Postal or Federal Employee Pay

Postal or Federal Employee Pay

March 31, 2010
by Rick Owens
Postal Employee Network

Postal or Federal Employee Pay and Benefits – Just Who Is Paid the Most?

 

Time and time again postal employees continually read that postal employee pay and benefits are just too high – critics always like to point out that 80% of USPS costs is labor.

Just today Newsweek states “Perhaps the biggest failure of the five-day delivery plan is that it ignores 80 percent of the Postal Service’s costs: labor. Postmaster Potter has made headway in reducing work hours and the costs of benefits and pensions, but the average postal employee still makes $83,000 in salary and benefits a year, placing postal workers among the highest-paid government employees.”

We, as postal employees, get sick and tired of hearing this same broken record over and over. We try to point out to these people that USPS is a service company – we ARE NOT a retail, manufacturing, or banking entity – we are a SERVICE COMPANY. As a service company, providing the most extensive service in this nation, our employee base MUST be large and subsequently compose the vast majority of costs for USPS. Please – tell us how else could this service exist without a work compliment in place to carry out the service?

Now, on to salaries and benefits. On March 8, 2010 USA Today wrote the following:

“Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds.

Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008.”

Please review this chart composed by USA Today – Federal salaries compared to private-sector

Don’t forget that the salaries listed in USA Today’s chart DOES NOT include an average $40, 785 in benefits for each FEDERAL employee…not postal employee.

FederalJobs.net states:

“Average annual salary for full-time federal government jobs now exceeds $79,197. The U.S. Government is the largest employer in the United States, hiring about 2.0 percent of the nation’s work force and the workforce is expanding significantly under the Obama administration. Federal government jobs can be found in every state and large metropolitan area, including overseas in over 200 countries. The average annual federal workers compensation in 2008, including pay plus benefits, was $119,982 compared to just $59,909 for the private sector according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

Yes, with benefits postal employee salaries may hover around $83,000 per year, but we contend that they ARE NOT overpaid and their benefits ARE NOT out of line with other federal employees and peer industry employees.

Your comments and opinion are solicited.

Rick Owens
Postal Employee Network

58 Responses to "Postal or Federal Employee Pay"

  1. We do not get federal investment. We unlike all other federal agencies make our own money without government subsidies. The losses that are reported are lies. It is a cash flow problem because we must prefund our retirement benefits 100% for I believe 50 years in advance with money made off products and services we provide and charge for. There is no federal funding from taxes whatsoever. I have been through 2 paycuts since I’ve been employed as a letter carrier over a 10 year period resulting in stagnant salary growth, while for example the cost of groceries and gas, have almost doubled in that same 10 year period. Not to mention the addition of Amazon parcel delivery which has increased our parcel volumes on an average of 20 a day to about 70 a day which we charge much lower rates for compared to industry standards. We still have the worst vehicle fleet, safety standards, and equipment. While our accident and injury rate has increased by by about 30% and Amazon has made billions off our services alone. Many of us work 10- 12 hour days 5-6 days a week for fulltime employees and some part time employees don’t get days off for months at a time. Under the new contract our retirement mainly relies on Social Security now, as our pensions have been cut by 2/3, and now politcians want cut Social Security by another 15% and raise the age to collect it. With the amount of injuries due to the physicality of the work this is neither feesable or fair. We also don’t pay into SUSDI insurance so if you get injured, such as a repetitive motion injury, there is nothing to cover our lost wages for surgeries and treatment. This is a very serious problem amongst the Postal Service. As I stated earlier due to pay cuts I’m still not grossing what I did 10 years ago yet workloads have increased, and I’ve been harrassed and nearly terminated for incurring repetitive motion injuries due to increased workloads, poor equipment and vehicles, and lack of regard for safety and medical restrictions. As for some examples, I was threatened with discipline and termination if I did not follow managements instructions eventhough it was against my medical restrictions from my doctor. I was also suspended for driving off my route to purchase ice on a 122 degree day because they do not provide us with any water or ice for these conditions. My vehicle I deliver out of was put into service when I was 12 years old, there is no air conditioning, airbags, or antilock brakes on them. We actually had a carrier die of a heart attack on the workroom floor because managment refused to give him time off, knowing the extreme heat conditions we work in, greatly exaperates the risk of heart disease, especially if you’ve had problems with his heart before like he had. Considering we put our lives at risk everyday driving subpar vehicles and the extreme weather conditions we work in I believe we are very underpaid and deserve not only better wages and benefits, but also treatment and respect as we deliver, on an average route, to about 800-1000 customers per day, with a high chance of getting injured or killed, and Amazon makes billions of dollars and pays no taxes.

  2. I know this article is really old, but I truly think it is time to dissolve the U.S. Postal Service. USPS workers are generally incompetent and get paid out of our hard-earned tax dollars. There are a lot of USPS workers who seems to take no pride in their work, as evidenced by a lot of stories I could tell you, but allow me to share just this one:
    March 17: sent note to USPS regarding P.O. Box not opening. March 19: tried box again, received note from XXXXX, who said he would check on it. March 20:XXXXX said it was best to go to the trailer (Embry Village, Chamblee/Tucker Rd) between 9a.m. and Noon to see if they could open it for me. March 22: went to trailer, no one there. Called XXXXX (Customer Service) who gave me the Broad Street address. Went there and paid for box ($214.00). Monday, March 26: box not open. Tuesday, March 27: box not open, and could not reach anyone at USPS. March 28, box not open and spoke to XXXXX, who said he would check into it. March 30: XXXXX called to say he sent the info to open the box via the driver who goes there. April 2: box not open. Called USPS, but XXXXX out. April 3: box not open, but could get no answer at USPS Customer Service number. April 4: (today) Box not open. Called Cust. Svc, but XXXXX out. Someone who said he goes by his initials (sounded like S.C. – hmmmm…) said I should call Chamblee office at 770-216-1958 (or 1968 – he wasn’t sure). This was 2:25 p.m. Called both numbers. Got a lot of ringing, then went to what sounded like a fax machine. Tried a second time, but got a busy signal. Called Cust. Svc. back to confirm the numbers at 2:27 p.m, but got a lot of rings, then a busy signal with no one picking up. Tried at 2:28 and got a lot of rings, but no one picked up. Called the 800 number for help, when through a lot of confusing items ’til finally getting a message saying something like, “Please hold for next Customer Service Agent. Your wait time will be 20 to 30 minutes.” At work….
    Again, this is just one story I can relate about the USPS. Time to pull the plug! Put our tax dollars to better use, please. Ben Franklin is turning in his grave…

  3. Not at all a fair comparison between ALL federal employees and postal workers in terms of salaries. Considering all other federal employees, you have many highly skilled positions ranging from engineers, IT professionals, analysts, even doctors, lawyers and nurses. These are all jobs requiring a degree, advanced degrees, certifications and experience. While that is not the case for all federal positions, a large percentage are not low skilled positions that people with no more than a high school diploma can walk into. The better majority of postal employees are carriers can be hired with no more than a high school diploma and are typically low skilled positions. Comparing the salaries as an average is a very inaccurate comparison. If you want a fair comparison, you have to compare it only to the low skilled or entry level positions in the government which tend to be at grade levels 2-7. Postal workers salaries far exceed those grade levels

  4. Recently having my mailbox Community box broken into I have to travel to the post office to get my mail upon receiving my mail I went through it to disregard to mail to flexible all to me the lady who is dealing with me asked me to step aside I couldn’t stand her and go to my mail I had to get out of line after standing in line for over 10 minutes I’m a senior citizen with disabilities the man next to her behind the counter spoke up and told me I was being disrespectful and I told him it was none of his business of what I was doing that mail did not belong to me and I was not taking it the same as I thought the postal person who delivered by mail my name is on the box no one else’s name maybe my address but not my name and I try to tell the other gentleman the same thing until he got rude with me I think these people with job security that the post office has needs to retrain her people to learn how to talk to them I was spoken to in a meeting Manor by this guy who told me I know where you live bro that sounds like a threat to me I was just like to explain my frustrations that I go to having to go to the post office instead of walking across the street to my mailbox it’s been over 3 weeks the boxes been broke I live in Las Vegas Nevada and it seems to be a thing going around her Valley but they cannot keep up with fixing these boxes and I don’t need to go down to the office and get disrespected the way I did9

  5. The problem is not the postal employees, it is the federal system, in general. The USPS is a long standing symbol of why our country had surpassed all other countries in the 20th century. Though I am not a postal employee, I support the organizations presence in our country. Now, I do feel that the postal employees make way too much money, on average, along with 95% of federal employees. Especially, considering that the postal service is supposed to be a capitalistic enterprise, but requires federal investment every year. Management is responsible for this and the USPS would have been gone without federal investment.

  6. Postal vs Federal pay:

    Postal Management has been on wage freeze for three years – No wage increase, No Cola eligibility, No performance awards – No increase within pay grade – therefore pension frozen if not at maximum end of scale.

    Federal employees – No wage increase; Cola eligibility unknown; Performance awards – Yes not frozen; Increase within pay grade – yes not frozen; therefore pension not frozen if not at maximum end of scale.

  7. Initforthelonghaul;

    I’ve been with the Postal Service since 1970. You are an embarrassment. Did you grow up speaking English? Your grammar is atrocious.
    I know there are areas of the country where the education level is extremely low and people like you abound.
    Please never tell anyone again that you work for the USPS.
    Obama supports 5-day and will raid the retirement fund at the first opportunity.

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