Posted on 05/10/2010 10:22:45 AM PDT by Stayfree
My son is mid-way through his 3rd year in the Air Force. For two of these years, he's been stationed overseas, where he gets BONUS PAY for being there. He often works 12 hours a day, and has far fewer holidays than the average 1st-year postal worker.
I have his 2009 tax return in my hand. His GROSS pay was $18,309. It made me want to cry when I first saw it.
Our sons and daughters are making huge sacrifices for us and our country while the a**holes in Washington are trying to destroy it.
It’s all pretty simple:
The military overwhelmingly votes Republican
The postal service overwhelmingly votes Democrat
Remember, we’re in Zero’s world now. Stop expecting anything to make sense unless it is political.
This is insane.
Military personnel should be paid more than anyone else, regardless of rank or responsibility.
$80,000 a year for a letter carrier? That is wrong all by itself, without any comparisons. Add in the comparison to military pay, and it’s a travesty.
If you look at the parameters - E5 over 4 with dependant then the base salary is $2414 and housing and subsistence add another $1900 or so. That brings you to about $52,000 without adding hazardous duty pay or separation pay or anything like that, and that doesn’t include factoring in something for medical or retirement which they are for the letter carrier.
Very sad news !
Could be that despotic nations view their military as fodder. Is this another indication how far this country have fallen in the past two years?
Very true! When I was an NCO back in the late 70s/early 80s I was making about $7000 per year.
They are now making nearly what I was making as a Captain!
It seems everyone posting replies to this story is quite upset over the pay level of postal employees. I think it might be important to point out something all of you are missing. These simple minded, poor quality,lazy,shiftless postal workers are for the most part retired military service members. Without prior military service and something called veterans preference it is virtually impossible to be hired by the postal service. So it seems like you are complaining about the same people you are in support of.
Their in a friggin union aren’t they? And the USPS can seem to break even. Wonder why?
Rgr that.
Saturday battles are being canceled as a cost cutting measure.
2,000 pounds of bombs intended for Afghanistan were accidentally delivered to Switzerland
The terrorists are training 10,000 poodles and small dogs to repel the infidels.
CIVILIAN / ARMY COMPENSATION COMPARISON
The Army, in quoting a recent CBO report says...
Active Duty service member received a compensation package worth $99,000. Non-cash compensation represents almost 60 percent of this package. Non-cash compensation includes health care, retirement pay, childcare and free or subsidized food, housing and education. Coupled with regular cash compensation, this adds up to attractive compensation for Soldiers.
I would also point out that while most E-5s don't have college degrees, it would be inaccurate to portray them as unskilled or as only high-school educated, far from it. In fact, they are very skilled, unlike postal carriers that have extremely limited training, and perform a job that is mundane, repetitive and mostly free of any leadership or independent thinking requirements. And, many NCOs receive well-structured and demanding leadership training, similar to what one might find in college level classes.
Virtually anyone in the Army above E-2 has at least some management responsibility - responsibility that comes with profound consequence in failure. Even if the letter carrier's total compensation is commensurate with the soldiers, their skill-set, responsibility, hazard, working conditions and hours, all fall WELL short of their military counterparts.
You might be interested to know that twice in our country's history, the Marine Corps was actually used to protect mail carriers, or to deliver mail themselves in certain parts of the country during times of civil unrest.
I agree & if they are in combat they should make double.
Do you remember what a mess the military was back in the late 70s, early 80s? It wasn't until Reagan began to funnel money back into the military - including bonuses for enlistment and increased basic pay and allowances - did the talent level begin to reflect what one might hope to find in a professional military.
Carter DESTROYED the military, and it took Reagan his entire presidency to rebuild it. I'm not sure I'd be so keen to wax poetic about the good ol' days of the late 70s.
they are making a back-door argument that the military should unionize....very, very bad!!
Retired? I'm not so sure about that. Like ANY federal civil service job, the post office assigns points to a candidate. Yes, veterans do receive additional points that non-veterans don't. And I think, Vietnam veterans receive additional points, although I'm not positive. And, I'm pretty sure other combat veterans don't receive any additional points, other than what they're eligible for as regular veterans.
In any event, while the Post Office might enjoy a larger percentage of veteran employees than civilian/commercial employers, I'm not sure if veterans make up a majority or even plurality of letter carriers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.