Faculty Articles

The Labor Supply of Full-Time and Part-Time Pharmacists

Publication Title

Social Pharmacy Journal

Publication Date

2016

Keywords

employment, health occupations, pharmacists, salaries and fringe benefits

Abstract

Background: In pharmacy, the bulk of part-time work is expected to be voluntary, that is, driven by workers’ greater opportunitycosts of non-work activities rather than by a scarcity of jobs. Involved in this process is a tradeoff of benefits and costs wherebythe costs of reduced earnings from working fewer hours are exchanged for the benefits of more flexibility and non-work pursuitsthat yield greater utility than what might be derived from the consumption of goods and services purchased with the forgone earn-ings. Persons in different groups (i.e., gender, age, etc.) may react differently to the tradeoffs posed by a given job or set of workcharacteristics.Objectives:Compare the labor supply functions of full-time and part-time pharmacists in south Florida in 2006 - 2007. The modeldepicted the amount of labor supplied in each category as determined by three types of explanatory variables.Patients and Methods:This study was based on self-reported survey data collected in 2006 - 2007 from 1,478 licensed pharma-cists who responded (26% response rate). The survey was sent to all 5,846 licensed pharmacists in the region. Using ordinary leastsquares from Stata 11 statistical software, a model estimated, separately for full-time and part-time practitioners, the average num-ber of weekly hours worked as a function of the wage rate, human-capital stock, and job-related preferences. Levels of statisticalsignificance were identified for P < 0.01, P < 0.05, and P < 0.10.Results:The results suggested that, in configuring the number of hours worked, full-time practitioners were influenced signif-icantly by the wage rate, gender, and location of worksite, but part-time practitioners did not respond to these covariates. Theyalso revealed substantial differences in the magnitude and/or direction of response to the other covariates in the model by bothemployment-status groups.Conclusions:These findings have relevant implications for researchers and administrators of the pharmacist workforce. Under-standing employees’ motivation to work full or part time may allow institutions to provide to them specific employment-statusincentives and disincentives that enhance hiring, productivity, satisfaction, and retention practices.

Volume

1

Issue

1

First Page

e4748

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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