It was once a great career one that even my dad would tell me to sign up for after being a letter carrier then mail handler, now hes retired and I still work there, but coming to the realization, for a while now that its a dead end job. I still live with family 3 tears in after becoming “regular” or careet
Its one of the only federal jobs with no local cost of living adjustment unless you live outside the 48 contiguous states. The payscale they have now(after 2012) “table 2” is unlivable, many crafts(carriers, mail handlers are under it) And in high cost of living areas, its barely any better than retail. Now California passed a law to raise the minimum wage to $20, the same starting wage as someone who joins the post office… And like i’ve already mentioned no they arent being paid any better for living in California its a flat wage everywhere.
Many people in high cost areas including myself have been complaining about this for years but after the pandemic the cost of living accelerated and I have to wonder if its even worth staying, despite the job security. We Have unions, but only on paper as they arent able to strike since its illegal for a federal job.
So we have to rely on arbitration which is hit or miss. The last miss was in 2012 which created the lower payscale “table 2” we have now. The time to reach max pay or “top step” is over a decade, meanwhile peers like ups do it in 3-4 years with similar benefits and pension. They keep saying theres no money or we are losing money, but they wont create new revenue sources, one of the postal unions APWU has been trying for years to bring back banking services but it always gets turned down. Theres also the fact we are a federal agency technically, but dont receive any tax payer funding, im starting to question that as we spend way more on military and other expenses that we become a blimp, I think the total federal budget on “mandatory expenses is $4T just in 2023, our total operating expenses as an organization are about $80B a year. For a service enshrined in the consitution and been around since Benjamin Franklin was the post master general, it sure feels like we are an afterthought, and definitely not “essential”.