by Rick Owens
www.postalemployeenetwork.com
A few weeks ago I wrote an article entitled Postal or Federal Employee Pay. It seems that every newspaper and media writer in the world keeps stating that postal employees earn about $83,000 per year. While this may be almost true when you factor in USPS costs for holidays, annual leave, sick leave, etc for each employee – it also leads the public to think that we earn $83,000 per year and get benefits on top of that.
If you desire to compare our salaries with the private sector then you should do so by comparing salaries with United Parcel Service and FedEx – our two main peer industry counterparts. Here’s what I found:
What is the average wage of UPS truck drivers?
Answers.com says “Averages are so misleading. The average UPS driver’s pay at this time 12/07/2007 is about $72,000 cash, and benefits of about $30,000. But drivers with enough seniority can get more overtime by “bumping” junior employees, and with 15 hours of OT can earn over $90,000. And with 20 hours OT can earn over $100,000 cash, not including benefits.
So senior drivers can earn OVER $130,000 in cash and benefits. There are ways to earn a few thousand more by working vacations and overlapping vacations with paid holidays.”
Additionally, we found UPS hourly rates posted at Payscale.com. FedEx Hourly Rates here.
Another source listed UPS and FedEx pay here:
FedEx Salaries – Glassdoor.com
http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/FedEx-Salaries-E246.htm
UPS – Glassdoor.com
http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/united-parcel-service-salary-SRCH_KE0,21.htm
For some reason most media outlets believe that postal employee salaries should be compared only to federal government employees – you know, as I do, that this is NOT the case. Salaries or pay for ANY company should be compared to their industry peers – in our case that is UPS and FedEx. USPS should remember this during their negotiations with our unions and during their current attempt to curtail 6 day delivery, change USPS (changes you can believe in???), close facilities, etc.
Rick, I assume you have little experience in the areas of compensation and benefits. The web sites you reference in your article do not appear to take a number of factors into consideration when they publish wages based on occupation for a given business entity. If you want to fairly compare the wages for a given occupation between two employers everything else must be equal. For example, geographical location, experience level, credentials, etc. do not appear to be specified in the data sets you reference. As such, it’s an unfair comparison and I think you’re doing folks a disservice with your article.
The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) has a very well written article titled Same occupation, different pay: How wages vary (https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/wage-differences.htm) about this very issue.
The BLS is a good source of wage data, but you’re not going to find data on individual employers there. For a given occupation the BLS breaks wage data down by geographical area and industry. They also do not appear to factor in experience level and education directly. The BLS also provides a wage percentile 10,25,50,75,90 (https://www.bls.gov/oes/oes_perc.htm). The 10th percentile means 10% of the workers in this occupation and classification surveyed earn less than the amount shown. Is there some correlation between wage percentile and experience/education? Possibly, but one cannot make that assumption.
As such, it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to accurately make the comparisons you’re trying to make due to lack of data. The data does exist, but you or I don’t have access to it. The data you reference could be extremely accurate, inaccurate, or somewhere in between. If this data was available to all employees /citizens it would be very empowering to them. Perhaps that is why it doesn’t exist.
We could speculate about this issue for an eternity, but without the data all we are doing is speculating and throwing an opinion out there that people can react to and possibly adopt as the truth.
I have no experience in compensation and benefits, but this just seems to be common sense.
Robert – thank you for your post. The article you reference that I wrote was written, I believe, way back in 2010. You make some good points – but, so did I. Are you a postal employee or retiree? What I stated is fact – the AVERAGE public is led to believe (by the media and others) that postal employees are overpaid…some may be…most are not. Peer industry for the postal service is UPS and FedEx – personally I believe that if you desire to compare the income of a postal employee then do so by making your comparison based on peer industries. NOT government employees in other areas of the government outside of the postal service. Rick @ PEN
Pay aside, how about figuring in the cost of benefits. UPS it’s figured into their (one time) monthly dues, benefits are then included. USPS, higher dues and still have to then purchase benefits.
FedEx Express has salaries,benefit and 401k.. You must talking about FedEx Ground and Home Delivery.
You cannot compare ALL FX with UPS. Most FX, Ground and Home Drivers are employed by independent contractors and earn on average between 12-15 per hour with no benefits. That is why FX ground shipping is less expensive. Their earnings are made by the cheap labor of independent contractors.
Pension. I think that about sums it up.
Ah, but what they haven’t told you is . . .
drum roll, please . . .
THE COST DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE USPS vs. UPS vs. FEDEX. Now, that is where FedEx and UPS DESTROY the USPS. And THAT is why the USPS is going down!!!
The public cannot believe that Postal jobs are strenuous…….they only see us walking down the street or driving our LLV’s and sticking our arm out the side. We all know the fatigue and energy our jobs entail, and I am sure the UPS driver who can work up to 14 hour days suffers the same. The media is doing a disservice again to its readers. The press in American today is a propaganda tool for those who control the media………that is something the public needs to understand.
Thanks, this is great info.