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$45 in okanagan seems low, unless she graduated recently. The historical going rate is around $47-54/h (from maybe 5-6 years ago).
Rexall in terms of compensation is fantastic. Be prepared to work like a dog though. You'll be 'expected' to be doing at least one med review per day. You'll likely be taking a manager position, and if thats the case, a free trip to Niagra falls every Autumn! In addition, based on the performance of your store, you get annual bonuses as well. My friend took over management of a store on the island and turned his numbers from -10% to +15% (in his first year of work from May-December) and around January, he received a $15,000 bonus, on top of his regular $5x.xx/hour.
They are expanding massively, trying to be on the same scale as SDM. From a market view perspective, they are doing exactly what makes sense, in my opinion.. Buying spaces in a time of 'low', when independents are shutting down etc. and riding it through the highs, which will likely come again in several years - decade. Due to the evolving nature of the profession, it's not likely that we will have pharmacist salary cuts indefinitely. We may very well one day become independent prescribers (especially if the naturopathic doctors can do it).
I currently work in a community pharmacy and a local hospital as well... and I can say from experience that each respective position is difficult in it's own ways. Community pharmacy, you always feel the push to be faster, do med reviews (which btw, you will feel like a sleazy car salesman 50-60% of the time, giving someone a product they don't really need just to increase the store numbers) and all the while not f'ing up the patients insurance.
In the hospital, it's a lot more mentally stimulating from a clinical perspective. Get asked lots of questions, most of the time it's not so hard to be honest, the resources are all in front of us. Even when I'm 'on-call' all I have to do is go to my computer at home and verify certain things. The super clinically-complex questions are usually referred to other physicians (mostly internal medicine). There are definitely LOTS more clinical problems in the hospital, mistakes everywhere, things that are usually overlooked, renal function, allergies, duplication, etc.etc. It's easy to make our money in 'cost-savings' in the hospital, but in community it's a little more difficult because we do not have the full clinical picture in front of us. Once lab values become available on community pharmacy systems, we will probably be making a lot more clinical interventions than we currently do.
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