a specific figure. That compares with 563 of 1,913 (about 29%) in PharmSee's previous chain-by-chain reading on 3 July 2026.
| Source | Active vacancies (Sep 2026) | Disclosure rate (Sep 2026) | Disclosure rate (Jul 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rowlands | 169 (full count) | 84% (142/169) | 76% (129/170) |
| NHS Jobs | 510 | 73% (145/200 sample) | 72% (144/200 sample) |
| Well Pharmacy | 376 | 35% (70/200 sample) | 21% (42/200 sample) |
| Day Lewis | 15 (full count) | 0% (0/15) | 7% (1/15) |
| Boots, Cohens, Tesco, Superdrug, Asda, Morrisons, Weldricks | 814 combined | 0% | 0% |
Boots, the largest single tracked employer with 558 active vacancies, has not shown a pay figure on any sampled listing in either reading. The other chains reading 0% — Cohens, Tesco, Superdrug, Asda, Morrisons and Weldricks — also show no change between the two snapshots.
Why the headline number moved
Two sources account for essentially all of the increase between July and September: Rowlands, already the most transparent chain in PharmSee's tracking, ticked up further, and Well Pharmacy's sampled disclosure rate rose from 21% to 35%.
The Well increase is worth reading carefully rather than as a sign that the chain has started publishing pharmacist pay more widely. Of the 70 disclosed listings in the September sample, 27 were "Qualified Pharmacy Assistant" postings (all showing £12.71–£12.83 an hour) and 20 were "Delivery Driver" roles (£12.71 an hour) — together nearly two-thirds of the disclosed total. Only one listing in the sample was a pharmacist role with a figure attached: a single "Relief Pharmacist" posting at £26.00 an hour, in line with rates PharmSee has recorded for Well relief pharmacist work previously. One advert is not evidence of a change in how the chain prices its core pharmacist vacancies.
At Rowlands, the smaller gain sits within job titles the chain has disclosed consistently through the year — dispenser and trainee dispenser roles in particular.
Reading the percentage without over-reading it
PharmSee's earlier analysis of this same metric found that the headline disclosure percentage moves for reasons that often have little to do with employer policy — chiefly, which job titles happen to be live at the moment of the snapshot. This reading reinforces that finding. The rise from 29% to 34% accurately reflects what PharmSee's snapshots captured on each date, but it traces to a shift in which titles were posted at Well Pharmacy, not to a stated change in practice by any employer. No employer named in this analysis has made a public statement about its pay-transparency approach that PharmSee is aware of, and none was contacted for comment on this specific reading.
The pattern PharmSee has documented across earlier snapshots continues to hold: pharmacist-titled vacancies at community pharmacy chains are disclosed at a far lower rate than pharmacist vacancies on NHS Jobs, where Agenda for Change pay bands mean most trust-employed posts carry an exact, publicly quoted figure.
Caveats
- Figures for Boots, NHS Jobs and Well Pharmacy are drawn from a 200-listing sample of each source, not the full advertised total (558, 510 and 376 vacancies respectively); the population-weighted totals in this piece extrapolate from that sample and carry the associated margin of error.
- "Disclosure" here means a specific pound figure appeared in the salary field. It does not distinguish between full-time annual salaries, part-time or zero-hours hourly rates, or add-on supplements such as multi-site premiums.
- PharmSee's dataset covers 11 job-board sources. It does not capture the independent pharmacy sector, which PharmSee's separate branch-level analysis has found runs the majority of pharmacies in most English city cores it has audited, or roles filled through agencies rather than public job boards.
- This is a market-structure and data-transparency finding, not a claim about any individual employer's pay levels, hiring intentions or financial position.
What it means for job-seekers
The practical takeaway for anyone comparing pharmacy job listings is unchanged: NHS Jobs and Rowlands adverts remain the most likely to state an actual rate before you apply, while Boots, Tesco, Asda, Superdrug, Morrisons, Weldricks and Cohens listings — and most Well Pharmacy and NHS Jobs postings outside the disclosed share — will usually require asking directly. PharmSee's salary data aggregates disclosed rates by role and region, and the live jobs listing and pharmacy directory can help cross-reference a specific advert against the wider market.
Sources: PharmSee job-market database (11 tracked UK pharmacy job sources), snapshot 23 September 2026, compared against PharmSee's snapshot of 3 July 2026, published as Most UK Pharmacy Job Adverts Still Don't List a Salary.