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
That’s including salary and benefits. most postal workers make around $50K-$60K . Not including overtime. Most of the people come in and think its soooo easy to do this job. They are proven wrong. Its easy for some and not for some. Especailly when its snowing and aftermath of tornadoes and heat, cold. this job isn’t for everyone. Being a carrier is physical work. all jobs aren’t the same and you cant compare it to another unless you have done it. Im not going to sit here and say flipping burger s is so easy and I haven’t done it. I just may not be cut out for flipping burgers. cleaning floors maybe where im good at or somethingelse. don’t down something unless you hae been there. Postal workers make good salaries without overtime, that $80,000 includes benefits. we don’t bring that home. I mean really?
All Postal jobs should ONLY be paid minimum wage . It takes NO skill other than the ones that any 4rth grader has. I say pay them all under 10 bucks an hour…..if not shut it down all together. Why are postal workers any different than fast food workers. GET REAL
Fifty thou? I would like for somebody to tell me I can feed me, my wife, my 4 kids on that one day. How do I make 80+? I tried to supervising program (204b) to GET to the 80+ some day but all anyone would do would get on me about working. To get the mail out I had to “work it”. I had 2 less clerks than was suppose to and could not get it out when they say the time was suppose to be. Work it or have everybody late.
But I do think now since obama is in for 4 more he is going to make it where we can keep our job and give us more money. I hope the health insurance part I pay goes away when the health care part comes in to play i think next year. That would be 10 more meals on hte table for every month for us. Also no more having to worry about paying for when we have to go to the doctor from what I was told.
I might try to “move up” and get a better paying job for me in the post office. I might have to transfer to another place since the 204b job here makes us work THEN get in trouble for it.
This NECK BONE dude up above here don’t know what he is talking about. He have “Friends” he is not even a employee. You don’t know what we do and you can’t speak for our pay and stuff unless you are in the government. What do you matter to our jobs at the post office anyhow.
I am so tired of everyone talking about how much money we make,as a carrier with almost 15 years on the job 4 weeks vacation 4 hours sick leave every pay,biweekly meaning more taxes coming out of check,not to mention health insurance not cheap for a family of five,oh yeah separate dental &vision plans yes we have to pay nothing is free ,10 holidays a year what most people celebrate,what about you’ve sprained your ankle so many times you can’t walk,or the hernias,back surgeries,knee,hip replacements,shoulder surgeries,what about climbing through all that snow,heat rain etc…,and still delivering your customers mail and package they know you and trust you all of my customers love me I put my all in my job everyday 100% knowing who’s moved ,who’s on vacation hold watch over their house ,check on them when mail is piling up,knows when something is not right its called compassion and observing and doing your job .for all who thinks we make hella money you are wrong for those that are not working I apologize,for those that are making little money I am sorry but it’s not my fault,but I have many battle scars to prove my worth and im sure there will be more,I just pray that when I’m done I can walk outta here in one piece not like many carriers,this job is not easy and yes there are many college folks there as well regardless what you all think,why so bitter off you wanted the job you should have gone after it try it now we need help see how easy it is ,in the wintertime,when you can’t move because it’s so cold,and those sorry trucks have you sliding all over the place,or better in the summer when you can’t stop so hot you feel like you gonna pass out,but you only get 30 minute lunch,and 10 minute break which is timed to 30 minutes that is all see how you would manage when it’s raining so hard you can’t see but you have to keep moving because you are being timed,so don’t judge my job until you do it I would not judge yours,I can’t run home for lunch,go shopping none of that strictly 30 minutes and back on the job ,how about gassing up your vehicle and cleaning off the snow checking the tires and so forth try it before you down it then talk to me until then the words coming out your mouth means nothing I can name plenty of jobs where people get paid for doing nothing at all,also there is dead weight in the post office but it’s not the carriers you have to go higher up the chain.
Bunch of whiners. When the money runs out you all will be looking for how to feed your families. It’s time we ALL learn to live on less. It’s not “always the other guy” who is at fault. It’s everyone. All expenditures in every area of government should be frozen. No raises, no increases, no cost of living. The working sector of this country has had this for the last decade and it’s time those working for the bureaucracy do the same.
Minimum wage??Postal employees are the ones DOING the real work!! The politicians don’t care about ANYTHING but HOW TO STAY IN OFFICE!!!!!They make up slogans and catchphrases to make you vote them back in!!!!We work all year long while the politicians are in Washington about half the year at best. The house has been sitting on Legislation to get USPS out of the hole th LAME DUCK CONGRESS CREATED IN 2006.THE SENATE BILL S1789 PASSED IN APRIL BUT DARRELL ISSA WON’T ALLOW ANY BILL BUT HIS ONE CO-SPONSORED BILL GET CONSIDERED.OBVIOUSLY,HE IS HOPING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WILL ELECT & RE-ELECT MORE TEA PARTY RADICALS WHO WOULD SUPPORT HIS USPS KILLING BILL INSTEAD OF SUPPORTING MORE MODERATE BILLS THAT MAKE SENSE AND DON’T EXPAND THE UNEMPLOYMENT ROLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post office is losing 25 million dollars a day. They screw with the regulars’ hours to try and get them to retire. They screw with pse clerks and casuals to.
They are hiring pse clerks and casuals, these new less paid positions are done by
Contracts. 6 months or a year NO benefits at 12 or 14 bucks. So do the math only around 25-30 a year maybe, cause its not a 40 hour week work. Unless you are a regular, they won’t retire because most don’t have anything to retire for. The amount they are offering for retirement is not enough for any body to retire. I do think they pay the regulars too much 26 bucks an hour and about half really work the whole time, the other half is spent in the break rooms or on the phone it is pathetic management says nothing but with the union stepping on the managements toes what can you expect everybody is doing their part. It will not be possible to go to anything less then 5 days and no “ond” and besides it isn’t saving enough money. Maybe start by cleaning the distribution centers and stop wasting supplies. There is so much dust it snows dust sometimes, it’s disgusting.
In case none of the people on this site read or watch the news, there is an epidemic streading out there effecting governmental entities called municipal failures. It comes down to the basic fact that all operating units, public or private, have to adjust their compensation (generally the largest line item in their income statement) when revenues fall. In the case of cities in California, salaries and benes are over 70% of revenue – in the case of the Postal Service it is over 80%.
In the private sector, when there are profit pressures, manager don’t get bonuses, there is no “overtime” for working 70 hour weeks, we don’t fire the little people to protect the fat cats with senority, we actually take pay cuts and elimination of benefits.
Next time you are standing around the neighborhood block party, ask some of your private sector friends how much their incomes are down in the past 5 years and I think you will get a taste of reality.
But how does government solve their economic troubles????? Why lets cut services – services are the problem, not the 800 pound gorilla in the room – let’s ignore that. And I just laugh when someone from the Post Office gets on the talk shows and says “the postal service has never run a deficit and taken tax payer money”. What a joke. That’s because your inefficiencies are covered by continual postal rate increases.
If I were you guys, I would continue to ride the gravy train as long as you can but you better start putting that wonderful $$$ away for the rainy day when the public pulls the plug on all those beautiful pensions that you are getting or think you are going to get. Just like the rest of your unrealistic brothers in the Eurozone, bailouts and defaults are going to catch up with you faster than you think.
Wow…. are you guys picking up the anger in some of these comments from your not so sympathetic patrons???
“Neck bone says:
July 31, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Remember when reading this comment that I am just a pea brain citizen with a self paid so called college education required for the position that I presently hold”
I tried to think of a rebuttal to your assumption but after reading this first portion of the comment I found it unnecessary. Even reading the comment with and without the aforementioned section causes one to come to the same conclusion.
Are you a greeter at Wally World?
Remember when reading this comment that I am just a pea brain citizen with a self paid so called college education required for the position that I presently hold.
As with any job created by Government , according to the constitution cannot act as a company in areas of competition and showing a profit. In other words can not be run a a business that is profitable.
So my question would be , how and why do federal employees even expect to be paid wages that meet any standard other than that of minimum wage. This would mean there would be no benefits.
We all know that the USPS looses money every year as do all of the Government run organizations , and they make no bones about it when reporting their losses as proof of this statement.
Why not just skip the education and get on the Government payroll. Take a Civil Service exam and then get a job that pays higher than average wages plus get all the benefits that are not even offered in most of today’s private sector.
I have friends working for the Government. I am sad to say that what federal and state employees are paid is out of control. Just as with the salary’s paid to elected officials . There was a time that this was not the case. Don’t tell me that we are paying for professional folks that are educated to hold these positions. that simply is not required to hold federal positions and if it is, those task should be in the care of the private sector.
The Federal Government and the State and local Government are the largest employer’s in the US. WHY !!!!
Government jobs should be minimum wage with no paid benefits !!!!!
I think there is some serious tunnel vision going on here. Or just flat out disillusion. Yes since i started at the Post Office seven years ago it was the first time in my 39 years that I could afford to have just one job. There is so much that you people just don’t realize. There is an article on the PEN network titled BEYOND GOING POSTAL. You should go read it before you pass any sort of judgment. The Post Office is one of the MOST TOXIC work environments in the United States.
BTW, you don’t pay our salaries. Tax dollars do not go toward paying Postal employees. The Post Office is a non-profit organization. That means they are self sustained, If you want to bitch about something bitch about the fact that the Postmaster General makes over 400,000 a year in salary and benefits. Why not focus our attention on the money the Post Office wastes every year on really bad business decisions. DO you wanna know how the Post Office managed to profit in the last couple years, and they did profit, by cutting over 100,00 jobs across the country. By over micro managing their people. The trades in the Post Office pay dearly every day for the Post Office’s bad financial and business decisions.
Focus your attention on the fact that a Postmaster in the Post Office makes anywhere from 100,000-200,000 a year. For doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Believe me when I say that a Postal Employee pays dearly on a regular basis for the salaries that we EARN! We are not sitting behind a desk or working in an air conditioned office, not even in an air conditioned truck. We get to deal with the abuse of our over micro managing Supervisors, Managers and Post Masters. Some pay with their lives. Look into the statistics about Carriers who have committed suicide over the past ten years. The truth might open your eyes a little and make you close your mouths.
Yes it is true that once a Carrier/Clerk has been in for a very long time they could potentially make up to 85,000 dollars a year. I even known Carriers who make 100,000 or more a year. But keep in mind that those Carriers are working at the least 56 hours a week. They get one day off a week, most times. They are forced to take out more and more work everyday. Many working without any breaks at all. We work in some of the most hazardous working conditions there are. Baseball players get to stop PLAYING when it rains. Men and women who work on our streets take the day off in bad weather. I personally delivered mail during hurricane Irene. Take a look around people. If a Republican gets nto office this year I can guarantee you that by the end of the fours year there will be no middle class. That is why they are so against Unions, Unions get in the way of being able to make sure they divide and conquer.
Yes there is A LOT wrong with the Post Office and privatizing may be the answer but it may not. There is no fast, easy or quick answer to the problems that have been created by bad business and financial decisions that have been going on since the Post Office began. Well maybe not that long but you get the idea. (hopefully). They need to look at the problem as a whole and stop pointing fingers of blame. It needs to be revamped from TOP to bottom.
And all the while during all of this finger pointing and blame game the ones who are paying the price are the trades.
OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE! Try to see past your own little worlds and look at the BIG picture. What’s wrong with the Post Office is the same thing that is wrong with our Government and our society as a whole. It’s called ACCOUNTABILITY!
Roger Says…
Ricky…here is a hint my tax dollars DO NOT pay celebrites or sports stars…
BUT it does go to pay you, as I am not a Politican I want to reduce both you
and the politicans pay and benifites…
Roger – your tax dollars DO NOT pay me nor any other postal employee – never has.
Ricky says:
October 16, 2011 at 4:31 pm
OK. I AM SO SICK ABOUT EVERYONE SAYING POSTAL EMPLOYEES MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY. NO ONE IS CRYING ABOUT CELEBRITIES & SPORT FIGURES GETTING MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACTS. THE POSTAL SERVICE IS PROVIDING A SERVICE TO THE NATION UNLIKE THE BEFORE-MENTIONED. THEY ARE ONLY TO ENTERTAIN. ONE THING I DO AGREE ON…OUR COUNTRY IS FULL OF MONEY-HUNGRY POLITICIANS. THESE SAME POLITICIANS MAKES WAY MORE THAN ANY POSTAL EMPLOYEE. WHY DON’T THEY START WITH A PAY CUT AMONG THEMSELVES FIRST BEFORE ATTACKING THE USPS!!!!!!!!!!
Roger – your tax dollars DO NOT pay me nor any other postal employee – never has.
Roger Says…
Ricky…here is a hint my tax dollard DO NOT pay celebrites or sports stars…
BUT it does go to pay you, as I am not a Politican I want to reduce both of
your pay and benifite…
Jim Taylor, I know the website and those quotes are not accurate they are based on full time salaries and not all of us are full time and without benefits. We work hard for our money and if you think this job can be done with no mistakes I challenge you to join us for one day. Most post offices are short-handed right now and need help, just open your eyes and look. We do get paid well and there is a reason for that. Most people do not last more than a week at this job. Good Luck!
Thank you for sending me that site That has the wages of USPS employees listed. That was very helpful The woman in this small town claimed she was only making a little over $25,000.00 and needed a raise but after entering the zip code that she works at……….I found out she makes $48,400.00 + benefits. I could care less what she is making but don’t try and BS me like she tried to do. Like the saying goes……….I might have been born at night but it wasn’t last night!
The least she could do is put the mail in the right box. Most of the time she spends BS’s with her friends. Thanks again for site!
PEN: It could easily be true that this person only earns what she claims. It is possible that she may be a TE, temp employee, or a PMR, postmaster replacement, or a casual employee, etc…if this is the case her earnings would not be the same as a full time career employee. Also, if this is a very small office the pay is considerably less than a larger city. Thanks for visiting.
Question: If the USPS proposed to hire you right now, at this very moment, would you accept the position?
No one wanted these jobs until the bottom fell out of the economy. The people that you voted in office took your job so you don’t want me to have mine. Prior to 2008 qualified applicants (whatever that means in today’s society) would not even apply to the USPS. During my era in the job force I took qualified applicant as meaning someone that was akin to, knew personally or knew someone that knew someone at the plant or in the office. Even your professionals such as doctors and lawyers were grandfathered in, paid to get in or just plain cheated to get in. NOW all of a sudden we talk about “special skills” and “qualified applicants”. Ever heard of the USPS exam. Does not take a degree to take a 30 minute test for a job that no one wanted until now, so I guess it is appropriate to badger USPS employees who accepted these positions. Contact your congressman. This is not a perfect environment that we work in because of some of the “I think I am better than you, so I don’t have to work I will just be a manager” types that did slip through the cracks and have given us, the USPS, a bad name. I served my country during Vietnam and was medically discharged (DAV) and returned home to a job with good benefits. I feel that I and very many hard working USPS employees give 100+% every single day so that our customers can receive the best possible service, which is all they expect of us. Just because that person that you know personally might be a bum is no reflection on the proud, hard working personnel at the USPS. What we need is less managers, all types, resource included, less congress (the ones you voted in) and more people that actually come in to give a good days work. I think we in the USPS that work hard are all tired of the rhetoric, finger pointing (uninformed public) and politics. Our blind leadership was informed many years ago to re-structure our business model in anticipation of the new internet age that was approaching and do you think they did any planning then, NO! Probably had no idea what mail volume they were speaking of. We were fine until everyone decided that they knew, on paper, what is best for the USPS. I am willing to bet that 35% of the people that are on the payrolls of the USPS haven’t worked a piece of mail in 10 years. Give me a break.
Speaking of breaks, did I mention that I worked for the USPS and my 15 minute break will be over in 2 minutes. Later!
A couple of years ago….. I found a web site that would list the wages of the Postal workers All you had to do was put in your zip code and it would list the wages for anyone that worked for that post office in that zip code the year before. Haven’t been able to find that web site for the last year and forgot how I found it in the 1st place. Does anyone out there know this web site or how I can find it again.
Jim – the link has been in PEN’s Resource Gateway for a long time now – the link is: http://php.app.com/usps/search.php
PEN
It is indisputable that postal workers are over paid. Here is my definition of being over paid, if you lose your job and can not get another job any where near what you were making. Most postal workers have no college education or special skills. i know many postal workers they do not work hard and get 6 weeks vacation. The postal service is losing billions I pray the federal goverment does not bail them out. I feel we the consumers should have the ability to stop all junk mail. 90% of mail is junk mail, postal workers make 83,000 with great benifits and a pension for delivering junk mail no one wants. 83k for JUNK MAIL.
Resource managers will tell you it is simple. How many qualified applicants do you have for each position? If you have four or more per position, pay and/or benefits can be lowered. From a business model perspective, there is no need to pay exhorbitant salaries when you have a surplus of people that want those jobs. As you lower pay and benefits, the jobs become less attractive until you get down to three qualified applicants per position. That is where you hold the pay and benefits. If you drop to two applicants per position, you may need to improve pay and benefits to attract more applicants.
Bottom line: Why pay more than is necessary to attract qualified applicants?
Go ahead and find a company that can deliver mail better than USPS. Perhaps it will be an offshoot of the company to which my daughter’s former employer sent their medical transcription. Located in the Indian sub-continent, this company offered to do the transcription for $ .02 per page. Typical US charge for this same service is $ 2.00 per page. When the work was returned to the US from the Indian transcription company, it was totally unusable and had to be completely redone in the US. Some savings !
Fed up should do his research. USPS HAS NOT BEEN FUNDED BY FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS SINCE 1984 !!!!!!!!!!
I have been unemployed now for 5 years! I have lost everything my house, my family! And now, I stand on the corner begging for money.! Can you realize how humiliating and demoralizing it is!
I would give my right arm to have a good paying job like all of the Federal workers and the Post Office have.
I do hope the Postal Service restructures and revamps its current situation! Thus, allowing me the one of 99% of Americans a chance again for a new life!
D Ray said it correctly. Private sector businesses will never attempt to deliver 1st class mail because the necessary cost of vehicles, equipment, and employees would be overwhelming. The USPS has evolved over the years, refining techniques and adding automated equipment, all paid for by revenue, not tax dollars. That has allowed them to build an infrastructure and method of delivery that is efficient and inexpensive. Thus why our postage prices are the lowest in the world. If privatized, customers would see stamp prices jump from less than 50 cents to well over a $1 or more. And when fuel prices suddenly jump up, so will their prices. The USPS is not allowed to make real-time price adjustments to compensate for sudden increases, so even a 1-cent rise in gas will cost them millions of dollars. It takes so long to get a rate increase approved by the Postal Rate Committee, that by the time it takes effect, the post office may have lost a Billion dollars or more. The 5.5 Billion a year that has to go to PRE-funding(no RE-funding like the media says) the future retiree healthcare account was the cushion that allowed the USPS to absorb such fuel price flucuations. And the economy tanking shortly thereafter was just bad timing that further cut into revenue. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that the whole thing was planned to try and make the USPS fail.
Well, for those that want their postal services privatized, be careful what you wish for. Because you know congress…once they get their way about something, it takes an act of God to put it back right again.
<A. Customer says: "We don’t have the luxury of a tax supported slow moving train that will carry us into retirement. We earn our keep. Overhaul of all government departments such as yours is long overdue. The taxpayer simply can no longer support them. The reality in our world is that change must take place or you cease to exist."
Only will I have considered your rhetoric if it had any factual basis. We are not TAX SUPPORTED and never will be. USPS revenue FULLY pays our salaries, overhead and 30% to Congress, all from USPS revenue, FULLY! THE TAXPAYER does not support or provide assistance in any way to the USPS, except whine about the best and cheapest delivery service in the world. And most that complain about the USPS do not use our service enough to matter. I would love to see what they will do if the USPS ever gets privatized (which BIG business will never let happen) and see what you will get from lower paid employees with no benefits or incentive to assure customer satisfaction, even you would not take minimum wage job for that level responsibility. Yea go ahead and let the crack heads and ex-cons deliver your mail, thats your cheap labor pool. You opine that "a third party who can do the job better at a reduced cost with equal service" would be better…not…that was experimented with for 2nd and 3rd class periodicals back in the mid-80's and the customers complained that opinion right off the table due to 9 and 10pm deliveries by shady looking characters on your porch opening your screen door to leave your favorite magazine in the driving rain, and remember no one can deliver to a USPS protected mailbox, so that magazine might be thrown on your porch on a good day.. While others hate us, we are still the #1 trusted agency in the United States and only Interpol is more trusted around the world. For a $0.44 stamp you get federal level protection. And get this, we see FED-EX and UPS backing up to our dock doors every day with deliveries that they would rather not make because it is too costly and they want us to take it the rest of the way to rural and off the main route destinations. They charge you $8.99 with a promise to deliver, bring it to the USPS and pay us no less than $3.99 for us to take it the rest of the way. Where is your other $5.00 going? So there is your private sector at work ripping people off because they know that there are those out there that NEED an alternative to the USPS. Score one for the private sector! Sign me up! And again, you CHOSE to work in the private sector so have at it and good luck!
Oh…almost forgot…. Tunnel vision can be a good thing, more research needs to be done here also. Nice catchy phrase though 🙂
Typical comments and tunnel vision. My thought is to sub it out to a third party who can do the job better at a reduced cost with equal service. Face it, the USPS has not changed with the times like the rest of the government. Pensions are a problem as with most industry. Holidays taken that the rest of the business community do not observe, but suggest they be removed and listen to the outcry. Then you overract when they finally get serious about making changes that are decades overdue. If you were in private industry you would be laid off when the door closed and lose your pensions. Wake up and take the step necessary to save yourselves and stop complaining and whinning. Mr. Postman makes some good points go back and read them before you lose the opportunity. An the anwer to your quesiton is yes I do make more and yes I am employed outside of any government structure. It’s tough out here, you have to compete and you must earn your keep. We don’t have the luxury of a tax supported slow moving train that will carry us into retirement. We earn our keep. Overhaul of all govenrment departments such as yours is long overdue. The taxpayer simply can no longer support them. The reality in our world is that change must take place or you cease to exist.
Very well put. People literally hate us because we chose to pursue a job/profession that affords us better pay and benefits than most other jobs. No one knocked on our door, we sought out the best possible job that was available to us at the time. In 1974 no one was really interested in working for the USPS because of the demands of the job versus what was available during that era. I am proud to be a lifetime USPS employee and would have it no other way. If you work for less money then your issue is with your employer not us Postal workers. Some people are just not motivated to do anything but complain, I guess thats easier than getting of your duff and seeking better opportunities. Oh, I almost forgot, all of us USPS employees are not lazy people who just ride the clock, the MAJORITY of us actually give the customer the best possible service.
[Quoted from above article by Rick Owens – Postal Employee Network]
“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?”
Hi, I’ve worked for the USPS as a letter carrier for over 28 years. It’s really amazing when people call us “lazy,” and “overpaid.” They usually blame our unions for our good middle-class income. After all, it’s the unions who negotiated our pay, so it has to be the fault of the unions, right? I’d bet a lot of people would like to see our unions done away with, and our pay cut in half. Why????? I never could understand this. I think it’s because those who are in lower paying jobs are jealous and envious of our good pay scale. People at Wal-mart are a good example. A lot of them would gladly leave Wal-mart for a postal job. The problem is, a lot of them don’t have enough brains to pass the postal exam, and that goes for a lot of other places. It’s a competitive test, and the people who get the highest scores win. That’s how I got my job. I took the test, made a 98.5 on it without any veteran’s points the first time I took it, and I “won” my job fair and square. I didn’t want to work a low-paying job. I wanted a career with good pay and benefits. That’s why I went to work for the USPS. It was so I could support my family in a middle-class lifestyle. This was my choice. I worked other jobs before the USPS, and none of them paid as well. I had enough ambition and brains to get the job. I certainly wish people who are unmotivated and lazy would get off our case about our pay. It’s not my fault you work for a lot less pay than I do. Why don’t you do something about it? There are other jobs that pay more than ours. However, you have to be prepared to meet the job requirements. So, instead of spending your life at a low-paying job, and wishing MY pay was cut in half to make you happy, why don’t you take the steps to get yourself a better job, or start your own business? I started a part-time business a few years ago, and guess what? It’s making almost as much money as my “overpaid” postal job! I literally started it up using a spare room in my house for the office, and my garage for the “warehouse.” When I retire in July of 2013, I’ll be working my business full-time, and I expect to make at least double my pay at the USPS, and collect my annuity as well. I suppose everybody will call me overpaid and greedy to boot because I make a lot more money than they do. It’s not my fault… it’s YOURS! Do something about it for yourself and your family. Opportunity is everywhere. Open up your eyes, and you will find it.
Ehh i’ve probably said too much, idc tbh if they fire me i’ll go back underground 🙂 NRLCA take a look ath UMWA and how theyve fallen from corruption youre hearts in the right place but its always a priority issue with unions, youve gotta put the business model first it has to stay profitable at all times…. without exception. It just dosen’t work any other way 🙂 I dont know everything but I tend to look at things very logicaly and I can only speak from my own limited knowledge and experience. But i’m a fairly good judge of character 🙂
Youve gotta understand the postmaster’s hands are tied, he’s in a position to discipline his employees, but only about half lol its absolutely ridiculous. If the post office paid the rural side hourly it would make ALL the difference in the world and they’d save themselves some money cause those old codgers hanging on after 48 years are just going to retire or work far less hours 🙂 Which they already are lol. You just can’t run a business paying double time for shifts for no reason, its pretty white & black.
To Bob Stevens, being a rural carrier myself I must completely agree with you, and I sincerely apologize for the service that youve received, perhaps I can put the reason that I think it has become this way for you, the rural side of the post office has become a corrupt lazy thing that takes days off constantly for no apparent reason & suffers no consequence at all while the company they work for ends up paying double time for the same shift. I see this happen every single day I work, granted ive only worked about 100 days iv’e just started. But I come from the mines where a man works his nuts off until he can barely move and then finds the strength to carry on for another 10 hours. Perhaps thats why I can’t understand why it is this way. I’m just not a fan of a union 🙂
The letter carrier today with over 20 years is most likely just about crippled with repetitive motion injuries,bad backs,arthritis,blown knees,and hernias to name a few.When I first started I could do a route and overtime without a problem.People fail to realize how physical the job is. With even more poor ergonomics required as part of the job today and extended street times these younger carriers will never make the 20 years, their bodies will be so beat and useless to obtain any employment outside of the Post Office.People say “just retire”,well I struggle to make ends meet at 100% of my pay.To receive 66% through csrs after 35 years is a recipe for financial disaster.In the old days you could get a part time job to bridge the gap.In today’s economy the chances are NIL! I remember 10 years ago one half of all new hires quit the first week,It is not a glamorous job.Your body pays everyday for what you do.Go faster, rush,deliver in the dark-oops run over a jogger-go to jail for 4 years! And don’t expect the Post Office to speak up for you. I think many people suffer from “the grass is always greener” syndrome.”They” had the same opportunity to take the “test” ,(use veteran’s preference if they actually did something for their country) and get hired instead of complaining of something they appear to know zero about. By the way Federal employees get almost twice as much as Postal employees for retirement under CSRS.
“Please – tell us how else could this service exist without a work compliment in place to carry out the service?”
lol, you will find out soon enough when your monopoly is opened up to the free market and your positions are being worked by highschool drop outs for $9 an hour like they are worth.
What? $83,000 per year for what is essentially an unskilled job, and you don’t think they’re overpaid? Private sector employees would almost kill for that kind of income.
USPS employees are not paid by the federal gov’t. Hasnt happened that way for more than 30 years. Now, if you buy postage stamps, mail packages and such then you are “paying” postal workers. Only money taken in for mailing is how the USPS makes its money. As for the losing billions a year, that is on the Congress of the United States. In 2006 congress mandated that the USPS pay $5.5 billion a year into a “Future Retiree Health Fund.” That has to be done for 10 years – that is about 75 years of funding for people who dont even work for the post office yet.
There is over $42 billion in that account but congress wont back off from it. That is where the “billions” lost comes from. If it werent for that mandated payment, the USPS would be in the black – not red. Even with all the stupid things that upper management pulls, the post office would be operating in the black. And until you walk a letter carriers route, stand behind the counter as a retail clerk or postal plant worker, dont say it isnt hard.
sports figures and actors are not paid by our taxes, the postal workers are paid by us. if the post office is losing billions per year, do as the private sector does and lay off people, cut benefits and pay. how hard of a job is it, give me a break.
Those crooked,lazy,freeloading dunces in Washington should not even be paid…they make millions each year with all their crooked shenanigans.They do not produce a good and do not provide a service…hence,NO PAY!
OK. I AM SO SICK ABOUT EVERYONE SAYING POSTAL EMPLOYEES MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY. NO ONE IS CRYING ABOUT CELEBRITIES & SPORT FIGURES GETTING MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACTS. THE POSTAL SERVICE IS PROVIDING A SERVICE TO THE NATION UNLIKE THE BEFORE-MENTIONED. THEY ARE ONLY TO ENTERTAIN. ONE THING I DO AGREE ON…OUR COUNTRY IS FULL OF MONEY-HUNGRY POLITICIANS. THESE SAME POLITICIANS MAKES WAY MORE THAN ANY POSTAL EMPLOYEE. WHY DON’T THEY START WITH A PAY CUT AMONG THEMSELVES FIRST BEFORE ATTACKING THE USPS!!!!!!!!!!
great points altogether, you just gained a new reader. What would you recommend about your post that you made a few days ago? Any positive?
What Jack and his ilk overlook in their economic dissertation is that the middle class supports the “producers”. As a postal worker, I certainly can cut my spending. No more Chili’s, no more Longhorn, no more Direct TV, no more Denny’s, no more Sprint, no more GM, Ford or Chrysler. Etc. Etc. Jack, do you really believe that will be good for the economy. If that is honestly your opinion I will respect it. I emphatically disagree!
We do know that we have one of the last great paying jobs. I work very hard and appreciate that as do many of my coworkers. We fight because we know that everyone has to make a decent living wage. No one should have to live on 20000 a year. And since benefits are tied to jobs(no socialism or national helathcare here in the great USA) We fight to make those benefits available to everyone employed in the private sector.
50 to 60 grand a year + benefits and you people cry and it’s “just pays the bills??
You have no idea what way to many people have to do just to get by today..
I say cut the postal service to Monday-Weds-Friday and let’s see how you cry then. Tuesday and Friday sounds better…Put everyone of you PRN with NO Benefits…you have no idea just how well off you are…..
As rural residents we am very unhappy with the quality of our postal service. Some mail never arrives. Other mail arrives damaged and even a shoe print has been found. Sale flyers have been delivered after the sale is over and ….last but not least, our regular mail carrier pulls into the driveway and honks his horn if he has a package. If you don’t arrive at the door within a minute or so he leaves. My wife complained about this at our local branch and apparently the individual in question was talked to. He then left a note in our mailbox denying he does this and requested a call to his personal cell phone. We don’t dare mail outgoing mail from our box for fear that it won’t be delivered.
I could give other examples of my unhappiness but the bottom line is I really don’t need the post office.
You people talk about about making 50 t0 60 thousand as enough to get by try living off me and my wife we are both total disabled and live off 12 thousand a year and there are a lot of people working that live off of 20 thousand a year and you complain about making 60 thousand a year I can only dream my opinion is that most government and postal employees can take a good pay cut from president on down
Postal employees are making chickenfeed when you consider how much of their salary is being stolen from them either through changed clock rings or being forced to work off the clock.
[…] 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 […]
GJ and Tenacity –
If you are a full time regular employee and been here a couple of years then WITH BENEFITS your salary plus benefits are about $83k per year. The value of annual leave, sick leave, basic life insurance, etc bumps your salary PLUS benefits up to about that amount.
You state “whereas casuals and the newbies who was hired the last 8 years worked harder than most of the older seniority ones because of the force they had to do other things much more” – WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Routes have almost always been adjusted to (about) 8 hours. You cannot force more work into 8 hours than the 8 hours itself – unless you are a runner…and if that is the case, then STOP running.
The older carriers had to go throught EXACTLY what you’re going through as far as working their appointed rounds or duties. I would agree that carrier work is more closely under the magnifier…but that means nothing as far as giving 8 hours work for 8 hours pay.
Your argument does not hold water. Yes, a few carriers are slackers, but not that vast majority and you know it. If the older carriers have better routes then that is a small perk for their years of service…it is called senority.
To Tenacity: the only way you can make 83 thous a year as a clear is if youve been there over 20 years….or move up to another position like manager or higher up positions….or if you ve been there for 20 years and doing alot of overtimes.
ive only been there for 5 years and making just under 50 thousand dollars…thats not high but its enough to keep up with bills and with ever increasing cost crap in America.
This is what gets me the USPS blames over all of us as USPS employees when they have alot of mismanagement….for example why do supervisors in the usps pittsburgh pa giving all those overtime to mailhandlers and few clerk when there isnt much mail…. i find them sitting around playing cards for like the last 2 hours. another example…when one calls off sick then return and was proposed by the supervisor if they want to work overtime when they could offer to others who work hard and didnt call off sick as much as this one? so much unfairness in there like you wont believe. that is a cost increase for the postal to pay out. if they want to reduce the pay out why not stop the overtime they are unnecessary during the spring summer during the drop out mail volume. we have 204 b supervisors working 6 days a week… if they want to reduce the money then give them 5 days instead because the salary based supervisors are much cheaper to run during the 6 days rather than 204 b supervisors (204b means clerk or mailhandlers step up acting supervisor when needed) there are some old postal worker that has worked there for over 50 years why not freeze their pay since they really dont do too much but sitting around putting mail in the slots and talk too much!! this is something america should be aware of whats going on. ….whereas casuals and the newbies who was hired the last 8 years worked harder than most of the older seniority ones because of the force they had to do other things much more. i can more ideas how to save the postal money but do you think they care to hear from this one usps employee… obviously not!!
$83,000.00 a year? WHAT? I wish I could make that much.
Regardless as whether or not federal or postal employees are higher paid than the other, we must all face the fact that our nation is no longer the richest in the world, despite what many politicians of BOTH parties and the President continue to say. We are the most indebted nation in the world now, so we cannot expect the gravy train to continue. If the value of our currency is to survive, we all must realize that the US Treasury cannot continue to fund the government operations through expanding debt or monetizing by the Fed. Times are hard, and all must sacrifice for the good of our country. Starting with Congress and the Administration, all should have their compensation cut by 15-20%, until such time as those serving in Congress can finally stop with all the handouts. Then and only then can we say we are on the road to recovery. Federal and Postal employees should no longer expect pay raises until Congress has reformed their spending patterns. After all, wealth is created through private enterprise producing products or delivering services at a price greater than the cost to create. Government jobs, whether Federal civil service, postal employees, teachers, firemen, policemen, do not create wealth for our nation. They can only be paid by transferring wealth from producers via taxation. It is time for government and postal employees to sacrifice as much as those in the private sector who have seen their jobs disappear. We cannot expect continued pay raises while the private sector is experiencing such disastrous conditions.
Where can I trade my Postal job for one those Federal jobs? Seriously, how can top executives at the PO complain that their salaries need to be raised to compete with private sector jobs, BUT rank and file workers are overpaid?!? Me smells a gluttonous rat.