Postmasters working for the U.S. Postal Service in small towns earn top salaries

By Bill McAllister, Washington Correspondent

A survey by FedSmith, a blog that writes about the federal bureaucracy, makes an interesting point about where the good-paying jobs in the United States Postal Service can be found.

Not all the best jobs are in Washington or other urban areas, reports author Ralph Smith.

He found many of the top salaries go to people who work “in the middle of nowhere — certainly not very close to any large metropolitan area.”

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Small towns are where the good pay is, he wrote in a Feb. 28 article.

Here are some of the average USPS salaries for selected small towns, according to Smith:

Borden, Ind., $106,857.

Landover, Md., $106,743.

Potomac, Md., $104,686.

East Freetown, Mass., $96,467.

Cornish, Maine, $95,428.

Hegins, Pa., $94,450.

Chelsea, Okla., $93,291.

Lanoka Harbor, N.J., $92,614

Hinsdale, N.H., $91,039,

Blanchard, Okla., $90,525

What these small towns have in common is they usually have only one salaried employee, the postmaster. Every other postal worker works on an hourly wage.

“Still,” Smith writes, “a salary of $90,000 in a town like Chelsea, Okla., with less than 2,000 people (and declining) and a per capita income of less than $13,000, isn’t a bad salary.”

Smith noted that the two Maryland towns — Landover and Potomac — are located in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

But salaries in the other towns, he said, “may be something of a surprise.”

“The highest average salary is for the town of Borden, Ind., which has about 900 residents and a per capita income of about $18,000. The average $106,857 salary there is the postmaster’s salary as she is the only employee with an annual salary.”

The median salary for a postmaster in 2013 was $65,150, Smith said.

Seniority plays a role is pushing up salaries in these locations, he notes.

Smith also points out that the agency’s top Washington officials do make good money for their efforts.

Megan Brennan, the postmaster general, makes $285,240 a year, and her deputy, Ronald Stroman, gets $254,874.

All the other top USPS officers are earning at least $200,000 a year.