The ratio register
Pharmacist-to-technician ratios, state by state. Verified weekly.
Every rule below is read from the primary statute or regulation, cited, dated, and re-checked by our regulatory research every week. When a state changes its rule, this page changes with it. Last verification pass: 2026-09-08.
| State | The rule | How certification changes it | Citation | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlabamaPending activity | A certification-scaled ceiling: 2 technicians with none certified, 3 with at least one certified, 4 with at least two certified. Four is a hard ceiling. | Certification raises the ceiling but certified technicians still count toward it; more certifications never push it past 4. | Ala. Admin. Code r. 680-X-2-.14(5) | 2026-09-07 |
| Arkansas | Each pharmacist on duty may use up to 4 support staff, counting pharmacy technicians, licensed interns and externs together. | Certification does not change the cap. Arkansas has one technician class and no trainee tier, and the 4-person limit applies regardless of who is certified. | 17 CAR 160-907 (rewritten eff. Oct 10, 2025) | 2026-09-08 |
| California | An additive formula: 3 technicians for the first pharmacist on duty, plus 3 more for each additional pharmacist. | The formula counts technicians, not certifications; the pharmacist-in-charge sets ratios within it. | BPC 4115, as amended by AB 1503 (eff. Jan 1, 2026) | 2026-09-07 |
| ColoradoPending activity | Up to 6 technicians and interns combined per pharmacist (no more than 2 interns); central-fill pharmacies may go to 8. | Once 3 or more technicians are on duty, a majority must be fully certified and every technician needs at least a provisional certification (valid up to 18 months, non-renewable). | C.R.S. 12-280-122 | 2026-08-20 |
| Georgia | A flat ceiling of 4 technicians per pharmacist in the licensed area; remote technicians do not count toward the ratio. | Board rule 480-15-.03(e) still requires at least 1 certified technician to staff 3 and at least 2 certified to staff 4, even though HB 382 removed the tiers from the statute itself. | O.C.G.A. 26-4-82 (as amended by HB 382, eff. July 1, 2026) and Board rule 480-15-.03(e) | 2026-09-03 |
| IllinoisPending activity | No pharmacist-to-technician ratio. Instead a working-conditions law: a pharmacy may not require a pharmacist, student pharmacist, or technician to work more than 12 continuous hours in a day including breaks, and a pharmacist working 6 or more hours must be allowed a 30-minute meal break plus a 15-minute break (one more 15-minute break at 12 hours). The pharmacy may stay open during the break. | Certification does not change any of those numbers. It changes what a technician may do, and every registered technician in Illinois must become certified within 2 years of first licensure. | 225 ILCS 85/15.1 | 2026-09-07 |
| LouisianaPending activity | A combined ceiling of 4 support people per pharmacist on duty. Certified pharmacy technicians, pharmacy technician candidates and pharmacy interns all count in the same 4, and no more than 2 of them may be technician candidates. | Certification does not raise the ceiling. It decides which slot a person can fill: a technician candidate is a registered trainee capped at 2 per pharmacist, while a certified pharmacy technician can fill any of the 4. Louisiana has no category of a working technician who is neither a candidate nor certified, so RxShift counts every uncertified technician as a candidate. | La. Admin. Code tit. 46, Pt LIII, 907(A)(1) and 709(B) | 2026-09-08 |
| Massachusetts | A composition-gated ceiling: 2 support staff per pharmacist with no restriction, 3 once at least one is a certified technician or pharmacy intern, and 4, the maximum, once at least two are. | Certified technicians and pharmacy interns are pooled together and both satisfy the composition requirement that unlocks the 3rd and 4th slot; pharmacy technician trainees count toward the headcount but never toward that requirement. | 247 CMR 8.06(3) | 2026-09-03 |
| Minnesota | One pharmacist may supervise up to 3 technicians, and the pharmacy may add 1 more technician at any given time if at least one certified technician is on duty and counting toward the ratio. | One certified technician raises the pharmacy's limit by exactly one, once. Additional certifications do not raise it further, and the extra technician is per pharmacy, not per pharmacist. | Minn. Stat. 151.102, subd. 1 | 2026-09-08 |
| NevadaPending activity | One pharmacist may supervise up to 3 technicians, or 1 technician plus 2 technicians-in-training. | Certification does not change the cap; the 3-technician ceiling applies regardless. | NAC 639.250 | 2026-09-07 |
| New Jersey | A base cap of 2 technicians per pharmacist for any mix; if every technician on duty is certified, there is no stated upper ceiling. | The uncap is all-or-nothing: a single non-certified technician on duty returns the whole crew to the 2-per-pharmacist base. A written policy-and-procedure manual is also mandatory. | N.J.A.C. 13:39-6.15 | 2026-09-07 |
| New YorkPending activity | A total-headcount rule with a sub-cap: a pharmacist may have no more than 4 support people at one time, and no more than 2 of them may be registered pharmacy technicians performing licensed technician tasks. Pharmacy interns are exempt. Since November 21, 2025 registered technicians may work in community pharmacies (L. 2025 ch. 543). | Certification does not raise or lower the numbers. A PTCB or NHA certification is how a technician qualifies for the New York registered pharmacy technician licence; someone with a national certification but no New York licence counts as an unlicensed person (a clerk, in everyday terms) inside the four. | N.Y. Educ. Law 6841(4); 8 NYCRR 29.7(a)(21)(ii) | 2026-09-07 |
| North Carolina | An approval state: a pharmacist may supervise no more than 2 pharmacy technicians unless the pharmacist-manager holds written Board of Pharmacy approval for a higher ratio, requested per permit (Board staff approve 1:3 to 1:5; 1:6 and above goes to the full Board). | Certification does not raise the limit on its own. By statute the Board cannot approve a ratio above 1:2 unless every technician above the second is a certified pharmacy technician, so the condition travels with the approval. Pharmacy students in an approved school are outside the ratio; there is no technician trainee tier. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-85.15A(c) | 2026-09-07 |
| Ohio | No numeric pharmacist-to-technician ratio. Instead: a 13-hour single-workday cap, a mandatory 8-hour rest gap between shifts, and documented exceptions retained for 3 years. | Certification does not enter Ohio's staffing math; the binding rules are hour caps and rest gaps. | OAC 4729:5-5-02.2 | 2026-09-07 |
| South Carolina | A dual cap for community and retail pharmacies: at most 4 technicians per pharmacist at a time, of which no more than 2 may be non-certified. | State-certified technicians are what allow a pharmacist to go above 2 technicians, but they still count toward the cap of 4. Institutional pharmacies follow a separate 1-to-3 employment ratio. | S.C. Code Ann. 40-43-86(B)(4)(b) | 2026-09-07 |
| Tennessee | Up to 6 non-certified technicians per pharmacist; certified technicians (CPhT) are not counted against the ratio. | Certified technicians are uncapped, so certification directly expands how many people can work a shift. | Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1140-02-.02(7)(a) | 2026-09-07 |
| Texas | Up to 6 pharmacy technicians and technician trainees per on-site pharmacist, and no more than 3 of the 6 may be trainees. | Certification does not change the numbers. In Texas a registered pharmacy technician is already certified, and a technician trainee is the uncertified tier with a hard 2-year limit, so certification decides which tier a person is in rather than how many people a pharmacist may supervise. | 22 Tex. Admin. Code 291.32(d)(3)(A) | 2026-09-08 |
Pending items worth knowing: Alabama: A rulemaking filed July 15, 2026 (hearing September 16, 2026) corrects a statutory reference only; the ratio text in the proposal is identical to current law. Colorado: HB26-1336 (effective Aug 12, 2026) lets pharmacists delegate final product verification to certified technicians for non-controlled orders; it changes no ratio and requires Board rulemaking by the end of 2026. Illinois: HB4243 (104th General Assembly) would require on-site staffing at retail pharmacies filling 150 or more prescriptions a day; re-referred to the Rules Committee April 17, 2026 with no floor vote. Louisiana: Board Regulatory Project 2025-454 amends section 907 effective October 20, 2026 (dates per the Board's rulemaking page, read September 8, 2026), but only its compounding language in subsection B; in the Board's coded draft the ratio sentence in 907(A)(1) is not changed. Nevada: Proposed rule R072-25 would change staffing requirements, but it was tabled at the Board's June 4, 2026 hearing and has not been adopted. Current law is unchanged. New York: S5625 (2025-2026) would require two pharmacists whenever a pharmacy dispenses over 200 prescriptions in any 14-hour period; it has sat in the Senate Higher Education Committee across four sessions with no vote.
This dataset is free to cite with attribution to RxShift (rxshift.io). It is also available machine-readable at /api/public/state-rules and as a running change log at /regulatory-updates. Informational only, not legal advice; always confirm against the cited source.
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