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I still work 2 weeks every 6 months in the UK as a locum (or floater as known here). The rates depend on where I want to work. On average in London the hourly rate ranges from 20-28/hr in pounds (purely 'cos there are lots of pharmacists living here, especially now that the UK has opened it's borders to European pharmacists who are free to come in and practice as long as they are European citizens and speak English, which most of them absolutely do) and out of London I've commanded upto 40pounds. Retail does pay higher than hospital. Also different retail chains pay different rates and independent pharmacies pay the highest rates. The rates are artificially high for locums as we do not get any vacation or sick pay so all that needs to be covered by the wages we make when we work.
In my opinion, you cannot simply say US pharmacist's salaries are higher 'cos of longer opening hours and UK pharmacists get more vacation time. There is a whole world of difference between the two systems, lifestyles and cost of living. Hence, you will need to take into account a multitude of factors before being able to answer your question. However in general, in the UK we earn around 36-40K in pounds and in the US (at least here in Ohio - there is quite a bit of difference between the states here in the US and their tax rates are different too), we start at 110K+.
Hope this helps with your query...best wishes
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