Highest Postal Salaries by Location, Occupation

Where are highest average salaries in the Postal Service based on geography and occupation? The answers may be surprising as some are in towns with low populations that most readers have never heard of.

Who makes the most money working for the US Postal Service (USPS), and where do they work?

An analysis of the latest salary data from the agency yields results that may surprise some.

For example, which geographic locations have the highest average salaries? Washington, DC? New York City? San Francisco? Those would be logical guesses based on the higher cost of living in cities such as these.

Here are the actual results:

Location Average Salary
IN – Borden  $106,857
MD – Landover  $106,743
MD – Potomac  $104,686
MA – East Freetown  $96,467
ME – Cornish  $95,428
PA – Hegins  $94,450
OK – Chelsea  $93,291
NJ – Lanoka Harbor  $92,614
NH – Hinsdale  $91,039
OK – Blanchard  $90,535

Landover, Maryland and Potomac, Maryland are obviously close to Washington, DC. The other locations may be something of a surprise.

Some of them would be described as being in the middle of nowhere—certainly not very close to any large metropolitan areas. The apparent reason is that there are a few people in the Post Office facility in these towns and most are hourly employees. The Postmaster is these small towns is usually the only employee on an annual salary. Still, a salary of more than $90,000 in a town like Chelsea, OK with less than 2,000 people (and declining) and a per capita income of less than $13,000 isn’t a bad salary. Here is a photo of the facility in Chelsea.

Cornish, ME is similar in that the postmaster is only one employee there with an annual salary. There are about 1500 residents in the town. The other Postal employees are paid an hourly wage. The high average is the salary received by the postmaster.

The highest average salary is for the town of Borden, IN which has about 900 residents and a per capita income of about $18,000. The average $106,857 salary there is the postmasters salary as she is the only employee with an annual salary and the others are paid an hourly wage.

The median salary for a postmaster in 2013 was $65,150 in 2013. The postmasters in some of these small towns are considerably higher even there are often fewer employees and probably less mail in these areas with a small population. No doubt, seniority plays a role in the higher salary levels in these locations.

The highest salary by occupation is obviously considerably different than those based on geographic location. Here are the highest paid occupations in the Postal Service:

Title Average Salary
Postmaster General (PMG) $285,240
Deputy PMG/Chief, Govt. Relations $254,874
Chief, Marketing and Sales $250,335
Executive Vice President and CFO $248,632
Executive Vice President, COO $241,870
Chief Human Resources Officer $241,870
Executive VP/General Counsel $241,870
Secretary, USPS Board of Governors $205,700
Vice President, Sales $205,700
Vice President, Area Operations $205,700

These are the highest paid individuals in the agency with one person occupying each position so the average is for that one person.

To search individual Postal and federal employee salaries, go to FedsDataCenter.com.

About the Author

Ralph Smith has several decades of experience working with federal human resources issues. He has written extensively on a full range of human resources topics in books and newsletters and is a co-founder of two companies and several newsletters on federal human resources. Follow Ralph on Twitter: @RalphSmith47