As the U.S. Postal Service considers cutting delivery service in the face of dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the postmaster general received a big pay raise and a performance bonus last year, all authorized by Congress.
Postmaster General John Potter's base salary climbed to $265,000 last year from $186,000 in 2007. He also received a performance bonus of $135,000. In all his total compensation -- salary, bonuses, retirement benefits and other perks -- topped $850,000, a spokesman with the U.S. Postal Service told FOXNews.com on Wednesday.
At the same time, the Postal Service, an independent federal agency, is crumbling alongside the economy and as online communications increase competition. The Postal Service lost $2.8 billion last year when total mail volume recorded 202 billion pieces of mail, its largest single drop in history -- down more than 9 billion pieces from a year earlier.
shut up you all...this is a job that everyone raised their hand to and abide by..I see all these folks at my station and ask myself if they would make it anywhere else and the answer is NO, bcuz these "lifers" have it made but yet they still bitch. Thety hide behind the Union curtain. Plz..just retire already..however most of these postal folks live beyond their means. I would hope that the REAL FED GOVT takes over the USPS and makes a mandatory retirement of 30 yrs..half of these folks are a safety risk as it is. All I hear is a bunch of whining..and my thought is SHUT UP ALREADY!!!
March 20, 2009 at 11:00 pm
a rural carrier
(Mis)management gets raises and bonuses, while our wages go down nearly every year. We are likely the only workers in America whose wages are determined by the amount of mail we handle in a given period of time, depending on the year it is two, three, or four weeks. SO, who exactly somewhat controls the flow of mail? The processing plants, who are under orders to get mail out AHEAD of count, USPS has said no mailer requested in home dates are to be honored. Sure funny how mail volume was OK before count and OK now, but almost nothing during count. Average Rural Route will likely lose around $1500.00 this year. 60,000 routes x 1500.00 = 90 MILLION dollars. He earns his bonus at our expense. DOUG
March 20, 2009 at 5:08 pm
pops
YEP, Jeff
This is Obama's fault, mail volumn has dropped 9 billion pieces in fifty days..lets get Hillaburton to contract out the postal service.
March 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Field Carmichael
Fed-Ex CEO Frederick W. Smith earns $8.67 million. UPS CEO Mike Eskew makes $6.2 million. At $800,000 the salary + benefits of Postmaster General Jack Potter pales in comparison. Say what you will but the U.S. Postal Service knows how to get the most bang for its buck. Way to go USPS!
March 20, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Jim D
I am ahamed to say I work for the PO. The most ineptly run organization in America.They just rearranged all the working shifts at all the mail processing plants nationwide. Th reason is to make people miserable enough to quit.PMG POTTER is proud to replace low skilled workers wiyh Billions of dollars worth of automating equipment. The new flat sorting system'FSS' is costing you the American public an estimated $10Billion to save an estimated $350Million a year under best case scenarios.A 30+ year payback. In thity years we will not even have any catalogues to sort and these machines will be scrap metal for Hyundai Motor Corporation of Detroit. Fire this yet send to jail this Fat Lazy Useless Parasite.
March 20, 2009 at 3:37 am
Julie
The only postal job that has any type of guarantee attached to it is the Postmaster General position. Every employee that touches the mail has taken cut after cut. Looking at more and more hour and pay cuts. In the PMG's vision that warrants his salary. Cutting employees that work the mail while adding new Vice President positions every month.The Postal service is overloaded with managers. People watching people watching people. It's micromanagement at it's finest.
March 19, 2009 at 8:15 pm
BIGTEX
Let me see. A civil servant makes more than twice what the president makes. The rationale is that the private sector comparable job makes even more. What a bunch of B.S. A private sector CEO has no job security when his company loses market share or profits. The CEO of FedEx took a 60% cut in compensation (in line with his company's performance). If Postmaster Potter feels he is ready to compete for real world wages then he needs to leave the shelter of a government monopoly and get in the field and earn it. Thou Potter's rationale President Obama , who is the boss of the close to 3 million federal employees, deserves what salary? $1.5 trillion annual budget. What should President Obama ask for? 1%? $10 billion per year? Idiots! Postmaster Potter is hardly a CEO. When have you heard of Intel or google raiding the Postal services for their CEO?
March 19, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Jim Yett
This administration is beginning to look more like the administration of Hugo Chavez,
but congress and Obama are trying hard to catch up with chavez.
March 19, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Marc
Anyone else unnerved by the government demanding the violation of pre-existing private party negotiation contracts; the vengeful levying of taxation to exact politically favorable outcomes. The appropriate way to keep a corporation from satisfying the terms of an agreement is to withhold taxpayer supported subsidization. We passed on that option. AIG exists and so do its legally binding payment obligations. Get over it people YOU DID THIS BY THOSE YOU HAVE ELECTED TO REPRESENT YOU. Has anyone seen my country, I can't seem to find it anywhere, I swear it was here just a minute ago, maybe we could just ask the KGB to run our country until Thomas Jefferson comes back.
March 19, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Laurel Moore
Truly shocking. This kind of a salary for a government job is so very out of line that even though "it's under a million", it does belong with the AIG stories. Again, Congress is playing Santa Claus while we lose our jobs.
March 19, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Cindy
I believe I just heard that postal rates will be rising again in May. Hmmm...should we ask the Postmaster General to give back his bonus? Perhaps that will delay the hike. My mind is spinning from the daily news. Dodd denying, then admitting he wrote the language to allow those AIG bonuses. Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac and the nonsense there. Crooks everywhere you look! I might like a government job too. Nah, I refuse to work for criminals. I'll make my money the old fashioned way. I'll EARN it.
March 19, 2009 at 10:55 am
Pamsgarden
Hey, at least he got less than 7 figures (or am I just shell shocked from all the bonus news lately?). The internet happened, email happened, life goes on. Deliver the mail only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
March 19, 2009 at 9:52 am
ron
I WANT A GOVERNMENT JOB WITH GUARANTEED BONUSES NO MATTER IF WHAT I DO MAKES MONEY OR NOT. WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
March 19, 2009 at 9:52 am
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Brian Sullivan joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in April 2008 as an anchor. He co-anchors the 10am-12pm ET hours of the FOX Business block.
Prior to joining FBN, Sullivan served as an anchor for Bloomberg Television where he hosted the programs Morning Call and In Focus.
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Mary
shut up you all...this is a job that everyone raised their hand to and abide by..I see all these folks at my station and ask myself if they would make it anywhere else and the answer is NO, bcuz these "lifers" have it made but yet they still bitch. Thety hide behind the Union curtain. Plz..just retire already..however most of these postal folks live beyond their means. I would hope that the REAL FED GOVT takes over the USPS and makes a mandatory retirement of 30 yrs..half of these folks are a safety risk as it is. All I hear is a bunch of whining..and my thought is SHUT UP ALREADY!!!
a rural carrier
(Mis)management gets raises and bonuses, while our wages go down nearly every year. We are likely the only workers in America whose wages are determined by the amount of mail we handle in a given period of time, depending on the year it is two, three, or four weeks. SO, who exactly somewhat controls the flow of mail? The processing plants, who are under orders to get mail out AHEAD of count, USPS has said no mailer requested in home dates are to be honored. Sure funny how mail volume was OK before count and OK now, but almost nothing during count. Average Rural Route will likely lose around $1500.00 this year. 60,000 routes x 1500.00 = 90 MILLION dollars. He earns his bonus at our expense. DOUG
pops
YEP, Jeff This is Obama's fault, mail volumn has dropped 9 billion pieces in fifty days..lets get Hillaburton to contract out the postal service.
Field Carmichael
Fed-Ex CEO Frederick W. Smith earns $8.67 million. UPS CEO Mike Eskew makes $6.2 million. At $800,000 the salary + benefits of Postmaster General Jack Potter pales in comparison. Say what you will but the U.S. Postal Service knows how to get the most bang for its buck. Way to go USPS!
Jim D
I am ahamed to say I work for the PO. The most ineptly run organization in America.They just rearranged all the working shifts at all the mail processing plants nationwide. Th reason is to make people miserable enough to quit.PMG POTTER is proud to replace low skilled workers wiyh Billions of dollars worth of automating equipment. The new flat sorting system'FSS' is costing you the American public an estimated $10Billion to save an estimated $350Million a year under best case scenarios.A 30+ year payback. In thity years we will not even have any catalogues to sort and these machines will be scrap metal for Hyundai Motor Corporation of Detroit. Fire this yet send to jail this Fat Lazy Useless Parasite.
Julie
The only postal job that has any type of guarantee attached to it is the Postmaster General position. Every employee that touches the mail has taken cut after cut. Looking at more and more hour and pay cuts. In the PMG's vision that warrants his salary. Cutting employees that work the mail while adding new Vice President positions every month.The Postal service is overloaded with managers. People watching people watching people. It's micromanagement at it's finest.
BIGTEX
Let me see. A civil servant makes more than twice what the president makes. The rationale is that the private sector comparable job makes even more. What a bunch of B.S. A private sector CEO has no job security when his company loses market share or profits. The CEO of FedEx took a 60% cut in compensation (in line with his company's performance). If Postmaster Potter feels he is ready to compete for real world wages then he needs to leave the shelter of a government monopoly and get in the field and earn it. Thou Potter's rationale President Obama , who is the boss of the close to 3 million federal employees, deserves what salary? $1.5 trillion annual budget. What should President Obama ask for? 1%? $10 billion per year? Idiots! Postmaster Potter is hardly a CEO. When have you heard of Intel or google raiding the Postal services for their CEO?
Jim Yett
This administration is beginning to look more like the administration of Hugo Chavez, but congress and Obama are trying hard to catch up with chavez.
Marc
Anyone else unnerved by the government demanding the violation of pre-existing private party negotiation contracts; the vengeful levying of taxation to exact politically favorable outcomes. The appropriate way to keep a corporation from satisfying the terms of an agreement is to withhold taxpayer supported subsidization. We passed on that option. AIG exists and so do its legally binding payment obligations. Get over it people YOU DID THIS BY THOSE YOU HAVE ELECTED TO REPRESENT YOU. Has anyone seen my country, I can't seem to find it anywhere, I swear it was here just a minute ago, maybe we could just ask the KGB to run our country until Thomas Jefferson comes back.
Laurel Moore
Truly shocking. This kind of a salary for a government job is so very out of line that even though "it's under a million", it does belong with the AIG stories. Again, Congress is playing Santa Claus while we lose our jobs.
Cindy
I believe I just heard that postal rates will be rising again in May. Hmmm...should we ask the Postmaster General to give back his bonus? Perhaps that will delay the hike. My mind is spinning from the daily news. Dodd denying, then admitting he wrote the language to allow those AIG bonuses. Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac and the nonsense there. Crooks everywhere you look! I might like a government job too. Nah, I refuse to work for criminals. I'll make my money the old fashioned way. I'll EARN it.
Pamsgarden
Hey, at least he got less than 7 figures (or am I just shell shocked from all the bonus news lately?). The internet happened, email happened, life goes on. Deliver the mail only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
ron
I WANT A GOVERNMENT JOB WITH GUARANTEED BONUSES NO MATTER IF WHAT I DO MAKES MONEY OR NOT. WHERE DO I SIGN UP?