Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Postmaster General's Salary: $286,000

The chief executive of the U.S. Postal Service was paid less than one tenth of what her counterparts at competitors UPS and FedEx received last year.

Postmaster General Megan Brennan's salary during Fiscal Year 2016 was $286,137, the USPS revealed today in a financial statement (Page 72 of this PDF). The total value of her compensation was $904,784, mostly from a nearly $600,000 increase in the value of her pension (perhaps because she reached 30 years of service with the agency).

David P. Abney, UPS's CEO, received $11.3 million in compensation during 2015, including more than $1 million in base pay, $633,000 in bonuses, and a whopping $7.9 million worth of company stock.

Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and CEO of FedEx, earned nearly $1.3 million in base pay, $7.4 million in bonuses, and $7.6 million worth of stock options in a compensation package that totaled $16.8 million in the company's 2016 fiscal year.

Of the five highest-paid executives in each of the two private companies, none earned less than $2.7 million in total compensation. Three of the top five at the Postal Service earned less than $400,000.

The USPS's top five also average 26 years of service with the agency. That's no wonder: The Postal Service couldn't pay a middle manager from UPS, FedEx, or another major corporation enough to take a top position at the agency, so its executives are mostly lifers who came up through the ranks.

Brennan is one of the highest-paid federal employees, but not the highest. The President of the United States gets a $400,000 base salary, free housing, domestic help, a personal chef, use of a really cool jet -- and upon retirement a huge pension and an even huger library.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the PMG makes more than the President?

D. Eadward Tree said...

No, not really. POTUS base salary is $400k, versus $286K for PMG. Most of the PMG's supposed compensation was from an increase in the value of her pension because of her 30 years of service. A President's pension is far more valuable despite service being capped at 8 years.

BigSix said...

That's because FedEx and UPS make money. The USPS is loosing money at a rate of 2.778 billion dollars a year (2015 numbers). While I realize that is not directly in Megan Brennan’s control, the USPS is, for the most part, not relevant anymore. Most USPS customers only need mail delivery 2 or 3 days a week and certainly not on Saturday. I get the mail daily and 80% of it is non-critical junk mail.

Unknown said...

hey big 6..did you not read the previous article..U.S. Postal Service reports $610 million operating profit for 2016.

Unknown said...

they always make this argument but you would think UPS and FedEx would be salivating over the opportunity to hire the PMG's at bargain basement prices when they retired . I don't think Potter or Donahoe were given an offer

Zman7 said...

Don't comment on things you don't understand. Majority of customers including small business depend on six day delivery. The parcel growth has been double digits for eight straight quarters and USPS now handles more Amazon parcel volume than UPS or Fedex. Any losses you see are by design through a mandate to prefund healthcare at $5.8 billion a year (The only organization private or federal required to do this is USPS) Without the mandate USPS would have turned a profit of over $1 billion. I encourage you to look up information on the last mile initiative. USPS has been delivering UPS, Fedex, and other private carriers packages to your door for over a decade now. This creates a reduced cost for customers. The USPS is very necessary and keeps the private carriers honest in pricing.

Anonymous said...

The Postmaster General position is much more like a Cabinet level position in the federal government than a private sector CEO. Remember the Post Office Department was in the Presidents Cabinet prior to a change in the law that changed the status of the Postal Service from a Cabinet agency to it an Independent Agency in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. The correct comparison is with other senior federal government position, Secretary of Defense for example and not with private sector CEO's which have much different duties and responsibilities than a senior government position. The key question here is should the Postmaster General be paid more than any other Cabinet position (Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Attorney General, etc.) or the Vice President. I say no, a cap at Executive Level 1 (currently $205,700) is adequate and appropriate.

Anonymous said...

The Postmaster General position cannot be judged as if it is a CEO of a multinational public company. They're not in charge of anything! They can't change their product line, they can't set their own prices, they can't set their costs, they can't open or close new locations, they can't change or set strategy! They are in charge of a massive inert bureaucracy and their first order of business is how to make it less bad. Anything that's close to a decision is like being on the top floor of a 1000-floor building with a very small boiler. They turn on a hot water faucet and they won't feel the effects for years! PG is a thankless job, and it will never ever be filled by an entrepreneurial outsider with experience in a profit-generating business. They are in charge of so little that is strategic, that it's more like a mid-level job in a big corporation.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to correct you but the USPS has not contributed any money to prefund healthcare in several years, 2016 they lost 2.7 billion 2017 they lost 2.6 billion, and no prefunding

Anonymous said...

As we let it sink in that the potus is publically attacking private businesses over unfavorable news coverage-- to which there is no substantive response from congress to speak of… we should dispense with some of the disinformation about the PO. Taxpayers do not subsidize the PO. The most compelling law that is applicable only to the PO is the Universal Service Obligation (USO). The "USO [requires] mail services be provided to everyone, regardless of where they live... at a uniform price. Other USO features... [including] delivering your mail 6 days a week.” The mandate requires the PO to engage in business that is unprofitable (that no business would choose to do). Obviously, private businesses would like to cherry pick ALL of the most profitable business of the PO while being free of obligation for the unprofitable. But, is that fair?

The PO is mandated to engage in very unprofitable business; required by a preposterous law to make inordinately huge pension-plan payments; and is prohibited from engaging in more profitable types business services (that it has done in the past) such as banking. Also, the USPS employs 700,000 employees. How can you not compare running it to the CEOs who run UPS and FedEx which are considerably smaller? The USPS pays its workers salaries and benefits above the rates paid to similar workers in the private sector. The Post Master General’s salary was $286,000/yr in 2016. The CEO of FedEx earned 16.8 MILLION and the CEO of UPS earned 11.3 MILLION in the same year. I supposed we could cut the pay of the average worker and transfer it to the Post Master General to be fair to FedEx and UPS.

Anonymous said...

We the American people gift the post office 18 billion a year. If we don't want our letter lost in the mail we pay the 12+ dollars for shipping. How are they really loosing money? What are they doing with it? Also the president done away with the prefunding retirement which they never did anyway.