Stamps – up “only” 2¢

In 1968 a first-class stamp was 6¢. This is within the lifetime of most who will read this. In 2007 a first-class stamp will cost 41¢. How big an increase is this? 583%!

Whatever happened to efficiencies gained through volume? No doubt volume of mail has increased. The USPS has spent millions on equipment to sort and handle mail more efficiently. I guess we should be appreciative that rates have gone up “only” 583%.

What the public doesn’t know is the salaries of postal workers. If it did, there would be a revolution!

When I lived in Santa Fe in 1992, I went into the Post Office one day to buy ten postal cards. You know ... the ones with the stamps already on them. There was no line and I walked right up the counter and told the window clerk what I wanted.

He took a stack of postal cards from his drawer and slowly fanned them. Then he began counting. One…… two……. …… three …. ….. (You can see where this is going; right?)

I looked at the clock and saw that the time was 2:15. Then I said to the clerk, “You close at 5:00; right? I’m not going to get locked in for the night, am I?” (No response, as he continued to stare at the cards and counted slowly toward “10”.) After paying for the postal cards, I went to the door marked “Postmaster.” A woman answered, identified herself as the Assistant Postmaster and invited me into her office.

I told her about my experience and added, “That clerk out there is stoned.”

“No, he was just being careful,” she said. She told me that he had just finished paying back a $600 shortage in his drawer, and that was why he was counting so slowly and carefully.

“Oh, you caught him stealing and you can’t fire him because the union is too strong?”

She allowed as to how she couldn’t comment on that, but her expression told me that I had hit the nail right on the head! I stated again that I thought, from his glassy-eyed, blank expression, that he was stoned. Then I asked how much he earned.

The Assistant Postmaster said that she couldn’t tell me how much he earned, so I asked how much the window clerk position paid.

“$33,000.”

“What?!!! $33,000???” I could tell from her reaction that she felt a little uneasy with my expression of outrage. I assured her that I meant her no harm, but that I was extremely upset to learn that a window clerk selling stamps would earn $33,000/year. I suggested she fire him and go down to the 7-11 and hire away a clerk there – then give that clerk a raise to $7.00/hour and provide better service to customers.

What do postal window clerks earn today? $40,000? $50,000? $1,000/week? For selling stamps? It’s no wonder that a first-class stamp is now 41¢!

And those Forever Stamps? A good idea? What will keep people from buying up a bunch of them just before the next rate increase? Only one thing. No supply. Just wait and watch. When the next rate increase is announced, will there be a mysterious shortage of Forever Stamps?