Earnings of workers in the pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing industry are higher than the average for all manufacturing industries. In 2002, production or nonsupervisory workers in this industry averaged $777 a week, while those in all manufacturing industries averaged $619 a week. Earnings in selected occupations in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing appear in table 2.Some employees work in plants that operate around the clock—three shifts a day, 7 days a week. In most plants, workers receive extra pay when assigned to the second or third shift. Because drug production is subject to little seasonal variation, work is steady.
Table 2. Median hourly earnings of the largest occupations in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing, 2002.
| Occupation |
Phamaceutical and medicine manufacturing |
All industries |
| Medical scientists, except epidemiologists |
$34.77 |
$27.40 |
| Chemists |
25.51 |
25.43 |
| First-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers |
25.05 |
20.64 |
| Chemical technicians |
18.49 |
18.00 |
| Chemical equipment operators and tenders |
18.15 |
18.00 |
| Biological technicians |
17.83 |
15.73 |
| Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers |
14.27 |
13.01 |
| Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders |
13.76 |
13.23 |
| Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders |
12.77 |
10.20 |
| Team assemblers |
10.81 |
10.90 |
|
