Pay for Entry Level Jobs

The average starting pay for an entry level postal employee is $21 an hour, with benefits. This is extremely competitive in the marketplace. Please see the following table for an example of starting pay for a popular entry level position, which is a Mail Carrier, specifically, the Rural Carrier Associate (RCA). This data is official, and is sourced from the USPS, and is reported here by the National Rural Letter Carriers Association.

US Postal Service offers you one of the rarest job opportunities where you are not bound by any prior experience or certain academic requirements. Our job openings come as equal opportunity to all, as you are selected based on your performance throughout the recruitment period.

The $21 per hour on average claim asserted on this site is based on data from pay tables like this one. Rural Carrier Associates do not typically receive benefits. The wages alone for this position range from $21 to $26 per hour. Other entry level positions, like Window Clerk, City Mail Carrier, Mail Handler and Mail Processor are eligible for benefits after a typical probationary period determined by local postal authorities on a case per case basis.

The average starting pay (wages only) for these positions range from $15 to $20 per hour. When you add the value of benefits (worth about 33% of wages, as reported above), the pay range for these positions is therefore $20 to $26 per hour, in total. And contrary to what many say, benefits are made available in various forms when postal employees first start. Granted, they do improve over time, as with most companies. Regardless of which entry level position you pursue, you can expect your total pay to be about $21 an hour, on average.

Compensation & Benefits

Since postal service workers are among the workers who receive one of the highest salaries from the federal government, one can aim at building a career in this field. One can earn more than $ 72k annually in this field.

After completing the probational period successfully, the workers can enjoy significant incentives. Benefits are also provided along with a basic salary for an entry-level worker.

Keep in mind, these numbers do not include federal benefits, which are paid to career employees. These benefits are valued at 33% of gross wages, as reported by the New York Times referencing data published by the Congressional Budget Office.

For a link to the entire report click : http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag491.htm

When you add 33% in benefits value to any of the job categories shown in the table above, you see that the average (mean) pay, with benefits, range from a low of $64,837 to a high of $91,480.

Click here for report : http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/federal-pay-vs-private-sector-compensation/

The claim made that the average postal worker makes just over $72,000 per year is based on these numbers, which are provided by the United States Department of Labor Statistics, and the Congressional Budget Office.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), government sector employees with some college education or only a high school diploma are paid about 15 to 20% more than their private sector equivalents, on average.

Click here for report : http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/01-30-FedPay.pdf

Because the organizations referenced here are careful to report statistics that are fully vetted, many times the data is a year or two in arrears. As with most jobs, pay continues to increase year over year, so the statistics cited here are likely to be less than what is current now.