The United States Postal Service is set to raise the cost of a first-class stamp to 66 cents.
The increase from 63 cents will take effect July 9, 2023 unless a postal regulator overrules the hike. The agency’s price increase from 60 cents was approved in January.
The USPS has raised prices four times in the last two years and by 32% since 2019, when stamps went from 50 cents to 55 cents.
The new rates from the USPS board of governors raise overall first-class mail prices by 5.4%.
First-class mail accounted for about 31% total USPS revenue of $78.8 billion in 2022. However, the agency has seen a decline in mail and package volume so far in 2023.
The price jumps are part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan to make up a projected $160 billion budget shortfall.
“As operating expenses fueled by inflation continue to rise and the effects of a previously defective pricing model are still being felt, these price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue to achieve financial stability,” the agency wrote in a news release. “The prices of the U.S. Postal Service remain among the most affordable in the world.”
American Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimonstein expressed concern and stressed how the agency needed to strike a balance.
“There’s certainly a balance. We’re not economists, we understand inflation’s far too high for working people, but it also affects the Post Office. They are going to have to raise some rates, in order to be able to carry out its mission. But we don’t want them raised so far that they’re hurting customers,” Dimonstein told Federal News Network.
_____
