United States · BLS May 2025

How much do mail clerks and mail machine operators make?

BLS records this occupation as Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service” (SOC 43-9051).

Mail clerks and mail machine operators in the United States earn a median of $39,280 a year ($18.89 an hour). Figure from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. The survey counted 55,230 of these jobs in the United States in May 2025.

Median pay · the United States

$39,280A year, or $19 an hour.
Jobs counted55,230Wage and salary jobs
What mail clerks and mail machine operators earn in the United States, May 2025
PercentileAnnualHourly
10th percentile1 in 10 earn less$30,780$15
25th percentile$35,470$17
MedianHalf earn more, half less$39,280$19
75th percentile$46,450$22
90th percentile1 in 10 earn more$54,820$26
MeanAll pay divided by all jobs$41,650$20

Wage survey · BLS May 2025

How we got this
  1. Median wage in the United StatesBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$39,280
  2. Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$18.89
  3. Jobs countedWage and salary jobs; the self-employed are not surveyed.55,230
What we assumed
  • Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
  • OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
Technical details

Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1

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Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.

Which state pays mail clerks and mail machine operators the most?

District of Columbia pays a median of $49,240, Wyoming $32,940. That is a gap of $16,300 before either state's taxes or prices are counted.

Common questions

Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators pay in the United States, answered

How much do mail clerks and mail machine operators make?

The median wage for mail clerks and mail machine operators in the United States is $39,280 a year, or $18.89 an hour.

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.

What is the average Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators salary?

BLS’s mean (average) wage for mail clerks and mail machine operators in the United States is $41,650 a year. The median is $39,280.

The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.

What is the hourly pay for mail clerks and mail machine operators?

The median hourly wage is $18.89. At a full-time year that lines up with about $39,280 a year.

BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.

What is the starting salary for mail clerks and mail machine operators?

BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in the United States, the lowest-paid 10% of mail clerks and mail machine operators earn under $30,780 a year and a quarter earn under $35,470 ($14.80 and $17.05 an hour).

New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.

What is the salary range for mail clerks and mail machine operators?

The overall salary range for mail clerks and mail machine operators in the United States spans from $30,780 for the bottom 10% to $54,820 for top earners.

The middle 50% earn between $35,470 and $46,450 a year, with the overall median at $39,280.

What do the highest-paid mail clerks and mail machine operators earn?

The top tenth earn $54,820 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $30,780.

Experience, specialty, employer and the part of the United States someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.

How many mail clerks and mail machine operators are there in the United States?

The survey counted 55,230 of these jobs in the United States for May 2025.

It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.

Sources

Where this data comes from

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