OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Sort and deliver mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS). Deliver mail on established route by vehicle or on foot. Includes postal service mail carriers employed by USPS contractors.
This career appears to require experience.
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Postal service workers typically do the following:
- Collect letters and parcels
- Sort incoming letters and parcels
- Sell stamps and other postal products
- Get customer signatures for registered, certified, and insured mail
- Operate various types of postal equipment
- Distribute incoming mail from postal trucks
Postal service workers receive and process mail for delivery to homes, businesses, and post office boxes. Workers are classified based on the type of work they perform.
The following are examples of types of postal service workers:
Postal service clerks sell stamps, money orders, postal stationery, mailing envelopes, and boxes in post offices throughout the country. These workers register, certify, and insure mail, calculate and collect postage, and answer questions about other postal matters. They also may help sort mail.
Postal service mail carriers deliver mail to homes and businesses in cities, towns, and rural areas. Most travel established routes, delivering and collecting mail. Mail carriers cover their routes by foot, vehicle, or a combination of both. Some mail carriers collect money for postage due. Others, particularly in rural areas, sell postal products, such as stamps and money orders. All mail carriers must be able to answer customers’ questions about postal regulations and services and, upon request, provide change-of-address cards and other postal forms.
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators prepare incoming and outgoing mail for distribution at post offices and mail processing centers. They load and unload postal trucks and move mail around processing centers. They also operate and adjust mail processing and sorting machinery.
Salary
Median salary: $51,080 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $38,620 and $65,030.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for postal service mail carriers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Postal Service Mail Carriers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of postal service mail carriers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (78%)
- Exposed to Contaminants (53%)
- Consequence of Error (40%)
- Minor Burns, Cuts, Bites (37%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Postal Service Mail Carriers? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Customer-service skills
Postal service workers, particularly clerks, regularly interact with customers. As a result, they must be courteous and tactful and provide good client service.
Physical stamina
Postal service workers, particularly mail carriers, must be able to stand or walk for long periods.
Physical strength
Postal service workers must be able to lift heavy mail bags and parcels without injuring themselves.
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by postal service mail carriers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), postal service mail carriers typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as postal service mail carriers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for postal service mail carriers
Most postal service workers have a high school diploma. All applicants must have a good command of English.
Education level of Postal Service Mail Carriers
Only 14% of postal service mail carriers have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by postal service mail carriers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Postal Service Mail Carriers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most postal service mail carriers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as postal service mail carriers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where postal service mail carriers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for postal service mail carriers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for postal service mail carriers.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which postal service mail carriers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Postal Service Mail Carriers (ACS)
Employment
11% of Postal service mail carriers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 11% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 52% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of postal service mail carriers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Postal service mail carriers and gender
With 38% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 50% of careers.
Gender of Postal service mail carriers
Men (62%)
Women (38%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for postal service mail carriers, with the
median salary for men 12%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Postal service mail carriers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Postal service mail carriers.
Race/origin of postal service mail carriers
White (68% )
Black (19% )
Asian (7% )
Other (3% )
Multiracial (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
